SIL Global (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics International) is an evangelical Christian nonprofit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy, translate the Christian Bible into local languages, and aid minority language development. Based on its language documentation work, SIL publishes a database, Ethnologue, of its research into the world's languages, and develops and publishes software programs for language documentation, such as FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx) and Lexique Pro. Its main offices in the United States are located at the International Linguistics Center in Dallas, Texas.
History
Early history William Cameron Townsend, a Presbyterian minister, founded the organization in 1934, after undertaking a Christian mission with the Disciples of Christ among the Kaqchikel Maya people in Guatemala in the early 1930s. In 1933, he turned to Mexico to translate the Bible into indigenous languages there, as he had done for Kaqchikel. Townsend established a working relationship with the Mexican Secretariat of Public Education under the government of President Lázaro Cárdenas (in office 1934–1940) and founded SIL to educate linguist-missionaries to work in Mexico. Because the Mexican government did not allow missionary work through its educational system, Townsend founded Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1942 as a separate organization from SIL. Wycliffe Bible Translators focused on Bible translation and missionary activities, whereas SIL focused on linguistic documentation and literacy education. Having initiated collaboration with the Mexican education authorities, Townsend started the institute as a small summer training session in Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, in 1934 to train missionaries in basic linguistic, anthropological, and translation principles. Through the following decades, the SIL linguists worked at providing literacy education to indigenous people of Mexico, while simultaneously working with the Wycliffe Bible Translators on Bible translation. One of the students at the first summer institute in its second year, 1935, Kenneth Lee Pike (1912–2000), would become the foremost figure in the history of SIL. He served as SIL's president from 1942 to 1979, then as president emeritus until he died in 2000.
Instituto Lingüístico de Verano The Mexican branch, Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, was established in 1948.
Kidnapping and murder of Chester A. Bitterman in Colombia
On January 19, 1981, SIL field worker Chester "Chet" A. Bitterman was taken hostage by far-left guerilla group M-19 in Colombia who believed SIL was a cover operation for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). SIL denied involvement with any government intelligence agency stating that it was against their policy. M-19 demanded SIL withdraw all 209 of its people from Colombia, or else they would kill Bitterman. After 48 days of SIL refusing to yield to the demands, Bitterman was found murdered.
2000–present In 2016, Michel Kenmogne from Cameroon became executive director. In 2025, Johnstone Ndunde became executive director. In 2023, SIL said it had 1,350 language projects in 98 countries and 4,200 staff from 84 countries. By 2023, this had risen to 1,530 language projects in 107 countries, with a corresponding increase in staff to 4,373 people from 86 countries. The organization reports that these languages are spoken by 950 million people.
Vision and mission The vision of SIL Global is: "We long to see people flourishing in community using the languages they value most." Their mission states: "Inspired by God's love, we advocate, build capacity, and work with local communities to apply language expertise that advances meaningful development, education, and engagement with Scripture."
Contributions SIL's principal contribution to linguistics has been the data that have been gathered and analyzed from over 1,000 minority and endangered languages, many of which had not been previously studied academically. SIL endeavors to share both its data and the results of its analysis to contribute to the overall knowledge of language. This has resulted in publications on languages such as Hixkaryana and Pirahã, which have challenged the universality of some linguistic theories. SIL's work has resulted in over 20,000 technical publications, all of which are listed in the SIL Bibliography. Most of these are a reflection of linguistic fieldwork. SIL's focus has not been on the development of new linguistic theories, but tagmemics, though no longer promoted by SIL, was developed by Kenneth Pike, who also coined the words emic and etic, more widely used today in anthropology. Another focus of SIL is literacy work, particularly in indigenous languages. SIL assists local, regional, and national agencies that are developing formal and informal education in vernacular languages. These cooperative efforts enable new advances in the complex field of educational development in multilingual and multicultural societies. SIL provides instructors and instructional materials for linguistics programs at several major institutions of higher learning around the world. In the United States, these include Dallas International University, Biola University, Moody Bible Institute, and Dallas Theological Seminary. Other universities with SIL programs include Trinity Western University in Canada, Charles Darwin University in Australia, and Universidad Ricardo Palma in Lima, Peru. The organization has recently established a new Language and Culture Documentation Services Unit that aims to preserve and revitalize languages threatened by extinction. The creation of this department reflects a growing interest in documenting endangered languages and incorporates a multidisciplinary approach to anthropology and linguistics.
Affiliations SIL has Consultative Status with UNESCO as an NGO and has Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) as an advocate for ethnolinguistic communities. The organization is a member of the Forum of Bible Agencies International and Micah Network, and is a founding member of Maaya, the World Network for Linguistic Diversity.
Methodological contributions
Ethnologue and ISO 639-3 codes
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