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ABSTRACT

The Committee of Sleep Creates a Language-or Two!
Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
Deirdre_Barrett@hms.harvard.edu

Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D. is author of The Committee of Sleep: How Artists, Scientists, and Athletes Use Their Dreams for Creative Problem Solving-and How You Can, Too. (Crown/Random House, 2001), The Pregnant Man and Other Cases from a Hypnotherapist's Couch (Random House, 1998), and editor of Trauma and Dreams (Harvard University Press, 1996). Dr. Barrett is Editor-in-Chief of DREAMING, Past-President of ASD and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.

4. Summary of Presentation

The Committee of Sleep Creates a language

Writing is rare in dreams, however one entire written language systems originated in a dream. The alphabet of Vai was "dreamed up" in the mid 1800's. Within 15 years nearly everyone in the capitol city of Monrovia could read and write the sophisticated script and even in rural area literacy rate 50%-much better than Europe at that time. Vai literacy survives to this day despite the current Liberian government's policy of teaching only English in the schools. The language, the dream that created it, and the role of societal expectations about dreams will be discussed.

5. Learning Objectives.
Objectives:

-To be able to describe the role of dreaming in the creation of the written alphabet of Vai.

-To be able to describe the role of dreaming in the creation of he language Volapuk.

-To be able to describe distinctive characteristics of the Vai alphabet and how they relate to the spoken form.

Evaluation questions:

-Describe the role dreaming played in the creation of written Vai.

-Describe the role dreaming played in the creation of Volapuk.

-Describe the single most distinctive structural characteristic of the Vai alphabet and how it relates to spoken Vai.

Abstract

The Committee of Sleep Creates a Language—or Two!

      “We do not dream of the three R’s” is the title of a recent dream content survey.”¹  Although it is indeed rare, written language can be dreamed.  More interestingly, two entire written language systems originated in dreams.

    Nineteenth century Europeans cited language as setting man apart from animals and written language as separating “civilized” and “primitive” peoples.  Africa’s exclusively oral tradition was invoked to reinforce racial prejudice.  White audiences never tired of missionaries’ stories of natives amazed by the magic of conveying thoughts silently on scraps of pulped wood.  When a British Naval Officer returned from Liberia in 1849, talking about the written language of Vai, he was greeted with amazement and incredulity. Linguists who investigated, however found nearly everyone in the capitol city of Monrovia could read and write the sophisticated script and even in rural area literacy rate 50%—much better than Europe at that time. More amazingly the phenomenal literacy rate had been achieved in the fifteen years since the alphabet had been created in a dream. ² owever linguists who investigated found that peple of liberia had lietercy r

     Vai literacy survives to this day despite the current Liberian government’s policy of teaching only English in the schools.

Modern linguists give the Vai language high marks, noting the simple yet elegant correspondence of the written and spoken forms. Recent research has found Vai writers able to express themselves more accurately than those fluent in many other languages.

   This talk will present the dream that contained the alphabet, discuss characteristics of the highly unusual alphabet, show examples of Vai signs and posters, and relate this event to general observations about dream creativity and the occurrence of written language in dreams. There is actually a second language which originated in a dream a mere thirty years later.  The obscure Volapuk was dreamed by German linguist J. Schleyer as he struggled to develop an international language system.  Although it never enjoyed more than minor use, Volapuk was treated as a serious contender by linguists cataloguing the ultimately ill-fated history of the struggle for a universal language.  Volapuk, the dream that created it, and its relation to Vai will also be discussed briefly.

References

1)     Barrett, Deirdre  The Committee of Sleep: How Artists, Scientists, and Athletes Use Their Dreams for Creative Problem Solving—and How You Can, Too. Crown/Random House, 2001.

2)     Hartmann, Ernest.  We do not dream of the three R’s Dreaming: The Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams, June 2000 Vol. 10 No. 2 pp. 103-110