RPA
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Smalley, William Allen
setName: label: See more items in
content: William A. Smalley papers
label: See more items in
content: William A. Smalley papers / Series 2: Hmong
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1952-1955
label: Date
content: 1966-1967
label: Date
content: 1981-1997
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.2006-06, Subseries 2.1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: In 1951, Reverend G. Linwood Barney solicited Smalley's help in developing a writing system for the Hmong people in order to translate the Bible and other religious documents into their language. At the time, Father Yves Bertrais was also working on a Hmong writing system, and when they learned of each other's work, the three decided to collaborate on a single writing system, now known as Hmong Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA), a system based on the Latin alphabet. Smalley, who did not speak Hmong, provided the linguistic expertise to the group. Materials in this series that relate to their work consist of 1953 conference reports by Smalley and Barney and a few letters. According to Smalley, in a letter to Erica C. Garcia (December 1, 1981) filed in "[Khmu correspondence]," the extensive lexicon files that he had collected for the project were lost in a move. Other materials in this sub-series are Smalley's drafts and outlines of the history of the development of RPA for a conference talk; Hmong-French and Hmong-English dictionaries; and materials relating to the subject of standardizing RPA.