Okanagan College is a place of welcome.
Derived from the Old English “wilcuma,” meaning desire or pleasure, and “cuma,” meaning guest, “desired guests” are welcomed to the college in more than 650 languages.
The world-wide words of welcome or equivalent inscribed on a colourful cube sculpture in the library are a labour of love that library technician Shayla Diekert began seven months ago.
Among Diekert’s many jobs is creating library displays, and none are more complex than the welcome cube.
As well as designing the sculpture, she researched each word to make sure it was valid and in use, and included extensive information on a profile page for each word in an accompanying binder.
The words are organized alphabetically according to the English alphabet by name of language and by continent. The International Phonetic Alphabet pronunciation is included for each word of welcome or greeting and what language family they belong to.
Every word on the cube is colour coded according to its location – blue for Europe, green for Asia, orange for Africa, Red for South America, Yellow for North America and purple for Australia and New Zealand.
Diekert said the idea for a welcome sculpture originated with her desire to make the library a more welcoming space and librarian Taryn Schmid’s suggestion that she create a poster.
“I wanted to make sure that every single person would feel welcome,” she said. “Also, I am fascinated by languages, especially Indigenous ones.”
Diekert hopes others will become interested in researching languages, particularly as there are many that she says are moribund or critically endangered, sometimes with only one speaker left.
“When a language dies, all the valuable and untranslatable knowledge dies with it, so the more people keeping these tongues alive the better,” she notes in the binder.
Diekert suggested those interested in pursuing language restoration and revitalization go online to firstvoices.com where there is a wealth of information, including dictionaries, recordings, literature and games.
Diekert said she wasn’t alone in creating the cube. She credits Schmid with “rescuing” the metal base of the sculpture from the South Thompson River, and Joaquim Camps for translating Spanish-language research documents. As well, she offered an enthusiastic shoutout to area businesses that had a hand in the project, including Red Raven Hydraulics Inc. of Chase (welding), Wayne’s Woodshop (Sorrento) and Jeanne’s Printing and Graphics (graphics).
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