PEOPLE KENNETH PIKE AND THE PRIZE

This month, Dr. Kenneth L. Pike of Dallas may do something no Dallasite has ever done: win the prestigious
Nobel Peace Prize.

Pike is a linguist whose mission in life has been to study some of the more than 6,000 languages worldwide that have
no written form, and to write them down. More than 400 million people live in purely oral cultures, and for them, Pike
says, life is difficult. “Many of these people” says Pike, “are treated as non-people, as semi-animals.” Through his
work many of these peoples have been elevated to human status in their countries. That’s why he was nominated for the
peace prize.

But to describe the seventy-seven-year-old Pike solely as an academic linguist is to miss most of his many dimensions.
He works closely with three allied Dallas-based entities: the Summer Institute of Linguistics (which was nominated for
the prize along with Pike), the International Linguistic Center Inc., and the Wycliffe Bible Translators, the main
goal of which is to translate the New Testament into as many of the unwritten languages of the world as possible. Pike
says his work as a linguist and as a Christian ultimately point toward the same goal-elevating the human condition and
the human spirit. For his trouble, he’s been attacked for “meddling” with the lives of simple tribal people. “The
anthropological leftists,” he says, ’’accuse us of destroying cultures because we’re changing cultures. Our position
is that we want them to have choice. We want them to be able to read and write if they want to, and to work with the
government if they want to.”

As for Pike’s chances of winning the prize over the 160 other nominees, his closefriend Thomas Werkema,
director of development for the ILC Inc., is cautiously optimistic. “If effect of the work and not politics is
considered by the committee, then Pike will win. The ability to communicate one to the other is fundamental to peace.”
Pike, however, sees the prize as more nuisance than honor. “It chills my spine to think if I get that thing I would
have to go do a lot of lectures and such.” But prize or not, he knows his work is vital. “Words explode before cannons
do,” he says.