SIL International is an evangelical Christian non-profit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy, translate the Christian Bible into local languages, and aid minority language development.
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SIL International served as SIL's president from 1942 to 1979, then as president emeritus until his death in 2000.
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SIL International's focus has not been on the development of new linguistic theories, but tagmemics, though no longer promoted by SIL International, was developed by Kenneth Pike, who coined the words emic and etic, more widely used today in anthropology.
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SIL International provides instructors and instructional materials for linguistics programs at several major institutions of higher learning around the world.
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SIL International has Consultative Status with UNESCO as an NGO, and has Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council as an advocate for ethnolinguistic communities.
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Organization is a member of the Forum of Bible Agencies SIL International and Micah Network, and is a founding member of Maaya, the World Network for Linguistic Diversity.
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SIL International has developed several widely used font sets that it makes available as free software under the SIL International Open Font License .
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SIL International holds formal consultative status with UNESCO and the United Nations, and has been publicly recognized by UNESCO for their work in many parts of Asia.
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In 1973, SIL was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding.
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In 1979, SIL International's agreement was officially terminated by the Mexican government after critiques from anthropologists regarding the combination of education and missionary activities in indigenous communities, though SIL International continued to be active in that country.
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Organization's focus on language description, language development and Bible translation, and the missionary activities carried out by many of its field workers have been criticized by linguists and anthropologists who argue that SIL International aims to change indigenous cultures, which exacerbates the problems that cause language endangerment and language death.
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Linguists have argued that the missionary focus of SIL International makes relations with academic linguists and their reliance on SIL International software and knowledge infrastructure problematic in that respective goals, while often overlapping, sometimes diverge considerably.
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SIL International considers itself as actively protecting endangered languages by promoting them within the speech community and providing mother-tongue literacy training.
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Besides the headquarters in Dallas, SIL International has offices and locally incorporated affiliated organizations in the following countries:.
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