Friday, 25 March 2011. Location: University of Cambridge. http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/1332/
Call for Papers Deadline: abstracts due 26 November, 2010. On-line Registration opens 1 January 2011.
Conveners
Dr Mari Jones (Department of French/Peterhouse, University of Cambridge)
Dr Sarah Ogilvie (Department of Linguistics/Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge)Summary
The First Cambridge International Conference on Language Endangerment will focus on language documentation, pedagogy, and revitalization.
The following speakers have agreed to give plenary sessions at the conference:
Professor Peter Austin (SOAS, University of London, UK)
Language Revitalization and Pedagogy: a case from eastern Australia
Professor David K. Harrison (Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, Oregon, USA) Language Extinction: Local and Global Perspectives
Professor Dr Nikolaus Himmelmann (University of Münster, Germany) On Language Documentation
Call for Papers
This conference will bring together academics, students, and members of indigenous communities from around the world to discuss current theories, methodologies, and practices of language documentation, pedagogy, revitalization.
Most of the world’s languages have diminishing numbers of speakers and are on the brink of falling silent. Currently around the globe, scholars are collaborating with members of indigenous communities to document and describe these endangered languages and cultures. Mindful that their work will be used by future speech communities to learn, teach, and revitalize their languages, scholars face new challenges in the way they gather materials and in the way they present their findings. This conference will discuss current efforts to record, collect, and archive endangered languages in writing, sound, and video that will support future language learners and speakers.
Documentation is of critical and immediate importance, and is often considered one of the main tasks of the field linguist. Future revitalization efforts may succeed or fail on the basis of the quality and range of material gathered, and yet the process may be rapid and dependent on conscious decisions by linguists and language workers who may be analyzing the form of a language for the first time, and codifying it in dictionaries and grammars. Written documentation of course not only aids the process of standardization but also serves important needs and functions within a community in support of language maintenance such as providing the basis for pedagogical materials in schools and helping to create a community’s sense of identity. However, indigenous communities and scholars of endangered languages are beginning to realise that the rapid and often artificial nature of this process can have negative effects – politically, linguistically, and culturally – which feed into issues relating to education and, ultimately, language revitalization.
In addition to the opportunity of sharing experiences with a network of linguists, it is hoped that participants will leave the conference with a new understanding of the topic, innovative ideas for documentation and pedagogy within their own linguistic contexts, and a renewed vigour to implement what they have learnt in their own language situations.
Submission Guidelines
We welcome abstracts (200 words maximum) for papers (20 minute paper + 10 minute discussion) that include, among other topics, discussion of interdisciplinary approaches and innovative techniques for collecting raw material, presenting metadata, and archiving language materials; teaching endangered languages to both children and adults; and revitalizing language use in homes, schools, and communities.
Abstracts are due by 26 November 2010, and should be sent to:
Dr Mari Jones (mcj11 (arroba) cam.ac.uk) and Dr Sarah Ogilvie (svo21 (arroba) @cam.ac.uk).Sponsor
The conveners are grateful for the support of The Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge.
Font: Dr Mari Jones. Reader in French Linguistics and Language Change. Fellow, Director of Studies and Tutor of Peterhouse.