Foundation for Endangered Languages
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9. Forthcoming Meetings Babel in reverse? Language ideol-ogy in the 21st century, 20-22 Feb 2007, Catholic Academy Wolfsburg / Mülheim Sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation Language shift and attempts of language revi-talization are manifestations of language ideo-logical views. Language ideologies constitute thereby the basis from which support for as well as criticism against language revitaliza-tion is generated. Language death is not a new phenomenon. Novel is the speed with which languages are presently lost. To what extent language endangerment is an effect of chang-ing communicative requirements and to which extent it is an effect of language ideology remains an unresolved question so far. There can be no doubt, however, that dominant language ideologies, shaped in the course of nation building processes, are detrimental to the preservation of local languages. Such language ideologies address elite interests and overlook the interests of everybody else. In-digenous language minorities are crucially affected. As self-fulfilling prophecies, lan-guage ideologies play a crucial role in render-ing multilingual polities into the monolingual nations they imagine to exist. Modernist lan-guage ideologies threaten linguistic diversity and they do so irrespective of the communica-tive requirements of their speakers. The pre-sent conference addresses these issues by discussing language endangerment with a focus on language ideology. The questions to be addressed at the confer-ence are: To what extent are attempts for or scepticism against language revitalisations manifesta-tions of modernist language ideology? What language ideological views are in the way of developing new functions of local languages? What is preventing speakers of endangered languages to use them more frequently? What is undermining the utility of local lan-guages? To what extent can lack of utility of local languages be counter-balanced by cultural or socio-psychological factors? How can dominated languages be marketed? To whom does language revitalization appear to be irrelevant, inappropriate or a threat and why is that so? How do local identities and cultures differ with or without local languages? Do we perceive languages as systems or as performances and what are the effects thereof with regard to language revitalisation and language rights? What are the limits of language policies with regard to language revitalisation? www.uni-due.de/japan/conferences_en.shtml Conference on Endangered Lan-guages and Cultures of Native America, 13-15 April 2007 Salt Lake City, Utah. (CELCNA III) (3rd annual CELCNA), , Uni-versity of Utah Sponsors: Smithsonian Institution and CAIL (Center for American Indian Languages, University of Utah) Keynote speakers: Marianne Mithun (UCSB) and Christine Sims (Acoma Pueblo; Univer-sity of New Mexico) Deadline for ABSTRACTS is past. Registration: $25 (students $15) [to cover cost of conference rooms, refreshments] Abstract guidelines: Abstracts, no longer than 500 words (a paragraph or two will do), should include paper title, name of au-thor/authors, affiliation. Abstracts should be submitted by e-mail, in Microsoft Word document, RTF, or PDF. Include contact details for the period of time from January to April 2006. Only one abstract per person (except where a paper has multiple authors). Accommodations: University Guest House - two minute walk from the meeting venue (Heritage Center) and CAIL. To book ac-commodations, contact the Guest House di-rectly (mention CELCNA):University Guest House University of Utah 110 South Fort Douglas Blvd., Salt Lake City, Utah 84113-5036 Toll free: 1-888-416-4075 (or 801-587-1000), Fax 801-587-1001 Website www.guesthouse.utah.edu (Please make reservations early; rooms will be held for the conference only until early March.) Additional information: Contact Nancy Gar-cía or for particular questions, write Lyle Campbell. If you need information not easily arranged via e-mail, please call: Tel. 801-587-0720 or 801-581-3441 during business hours, or Fax 801-585-7351. Dr. Lyle Campbell, Professor of Linguistics, Director of the Center for American Indian Languages, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Utah, 255 S. Central Campus Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0492 USA Tel. 801-581-3441 (office), 801-585-9785 (Dept.), 801-587-0720 (CAIL); Fax 801-585-7351 “Ethnicity in Europe: Sociopolitical and Cultural Processes” 24 – 26 May 2007 Rezekne, Latgalia/Latvia Since January 2006, Rezekne Higher Educa-tional Institution (RHEI) Department of Phi-lology in cooperation with Centre d`etudes linguistiques pour l`Europe (Italy) has been carrying out the common project ,, A Survey of the Ethnolinguistic Situation in Latgale”. The project investigates ethnical and linguis-tic processes in Latgale, drawing attention to the influence of religion and language on both the (concrete) micro-environment (individual, family) and the macro-environment (commu-nity, society). Data collected during the pro-ject will be summarized by January 2007. The conference will be organized in order to present and evaluate the results of the project and to work out practical recommendations for developing fields such as language policy, culture and education. We would like to share experiences with experts from other countries and regions. Hence we invite scientists and practical persons (representatives of culture, education, mass media, etc.) of the fields mentioned above to participate in our confer-ence. The conference intends to provide the frame for interdisciplinary discourse in the follow-ing fields:
Sociolinguistics and Ethnolinguistics
Presentation time: 15 minutes + 5 minutes for discussion. |