PLM21015 Satellite session: Language endangerment and revitalization

Conveners: Wolfgang U. Dressler (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Alain Peyraube (CNRS Paris) and Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań)

With the support of the “Academia Europaea 2015 Hubert Curien Fund”

Logo of Academia Europaea

The aim of this session is to bring together scholars involved in research on “small” and endangered languages of Europe, Mesoamerica and Oceania. In particular, we want to focus on the theoretical implications of cross-linguistic variation in linguistic structure, as studied in cognitive, cultural and social settings, as well as applied research on language maintenance and revitalization. Specific issues discussed as part of the session include:

  • language documentation focusing on endangered languages;
  • surveys of genetically and typologically diverse languages aiming at the study of cross-linguistic differentiation in linguistic complexity, as determined by social and demographic factors as well as various forms of language contact;
  • implications of language ideology and attitudes for language shift and revitalization;
  • practical and theoretical strategies for the revitalization of endangered languages;
  • providing the rationale for language revitalization: psycholinguistic, cognitive, cultural and economic benefits.

Talks in the session:

  1. Gunter Senft (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen): Culture change - language change: Missionaries and moribund varieties of Kilivila.
  2. Justyna Olko (University of Warsaw) and John Sullivan (Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, University of Warsaw): Bridging Gaps and Empowering Speakers: An Inclusive Approach to Nahuatl Research and Revitalization.
  3. Elwira Sobkowiak (University of Warsaw) and Marcin Kilarski (Adam Mickiewicz University): A ‘small’ language in contact with a ‘big’ one: The loss of alienability distinction in Teenek (Mayan) under Spanish influence.
  4. Julia Sallabank (SOAS London): Purism, variation, change and ‘authenticity’: ideological challenges for language revitalisation.
  5. Tomasz Wicherkiewicz (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań), Tymoteusz Król (Association Wilamowianie) and Justyna Olko (University of Warsaw): Awakening the language and speakers' community of Wymysiöeryś.
  6. Michael Hornsby (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań) and Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska (Instytut Slawistyki PAN): Schools as agents of transmission: Language revitalization in Brittany and Kashubia.
  7. Alain Peyraube (CNRS Paris, AE): On some endangered Sinitic languages spoken in Northwestern China: Tangwang, Gangou, Linxia.
  8. Wolfgang U. Dressler (Austrian Academy of Sciences, AE): Independent, dependent and interdependent variables in language decay and language death.

Special guest: Tymoteusz Król (Wilamowice)