LINGUIST List 21.3096 Wed Jul 28 2010 Confs: Lang Documentation, Anthro Ling/UK Editor for this issue: Amy Brunett <brunettlinguistlist.org> LINGUIST is pleased to announce the launch of an exciting new feature: Easy Abstracts! Easy Abs is a free abstract submission and review facility designed to help conference organizers and reviewers accept and process abstracts online. Just go to: http://www.linguistlist.org/confcustom, and begin your conference customization process today! With Easy Abstracts, submission and review will be as easy as 1-2-3! Directory         1.    Mari Jones, 1st Cambridge Conference on Endangered Languages Message 1: 1st Cambridge Conference on Endangered Languages Date: 26-Jul-2010 From: Mari Jones <mcj11cam.ac.uk> Subject: 1st Cambridge Conference on Endangered Languages E-mail this message to a friend 1st Cambridge Conference on Endangered Languages Date: 25-Mar-2011 - 25-Mar-2011 Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom Contact: Mari Jones Contact Email: mcj11cam.ac.uk Meeting URL: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/1332/ Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics; Language Documentation Meeting Description: Endangered Languages: Documentation, Pedagogy and Revitalization. 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, and 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. The following speakers have agreed to give plenary sessions at the conference: Professor Peter Austin (SOAS, University of London, UK) Professor David K. Harrison (Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, Oregon, USA) Professor Dr Nikolaus Himmelmann (University of Münster, Germany). Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 28-Jul-2010       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.