Full Title: Vitality of a Minority Language
Date: 15-Oct-2010 – 16-Oct-2010
Location: Bellinzona, Switzerland
Contact Person: Elena Maria Pandolfi Matteo Casoni
Meeting Email: decs-olsi@ti.ch
Web Site: http://www.ti.ch/olsi
Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Sociolinguistics
Call Deadline: 31-Jan-2010
Meeting Description:
The congress aims at an in depth discussion of the parameters relevant to the evaluation of the degree of vitality of a minority language. Particular attention will be given to quantitative and qualitative indices that may be used for monitoring the ‘health condition’ of languages with a minority position in a country. The situation of the Italian language in Switzerland will be a special focus of interest.
The congress themes are:
A) Indices of a minority language vitality
(i) The concept of vitality index and its relevance for minority languages
(ii) Internal linguistic vitality
(iii) External sociolinguistic vitality
(iv) Methodology for quantitative measurements
(v) Methodology for qualitative measurements
B) Goals and aims of the researches on language vitality
(i) Sociolinguistic situation of a community and language vitality researches
(ii) Implications, effects and hints of the language vitality researches for a minority language protection and promotion
Call for Papers:
The congress program contemplates 8 invited presentations (40 minutes each) and a workshop with 8 papers selected through this Call for Papers.
Papers on general aspects concerning the Congress themes will be welcome but main attention should be devoted to the situation of Italian language in Swiss Confederation and to similar European comparable situations.
Abstracts:
Researchers working on these topics are invited to send an abstract of about 500 words of their proposed paper. The abstracts should contain the paper title, the name of the author /authors, the postal and e-mail addresses, the thematic area and have to be sent to the e-mail address decs-olsi@ti.ch. Abstracts received will be reviewed and selected by the Scientific Committee.
Deadline to submit abstracts: 31st January 2010.
Deadline of notifications of acceptance/rejection: 30th March 2010
A small contribution to the expenses may be assigned to PhD students presenting an accepted paper or at least taking part to the congress. Interested PhD students are invited to send the application within 31st January 2010, along with the title of their PhD thesis and a presentation letter by their PhD professor.
Congress Languages: Italian, German, French and English
<small>Fuente: Infoling</small>