From nostler@chibcha.demon.co.uk Sat Jan 15 15:54:16 2000 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id PAA18956 for ; Sat, 15 Jan 2000 15:54:11 -0800 Received: from anchor-post-33.mail.demon.net (anchor-post-33.mail.demon.net [194.217.242.91]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id PAA24537 for ; Sat, 15 Jan 2000 15:54:10 -0800 Received: from chibcha.demon.co.uk ([158.152.51.25]) by anchor-post-33.mail.demon.net with esmtp (Exim 2.12 #1) id 129d0R-00066N-0X; Sat, 15 Jan 2000 23:53:19 +0000 X-Sender: chibcha@pop3.demon.co.uk Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 22:59:47 +0000 To: linguist@unix.tamu.edu, endangered-languages-l@carmen.murdoch.edu.au, lagb@essex.ac.uk, LG-SHIFT@SIL.ORG, nat-lang@gnosys.svle.ma.us, baalmail@education.leeds.ac.uk, indknow@u.washington.edu, From: Nicholas Ostler Subject: FEL IV: EL & Literacy, Charlotte NC USA, 21-24 Sept. 2000 Fourth International Conference hosted by the Foundation for Endangered Langauges "Endangered Languages and Literacy" ---------------------------------------- Charlotte, North Carolina, USA - 21-24 September 2000 CALL FOR ABSTRACTS When a language is endangered, it is because the community who use it may cease to do so the foreseeable future. This is often because new generations of the community are not acquiring the language, or if they do, are not using it so much as speakers in the past. Literacy, the ability to read and write a written form of the language, has often been viewed a necessary first step in maintaining and promoting use of the language. The introduction of literacy is predicated upon the development of an acceptable written form of a language, a step considered by many essential for: - the creation of grammars, dictionaries, and teaching materials; - the preservation of traditional oral literature in communities where the younger generations lack the patience to learn the texts orally. However, efforts to develop a written language and instill literacy may encounter cultural obstacles and have unforeseen consequences. For example: - the development of literacy may, over time, fundamentally alter or interrupt the oral transmission of a community's knowledge and beliefs; - the members of the community may resist efforts to introduce literacy due to cultural beliefs about, for example, the spiritual or mystical nature of oral communication; - the introduction of literacy may create divisions within the community between the literate and the illiterate that ultimately may have social or economic implications. Even within communities that are receptive to the introduction of literacy, the development of an acceptable written language may pose challenges: - there may be difficulties selecting one of several dialects upon which to base the written language; - there may be problems adapting existing alphabets, syllabaries or other writing systems to the sound system of the language; - the availability of typewriter or computer fonts may force unacceptable compromises in the orthography for the language; - the language may lack acceptable vocabulary or syntactic structures to replace in the written language suprasegmental, kinetic, and paralinguistic components of oral, face-to-face communication. Modern technologies, however, have brought additional choices to endangered language communities. For example, with tape recorders, compact disk recorders, video recorders, television, radio, and computers, it possible to create "talking" dictionaries, grammars and books, thereby eliminating the need for a written language and literacy. But these technologies are not without their own limitations: - the costs of acquiring and maintaining desired technologies may be prohibitive; - the community may lack members with the expertise to employ the desired technologies, or the resources to train members in the technologies or hire outsiders; - the community may not be willing to accept/use the chosen technologies. All these issues, and more, are relevant to our conference this year. The workshop will provide a forum for researchers and activists working for the maintenance of indigenous languages that face an uncertain future. (It is the fourth in a series of annual workshops and conferences hosted by the Foundation for Endangered Languages.) The Foundation for Endangered Languages is a registered charity in England and Wales. FEL conferences, besides being opportunities to discuss the issues from a global viewpoint, are working meetings of the Foundation, defining our overall policy for future years. Participants at the conference therefore need to be members of the Foundation. There are full facilities to join on arrival, but all proposers are strongly urged to join as soon as possible, and so take full part in the Foundation's activities in the lead-up to the conference. The dates will be 21-24 September 2000. In keeping with the theme of this year's meeting, the workshop will take place near the homeland of Sequoyah, the father of Cherokee literacy, at University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the United States. There will be a preliminary volume of proceedings distributed at the Conference. Presentations will last twenty minutes each, with a further ten minutes for discussion. All presentations should be accessible largely in English, but use of the languages of interest, for quotation or exemplification, may well be appropriate. Organizers: Blair Rudes (chair) University of North Carolina at Charlotte Nicholas Ostler Foundation for Endangered Languages, Bath, England Christopher Moseley BBC Monitoring Service Karen Johnson-Weiner St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, USA Hassan Ouzzate Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco Programme Committee: Margaret Allen, McKenna Brown, Karen Johnson-Weiner, Tony McEnery, Eugene McKendry, Christopher Moseley, David Nash, Nicholas Ostler, Hassan Ouzzate, Jon Reyhner, Mari Rhydwen, Blair Rudes, Jane Simpson, Tasaku Tsunoda, Anthony Woodbury, Akira Yamamoto ABSTRACT SUBMISSION Abstracts should not exceed 500 words. They can be submitted in one of two ways: hard copy or electronic submission. They should be in English. A) Hard copies (or faxes): One copy should be sent to: Blair A. Rudes Department of English The University of North Carolina at Charlotte 9201 University City Boulevard Charlotte, North Carolina 28223-0001 USA FAX: 1-704-547-3961 TEL: 1-704-547-4230 This should have a clear short title, but should not bear anything to identify the author(s). On a separate sheet, please include the following information: NAME : Names of the author(s) TITLE: Title of the paper EMAIL: Email address of the first author, if any ADDR: Postal address of the first author TEL: Telephone number of the first author, if any FAX: Fax number of the first author, if any The name of the first author will be used in all correspondence. If possible, please also send an e-mail to Blair Rudes at informing him of the hard copy submission. This is in case the hard copy does not reach its destination. This e-mail should contain the information specified in the section below. B) Electronic submission: Electronic submission should be in plain ascii text email message giving the following details: # NAME : Name of first author # TITLE: Title of the paper # EMAIL: E-mail address of the first author # ADDR: Postal address of the first author # TEL: Telephone number of the first author, if any # FAX: Fax number of the first author and in a separate section # ABSTR: Abstract of the paper IMPORTANT DATES Abstract submission deadline March 21 Notification of Committee's decision April 21 Authors submit camera-ready text July 21 Conference Sept 21-24 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Nicholas Ostler Linguacubun Ltd "technology for the languages of the world" Batheaston Villa, 172 Bailbrook Lane Bath BA1 7AA England +44-1225-85-2865 fax +44-1225-85-9258 nostler@chibcha.demon.co.uk .