<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; border-collapse: collapse; "><div class="nH"><div class="h7 " style="text-align: -webkit-center;clear: both; padding-bottom: 0px; ">
<font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><pre style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Code2000, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: normal; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><pre style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">
Language endangerment is now accepted as an important issue of our times, but it is sometimes
misrepresented as a problem just for the speaker communities, and not for the wider societies which
surround and often penetrate them. In this conference, we want to focus on the impacts that minority
languages make on those outside, whether deliberately - through raising their voices - or implicitly,
through the images that they give out to outsiders. What messages do endangered languages send to
the wider world? These voices and images may play vital roles in the formation of language attitudes.
We are therefore asking questions of these kinds:
• How have endangered language communities presented themselves, their languages and their
cultures? The audience could be outsiders, but it could also be young, or returning, members of their
own families.
• What policies have outsiders used to characterize these communities, across a whole spectrum of
possibilities? These will include attempts to vilify, stigmatize or even annihilate them, to seek to
assimilate or recruit them, to accept them passively, or even to see some special value in them?
• What uses have endangered language communities made of others' methods to protect themselves,
or to enhance their standing?
• How have endangered language speakers maintained or transformed, or been alienated from, their
traditions or identity?
• What alliances have endangered language communities forged for mutual protection?
• How have attitudes to majority languages been affected by greater interest in minority languages?
• How have the techniques derived from majority-language culture, e.g. for teaching, or for
documentation, been used for endangered languages?
• How have mass media (as radio, television), and modern networked media (as mobile phones, the
internet) affected the image of endangered languages, or given them new voices? Linguistic and
sociolinguistic analysis of endangered languages
These are just some of the questions to be discussed in this conference, which aims to learn lessons
about the place of minority languages within larger communities. We aim to create awareness about the
current situation of endangered languages among the speakers and non-speakers of such languages.
Our goal is to promote linguistic maintenance within a wide variety of social contexts. There will be a
place to discuss relevant experience of the documentation of endangered languages as well as of
language revitalization.
Ecuador is well known for its geographical, cultural and linguistic diversity. Besides Spanish, it hosts
thirteen indigenous languages, all endangered. Quichua has around 1 million speakers in Ecuador, of 8
million along the Andes. The indigenous languages are found on the coast, in the highlands (Sierra) and
on the Amazon - representing many of South America's linguistic families.
IMPORTANT DATES:
1. 13 March, 2011: Abstract submission deadline.
Abstracts (up to 500 words) to be sent in English or Spanish (or Quichua or Shuar), as a Word document
(.doc or .rtf formats). (Please include up to 5 key words or phrases.) Add author names, affiliation,
postal address and telephone (of leading author).
2. 10 April, 2011 : Notification of acceptance/rejection of paper.
3. 1 August, 2011: In case of acceptance, the full paper (in Word) will be due.
Note: It is a condition of speaking at the conference that authors submit a hard copy of their paper by
this deadline. (In Word and as a PDF; further details on the format of text will be specified to the
authors.) In the course of the following month, PowerPoint presentations (if any) should be submitted,
together with a scanned picture of author.
4. September 7-9, 2011: Conference
5. September 10, 2011: Excursion to Otavalo (<a href="http://www.otavalo.gov.ec/">www.otavalo.gov.ec/</a>, <a href="http://www.otavalovirtual.com/">www.otavalovirtual.com/</a>) This
trip will include a visit to the indigenous market, lakes, a sacred waterfall, a condor park, and perhaps a
visit to local musicians.
(Later excursions may be planned: Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas (at least one more day), and if there
is interest, Galápagos Islands or the Selva (jungle).
IMPORTANT ADDRESSES:
Electronic Addresses:
All abstracts and papers should be sent as attachments to both:
<a href="mailto:endangeredlanguages2011@gmail.com">endangeredlanguages2011@gmail.com</a> (Conference Chair) and <a href="mailto:nicholas@ostler.net">nicholas@ostler.net</a> (Foundation Chair)
Postal Addresses and Telephones (if necessary):
Conference Chair
Dr Marleen Haboud,
Facultad de Comunicación, Lingüística y Literatura, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Ecuador, Quito,
Ecuador
+ 593 2 2991700
Foundation Chair
Dr Nicholas Ostler,
Foundation for Endangered Languages, 172 Bailbrook Lane, Bath, England BA1 7AA
(+44-1225-852865)</pre></span></div></pre></span></font></div></div><div class="nH"></div></span>