<div dir="ltr">Dear colleagues, <br><br>This coming Thursday (December 02) EASA
Linguistic Anthropology Network (ELAN) will host this month's
works-in-progress workshop. It is my
great pleasure to invite you to attend this workshop. We will be discussing a paper by <b>Dr. Giulia Cabras</b> from Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. <b>Dr. Laura Siragusa </b>(University of Oulu) will act as discussant for the paper. <br><br>If you are interested in attending this workshop, please email me through <a href="mailto:sunnyleaf1984@gmail.com" target="_blank">sunnyleaf1984@gmail.com</a> for a copy of this paper.<br><br>Here is the abstract:<br><br><b>Diversity in the linguistic landscapes of Xining (Amdo region, Northwest China): writing systems and practices to be visible</b> (by Giulia Cabras)<br><br><b>Abstract: </b>The
Amdo region, that encompasses Qinghai and Gansu provinces in Northwest
China, is well-known for its linguistic diversity. In this area,
Tibetan, Mongolic, Sinitic and Turkic languages have been in contact
since centuries. Concerning written practices, the languages of the area
have experienced unsuccessful attempts to establish orthographic
systems and this lack has intensified diglossic relationships. This
paper investigates written language choices in the linguistic landscapes
of Xining, Qinghai’s provincial capital. The city has experienced
economic and infrastructural development in this last decade and the
migration of Han, Tibetans, Hui (Chinese Muslims), Salar (Turkic),
Mongolic-speaking groups from rural areas and small urban centers in
Qinghai and Gansu. The change of the ethnic composition and increase of
wealth have led to the opening of new businesses and the trade of
specific products for locals and tourists. This study is rooted in the
field of the linguistic and semiotic landscapes and considers the
linguistic, informative and symbolic features of written texts in the
language ecology of the city (Landry and Bourhis, 1997; Jaworsky and
Thurlow, 2010; Gorter, Marten and Mensel, 2012). The data (such as
pictures of shop signs, advertisements, and objects) were gathered in
the last three years in different areas of Xining. The qualitative
analysis looks specifically at the use of languages, scripts, fonts, the
emplacement and content of signs. The study will shed light on
different ways in which linguistic and cultural diversity is represented
in a multilingual urban environment: diglossic relatioships in written
practices, the symbolic role of established written standards,
strategies used by ethnolinguistic communities whose heritage language
lacks an orthography, the social and cultural motivations. Moreover, it
provides evidence of the impact of consumption trends, local cultures
and globalization in the development of linguistic diversity in Amdo.<br><br>Date: Thursday, <b>02 December </b>2021<br>Time: 12.15-13.45 <b>Dublin time (GMT)</b><br><br>Link to Zoom Meeting:<br><a href="https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/64808619250?pwd=MkNZY0Z5cFg3TnJiL2dHZExrL2dBZz09" target="_blank">https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/64808619250?pwd=MkNZY0Z5cFg3TnJiL2dHZExrL2dBZz09</a><br><br>Meeting ID: 648 0861 9250<br>Passcode: 715185<br><br>All welcome! In the meantime, you are also most welcome to follow ELAN's workshop serials (please refer to the link at the end of the email)<br><br>Best wishes,<br>Lijing<br><br>P.S. ELAN workshop document: <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t-UeFI6bFoGbdVPuvze92KIWafwT-02aBdyD-zH-RvU/edit" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t-UeFI6bFoGbdVPuvze92KIWafwT-02aBdyD-zH-RvU/edit</a><font color="#888888"><br></font><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, serif">Dr. phil. </font><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-size:16px">Lijing Peng</span><br><br></div><div>Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation</div><div>Dublin 2, Ireland<br></div><div>+353 877963633<br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div>