<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252">
<style type="text/css" style="display:none;"><!-- P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;} --></style>
</head>
<body dir="ltr">
<div id="divtagdefaultwrapper" style="font-size:12pt;color:#000000;font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;" dir="ltr">
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-56c567b4-7fff-0fd5-537f-fc09dc8ee98e"></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 28pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Limits of the Comparative Method: Innovative Approaches
to Understanding Orphan Languages</span><br>
</p>
<br>
<h1 dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:24pt;margin-bottom:6pt;"><span style="font-size: 24pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Meeting
Description</span></h1>
<div><span style="font-size: 24pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; color: rgb(73, 80, 87); font-family: -apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 28px;">57th
Annual Meeting of the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Societas Linguistica Europaea</em><br style="box-sizing: border-box;">
21 – 24 August 2024<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">
University of Helsinki</span><br>
</span></div>
<br>
<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Workshop
proposal</span></h2>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The
Comparative Method (CM) stands as one of the most impactful methodologies in historical-comparative linguistics, revolutionizing our understanding of the development of language families. Its enduring relevance in modern linguistics attests to its efficacy.
However, the CM comes with a significant limitation: it requires comparanda—distinct languages suspected to share a lineage. This constraint renders it inapplicable for studying language isolates and many small language families, which, in reality, make up
the majority of language families. We refer to these linguistically unique or small-scale genealogical units as 'orphan languages'.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">While
we join others in recognizing the importance of these 'orphan languages' to historical linguistics, they are often conspicuously absent from discussions that critique the limitations, or offer alternatives, to the Comparative Method. That is, the focus in
terms of remnants of linguistic diversity remains on single languages classified as 'isolates'—those with no known genealogical relatives. Language isolates in particular have been extensively cataloged and analyzed from various angles—including comparative,
typological, and diachronic approaches (Georg 2015, Epps & Michael 2023, Salaberri et al. 2020, Campbell 2017)—as well as from geographic perspectives (Urban 2021). Emerging research is adopting cross-disciplinary methods, utilizing statistical patterning
(Van Gijn et al. 2022) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) in corpus linguistics (Gamallo et al. 2020). Recent investigations actively merge linguistics with genetics (Matsumae et al. 2021, Laurent et al. 2023) to tackle the tough questions of the origins
the speakers of language </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">isolates</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">,
but not necessarily the broader category of language </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">orphans</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Furthermore,
despite advancements, the limitations of the (classical) CM are still evident: it cannot effectively trace the history of language orphans and their speakers and there is no alternative method with proven results that can take its place. Additionally, many
potential language orphans may exist in under-explored regions, or some languages might be wrongly assumed to have affiliations with their neighbors.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Orphan
Languages</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">
workshop aims to address these challenges by exploring innovative methods for reconstructing the proto-stages of language isolates and unaffiliated language groups, circumventing the limitations of the classical comparative method.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Topics
include, but are not limited to, the following:</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">
- Exploring how interdisciplinary methodologies can advance our understanding of orphan languages and their speakers;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> -
Investigating how chronological methods, such as internal reconstruction and genetic timelines, can help establish connections or separations between speakers of orphan languages and other groups;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">
- Researching language contact between speakers of orphan languages and other groups through trajectories of loan words or grammatical features or constructions;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">
- Demonstrating how big data, computational linguistics, and machine learning are offering new insights into speakers of language orphans’ histories;</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> -
Emphasizing the importance of insights gained from ethnography, historical narratives, and archaeology;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">
- Investigating what geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analyses can reveal about the movement and settlement of speakers of language orphans;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">
- Examining how globalization and migration impact language orphans and what methodologies can help track these changes.</span></p>
<br>
<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Call
for Papers</span></h2>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Abstracts
of 300 words max. should be sent to both workshop convenors by 6 November, 2023.</span></p>
<br>
<h3 dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:14pt;margin-bottom:4pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Conveners</span></h3>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Abbie
Hantgan: LLACAN, Paris, France </span><a href="mailto:abbie.hantgan-sonko@cnrs.fr" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">abbie.hantgan-sonko@cnrs.fr</span></a></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Rik
van Gijn: Center for Linguistics, Leiden University </span><a href="mailto:e.van.gijn@hum.leidenuniv.nl" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">e.van.gijn@hum.leidenuniv.nl</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p>
<br>
<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">References</span></h2>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;text-indent: -36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Campbell,
Lyle. (ed.). 2017. Language Isolates. London and New York: Routledge.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;text-indent: -36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Epps, Patience
& Lev, Michael (eds.). 2023. Language Isolates I: Aikanã to Kandozi-Shapra: An International Handbook (Amazonian Languages). Vol. 1. 2 vols. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. (https://www.degruyter.com/serial/hskal-b/html)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;text-indent: -36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Gamallo,
Pablo & Pichel, José Ramom & Alegria, Iñaki. 2020. Measuring Language Distance of Isolated European Languages. Information 11(4). (doi:10.3390/info11040181) (https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/11/4/181)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;text-indent: -36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Georg, Stefan
(ed.). 2015. Language isolates (4 volumes). London, England: Routledge.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;text-indent: -36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Laurent,
Romain & Szpiech, Zachary A & da Costa, Sergio S & Thouzeau, Valentin & Fortes-Lima, Cesar A & Dessarps-Freichey, Françoise & Lémée, Laure et al. 2023. A genetic and linguistic analysis of the admixture histories of the islands of Cabo Verde. eLife. eLife
Sciences Publications, Ltd 12. e79827. (Ed. Huerta-Sanchez, Emilia & Przeworski, Molly & Huerta-Sanchez, Emilia & Zhang, Xinjun.) (doi:10.7554/eLife.79827)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;text-indent: -36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Matsumae,
Hiromi & Ranacher, Peter & Savage, Patrick E. & Blasi, Damián E. & Currie, Thomas E. & Koganebuchi, Kae & Nishida, Nao et al. 2021. Exploring correlations in genetic and cultural variation across language families in northeast Asia. Science Advances. American
Association for the Advancement of Science 7(34). eabd9223. (doi:10.1126/sciadv.abd9223)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;text-indent: -36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Salaberri,
Iker & Krajewska, Dorota & Reguero, Urtzi & Zuloaga, Eneko & Duhalde, Maitena (collaborator) & Uribe-Etxebarria, Oxel (collaborator) & Monforte, Sergio (collaborator) & Santazilia, Ekaitz (collaborator) & Ariztimuño, Borja (collaborator) & Ulibarri, Koldo
(collaborator). 2020. Investigating language isolates: typological and diachronic perspectives. Zenodo. (doi:10.5281/zenodo.3985030)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;text-indent: -36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Urban, Matthias.
2021. The geography and development of language isolates. Royal Society Open Science 8(202232). (doi:10.1098/rsos.202232)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;text-indent: -36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Van Gijn,
Rik & Norder, Sietze & Arias, Leonardo & Emlen, Nicholas Q. & Azevedo, Matheus C. B. C. & Caine, Allison & Dunn, Saskia et al. 2022. The social lives of isolates (and small language families): the case of the Northwest Amazon. Interface Focus. Royal Society
13(1). 20220054. (doi:10.1098/rsfs.2022.0054)</span></p>
<div><br>
</div>
</span>
<p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>