ELL: Language Endangerment Day

[Kersti]

We know many of you live too far away, but some of you may be
interested in attending:

Language Endangerment Day
by the Department of Linguistics
Saturday the 25th of May, 1-4.30 pm
Arts Theatre, Arts Building
Manchester University

Our aim with this day is to increase the awareness of language
endangerment issues and the seriousness of the situation; many
linguists working within the field predict that by the year 2050, 90%
of the world's languages will have died out. The current situation is
that roughly 96% of the world's languages are spoken by only 4% of
the world's population. The threat to the world's cultural diversity
and richness posed by the loss of languages is enormous. The
Linguistics Department at Manchester University has a strong and
broad research record in this area, and apart from a general
discussion of language endangerment issues, there will be brief talks
on specific languages and cultures by members of the Department who
have done field work in those areas:

o   Professor Nigel Vincent, who will talk about general issues involved in
language
      endangerment and provide sketches of some specific areas where the threat
      is particularly strong
o   Professor Dan Everett, who commutes between Manchester and the Amazon,
      where he has spent his professional life working on the languages of
that region
o  Dr Yaron Matras, a world expert on Romani (the language of the Gypsies)
o  Dr Kersti B=F6rjars, who works with the Amish community in Southern Ontario
o  Dr Thomas Klein, who works with the Chamorro community in the Mariana Islands
     in the Pacific
o  Dr Greg Anderson who does field work sponsored by the Volkswagen Stiftung on
     Turkic languages in Siberia, some spoken by less than 40 people

The event, which is free, will start at 1 pm. The formal part of the
day will continue until about 4.30 pm, with a coffee and tea break in
the middle. After the talks, there will be an opportunity to stay for
a drink and a chance to talk to the speakers and other members of
staff, to look at poster displays about research on endangered
languages conducted within the Department, watch videos of field
trips or try some of the many computer resources available in this
subject area.

We hope this event will be of interest to you and we cordially invite
you to attend. Please contact the Departmental Office on 0161-275
3187, or e-mail Dr Kersti B=F6rjars  (k.borjars at man.ac.uk) if you have
any queries or to let us know that you will attend. The presentations
will be held in the Arts Theatre in the Arts Building of Manchester
University, which is on Oxford Rd. Maps and instructions for how to
get to the University can be found on
  http://www.man.ac.uk/welcome/maps.html
or you can contact us and ask us to send you a copy by post.
--
**********************************************************
Kersti Bo"rjars                Tel: +44-(0)161-275 3042
Department of Linguistics      Fax: +44-(0)161-275 3187
University of Manchester       e-mail: k.borjars at man.ac.uk
Manchester M13 9PL             Visit our web-page:
UK                             http://lings.ln.man.ac.uk/


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