[lg policy] call: Language - Nation - Identity: The 'questione della lingua' in an Italian and Non-Italian Context

[Harold Schiffman]

Language - Nation - Identity: The 'questione della lingua' in an
Italian and Non-Italian Context

Date: 29-Sep-2011 - 30-Sep-2011
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact Person: Elizaveta Khachaturyan
Meeting Email: < click here to access email >
Web Site: http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/forskning/aktuelt/arrangementer/konferanser-seminarer/2011/della-lingua/index.html

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics; Sociolinguistics

Call Deadline: 01-Jul-2011

Meeting Description:

Workshop
Language - Nation - Identity: The 'questione della lingua' in an
Italian and Non-Italian Context
29 -30 September, 2011
University of Oslo

In 2011 Italy is celebrating 150 years of Unification. This is a very
important date not only for the history of the Italian State but also
for the history of the Italian language. The debates on an Italian
standard language that is accessible to everyone (‘questione della
lingua’) began in the 13th century with Dante and his ‘De vulgari
eloquentia’ and have continued for almost seven centuries. The
political unification (in 1861) marked a new phase in the discussion
on the language: did it amount to a victory of standard Italian and
the defeat of all other languages present on the territory of the new
Italian state, was it a fortuitous coexistance of different languages?

Is the language one of the main parts of national identity? - This is
the crucial question we would like to explore.

What kind of relationship can there be between political and
linguistic unification? What was the process in different countries?
Does a strong centralized state actually need to have one language?
Can a language actually unify a nation? What is happening nowadays, as
the migration process seems to be leading us towards plurilingualism?

These are the questions that we will put to the participants.

The discussion will be developed from two perspectives:
diachronically, we will describe the creation of a standard language
and its role in the political centralization and unification; on the
other hand, synchronically, we will analyse the situation in a modern
society where two opposing tendencies coexist. On the one hand, the
aspiration to integrate in a new society and/or to be a world citizen
impels us to use one standard language, while on the other, the desire
to conserve a distinct identity and to ensure the survival of the
small languages explains the opposite movement.

We think that the topic of the workshop will be interesting not only
for specialists but also for the general public concerned with
problems of identity and nation. This is why we plan to contact a
publishing house interested in the topic and to publish the papers
delivered at the workshop. We also see the workshop as a step towards
future research on these issues.

Participation fees: 40 euros

Call for Papers:

Please send us an abstract on the conference themes described above of
max. 500 words.

Working language: English

Important Dates:

Deadline: 1 of July
Notification of acceptance: 15 of July

Organized by: ILOS, UiO
elizaveta.khachaturyanilos.uio.no, sergio.sabbatiniilos.uio.no

Web-page: http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/forskning/aktuelt/arrangementer/konferanser-seminarer/2011/della-lingua/index.html

http://linguistlist.org/issues/22/22-2133.html

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