AAA Panel on "Intra-National" Languages (Minority Language Varieties)

[Alexander Thomson]

Dear Linganth members,

Edwin Everhart and myself will be organizing a panel on "intra-national languages" (or 'dialects') for the 2013 AAA conference in Chicago. 

We are using the term "intra-national language" provisionally to reference those languages that are situated within the borders, politics and agenda of modern nation states. Given that such languages are frequently marginalized and endangered through their positioning, we are particularly interested in the ways that publics experience and respond to the manifold of pressures that lead to linguistic homogenization. In keeping with this year's theme, we will engage with the ethical obligations that we bear in a society with plenty of intra-national languages but relatively low metalinguistic awareness.

Our research concerns the non-standard language varieties of northern Japan and the Shetland Isles, respectively, and we welcome other regional specializations.

If you have research related to this area, or if you would like to join our panel or recommend someone else, kindly write to us at eke at ucla.edu, or call +1 919 260 9535.

Best wishes,
Alexander Thomson
Edwin "Ted" Everhart

UCLA Department of Anthropology
341 Haines Hall, Box 951553
Los Angeles CA, 90095-1553 USA