AAA Panel on Language Standardization, Language Variation and Scale Making

[Kerim Friedman]

Dear Linganth Members,

I'd like to put together a panel for the 2013 AAA on issues of language
standardization, language variation and scale making. The concept of "scale
making" is taken from political geography and inspired by the use of that
term in Anna Tsing's ethnographic work (see "Friction"). Specifically, I'm
looking at the ways in which linguistic diversity is standardized at
different levels of scale in different contexts.

For instance, despite regional variation in Maori, there is a single
national standard, while here in Taiwan each of the 14 officially
recognized indigenous languages is being standardized at the local level so
that there are currently 43 officially recognized language varieties used
in textbooks and testing. My own work looks at the standardization of the
Amis language into 5 regional varieties. I argue that these differences in
linguistic "scale" have important implications for identity formation,
ideology and political economy.

The final shape of the panel will depend on the nature of the work being
done by each of the contributors and will be developed based on the
responses I get to this query. Even if you can't attend the conference, or
don't do such work yourself, I would like to learn of people doing related
work so please feel free to contact me if you have any recommendations.

Please reply to me off-list at kerim at oxus.net

 Cheers,

Kerim


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*P. Kerim Friedman 傅可恩 <http://kerim.oxus.net/>*
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Associate Professor
Department of Indigenous Cultures
College of Indigenous Studies
National DongHwa University, TAIWAN
副教授國立東華大學民族文化學系