FW: CfP: Conference in Cambridge - Merchants of Innovation. The languages of traders

[Woolard, Kathryn]

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>Call for papers
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>Merchants of Innovation. The languages of traders
>St John's College, University of Cambridge, 7th-8th April 2014
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>Organisers: Esther-Miriam Wagner (T-S Genizah Research Unit, University of
>Cambridge) and Bettina Beinhoff (Anglia Ruskin University)
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>Traders around the world are known to use particular spoken argots. This
>arises out of a need to develop coded or secret language to disguise the
>specialised knowledge employed in their trade, and also marks them out as
>a
>separate social group. Similarly, the written language used in their
>correspondence differs from that used in official, legal or private
>writing. There appears to be a cross-linguistic tendency that merchant
>writings tend to show more language mixing and code-switching, and they
>also exhibit more dialectal forms than other text types.
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>This interdisciplinary conference will seek to place the languages used by
>traders within a wider sociolinguistic context and examine in depth their
>effect on standard varieties of a large number of different languages.
>Questions to be answered include issues such as: which differences can be
>observed in regard to official scribes registers? As Middle class 'low'
>varieties show language change in the written medium before the language
>changes in the 'higher' varieties, is this an anticipation of forms coming
>from spoken language forms that take longer to infiltrate higher
>registers,
>or are they influencing 'higher' language standards by setting linguistic
>precedents? What sets traders' letters apart from private correspondence?
>The conference will also address bilingualism, for example in the case of
>Jewish Yiddish and Arabic speaking merchants, who chose to write Hebrew.
>Similarly, semi-bilingualism will be discussed, where authors wrote in
>languages they felt most comfortable in the knowledge that the choice of
>language did not matter since different languages would be understood by
>the reader. The reasons for code-switching and for using particular
>languages will be explored. Finally, the writers themselves and their
>social environment will be addressed. Who are the protagonists within the
>traders' caste which set the standards? Which linguistic differences can
>be
>observed in the language used within particularly tight mercantile groups
>and those in a wider business network?
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>Please see the abstract for further information. Could anyone interested
>in
>attending and presenting a paper please send an abstract to Esther-Miriam
>Wagner (emw36 at cam.ac.uk) by 31st July 2013.
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>
>--
>Dr Esther-Miriam Wagner
>Research Associate Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit
>College Research Associate St John's College
>University of Cambridge
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>
>
>-- 
>Dr Esther-Miriam Wagner
>Research Associate Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit
>College Research Associate St John's College
>University of Cambridge
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