[Linganth] Call for Abstracts for FEL – The Music of Endangered Languages – October 7-10, 2015

[Nicholas Ostler]

FELNOLA - FEL XIX - Call for Abstracts

Theme – The Music of Endangered Languages
Venue – New Orleans
Dates – October 7-10, 2015

The theme this year will be to consider the role of music and songs in
the revitalization and preservation of endangered languages. As
always, FEL invites abstract of papers concerning any language in the
world, if they address the conference theme. The Conference will be
held in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

There are many ways in which the music culture of endangered language
communities is critical to sustaining and revitalizing language.
Consider the following three categories:
•	Songs are a vehicle for carrying forward the essence of history and
culture. The repetitive, structured, danceable sounds of music are
found in almost every society - along with language. What people
perform or listen to becomes an issue of cultural significance.
•	People use language in music to re-create and celebrate who they
have been and establish what they wish to be.  New words added to an
old song look backward to earlier struggles and makes a statement
about the present and future.
•	Music is one of the ways that communities establish themselves and
try to survive. Endangered peoples and cultures, not necessarily those
in distant forests, are often large minority groups within nations
that can suddenly erupt into civil war or persecution.
•	Speakers of endangered languages can utilize the modern forms of
music and musical instruments to make their language relevant,
compatible to other languages and generate interest in their mother
tongue, both from within the community and from outside.

FELNOLA (FEL XIX) thus calls for abstracts addressing the following,
though not limited to, kinds of discussions in a number of areas
related to the themes of music and endangered languages:

Language preservation and revitalization / increasing Language Awareness:
Where and to what effect are songs and music employed in the
preservation of endangered languages? In what ways does this profit
the communities? How does it assist language revitalization? What are
the benefits and limits in the use of music in sustaining and
revitalizing endangered languages?

Identity and Multicultural Urban Settings:
In what ways can languages and music be studied along the lines of
maintaining cultural identity in a multi-cultural urban setting? How
do cultural heritage and music feature in the linguistic landscape?

Dimensions of Community and Place; Local, Urban and Rural:
How do endangered languages speakers use their music to co-exist in
urban and rural areas? What kind of knowledge is lost with language
shift and how does such loss of such knowledge change communities?
What is gained by maintaining indigenous perspectives on the local
ecology?

Children and Youth / Education and Schools:
Why should the music of endangered language communities be part of
school curriculums? How is music used to advance the revitalization of
endangered languages in school settings? To what kinds of advantages
can indigenous language be employed in school education?

Popular Music - Considerations and Influence:
What is the influence of indigenous music in popular music? How can
that popularity be parlayed into the development and teaching of
indigenous languages and music? What is the role of music in language
awareness? What models of intellectual property rights can best
protect indigenous groups as they develop materials for education and
cultural tourism?

Economic Aspects of the Cultures and Music of languages:
How have local communities supported the music culture of endangered
language groups as part of preserving regional identity?  What kinds
of resources does the music of heritage languages provide for specific
economic activities such as tourism? How can the economic effect of
heritage languages and music be explored for language planning and
policy?

Submission Details

Single page abstracts of up to 500 words should be submitted by
the 3rd of May 2015.

Abstracts received after this deadline will not be accepted.

Abstracts are to be submitted for consideration in English (except by
arrangement with the Chairman).

Once accepted, full papers should be submitted in English (except by
arrangement with the Chairman).

If you are using special (language) fonts in your abstract submission,
please make sure that they are Unicode or encoded in your pdf.

Format of presentation
Presentations will be twenty minutes, with ten minutes for discussion
and questions and answers. Keynote lectures (by invitation only) will
be forty-five minutes each.

In addition to the abstract, on a separate page, please include the
following information:

NAME(S): Names of the author(s)

TITLE: Title of the paper

INSTITUTION: Institutional affiliation, if any

E-MAIL: E-mail address of first author, if any

ADDRESS: Postal address of the first author

TEL: Telephone number of the first author, if any

For submission of abstracts, either of two methods is possible, as below:


1. E-Mail:

The subject line of the e-mail should state:
FEL Abstract: <last name of the first author> : <title of paper>

The email should be sent to the following addresses:
FELNOLA2015 at gmail.com
LintingerBW at aol.com
nicholas at ostler.net


2. Post:

In case you are not able to submit your abstract via e-mail,
please send your abstract and details on paper to
the following address (to arrive by 3rd May, 2015):

FELNOLA Conference Administration

Foundation for Endangered Languages
172 Bailbrook Lane
Bath BA1 7AA
United Kingdom

The name of the first author will be used in all correspondence.
Submitters will be informed about their abstracts by June 1st 2015.
Those whose abstracts are accepted will be required to submit their
full papers for publication in the Proceedings by August 2nd, 2015,
together with their registration fee (to be announced soon).

Important Dates

·       Abstract arrival deadline: May 3rd, 2015.

·       Notification of acceptance of paper: June 1st, 2015.

·       In case of acceptance, the full paper will be due by August 2nd,
2015. It is a condition of speaking at the conference that authors
will submit a hard copy of their paper by this deadline. (Further
details on the format of text will be specified to the authors.)

·       Conference dates: October 7-10, 2015,
of which the last day will feature an excursion of interest
to the conference theme, The Music of Endangered Languages.

Requests for further information about the conference should be
directed to the Conference Chair, Brenda Lintinger,
<FELNOLA2015 at gmail.com>  or the FEL Chair<nicholas at ostler.net>

Periodic updates will be found via the FEL page
http://www.ogmios.org/conferences/

About the FEL XIX Host City of New Orleans

The 2015 FEL Conference will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, an
international port city and gateway to America for many of the world’s
languages since the 18th century. As a colony under French, Spanish
and American flags, Creole society coalesced as Islanders, West
Africans, slaves, free people of color and indentured servants poured
into the city along with a mix of French and Spanish aristocrats,
merchants, farmers, soldiers, freed prisoners and nuns.

>From 1820 to 1870, the Irish and Germans made New Orleans one of the
main immigrant ports in America, second only to New York. New Orleans
also was the first city in America to host a significant settlement of
Italians, Greeks, Croatians and Filipinos. Just before the opening of
the 20th century, thousands of Sicilians came to New Orleans adding to
a collective of disconnected suburbs, many divided by language. Among
the indigenous languages in Louisiana are small groups of Koasati,
Choctaw, Chitimacha, and Tunica who borrowed words from Spanish,
mixing it with the Mobilian Jargon, a trade language of the Central
Gulf Coast.

Immigrants from a wide variety of nations brought along their
traditional music and added them to Louisiana’s rich cultural “gumbo.”
  Jazz emerged from African and African-rooted dancing, singing, and
drumming in New Orleans’ Congo Square. West of New Orleans, across the
Atchafalaya Basin into east Texas, lays the homeland of Cajun music
and zydeco, exuberant dance-music genres of Southwest Louisiana where
some half a million people still speak Cajun and Creole French. Other
sounds include the Isleño ballads known as décimas of St. Bernard
Parish, which are sung in a 17th-century Spanish dialect from the
Canary Islands; Italian music, and its fascinating interaction with
jazz and rhythm & blues; salsa, merengue, and other styles from
Central America and the Caribbean; the music of such Asian nations as
Vietnam and Laos; and many more.

Prof. Judith M. Maxwell of Tulane University adds:
We have both Cajun and speakers of other Louisiana Frenches at Tulane.
We have scholars here who specialize in this area, notably Drs.
Klingler and Dajko.  In addition, there are other Louisiana
communities in as serious a situation as the regionally specific
varieties of French.  Louisiana has several linguistic isolates,
Atakapa, Chitimacha (with an active revitalization project), Natchez
and Tunica (also revitalizing and a host of the conference).  We also
have Koasati and Choctaw, which are Muskogean, Ofo and Biloxi, which
are Souian, and Lipan Apache, who are actively seeking aid in their
revitalization projects.

-- Nicholas Ostler nicholas at ostler.net +44 (0)1225-852865, 
(0)7720-889319 Chairman: Foundation for Endangered Languages www.ogmios.org

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