17.1661, Confs: Historical Ling/Leipzig, Germany

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-1661. Thu Jun 01 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.1661, Confs: Historical Ling/Leipzig, Germany

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1)
Date: 30-May-2006
From: Alena Witzlack-Makarevich < witzlack at eva.mpg.de >
Subject: Historical Linguistics and Hunter-Gatherer Populations 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2006 14:28:55
From: Alena Witzlack-Makarevich < witzlack at eva.mpg.de >
Subject: Historical Linguistics and Hunter-Gatherer Populations 
 



Historical Linguistics and Hunter-Gatherer Populations 
Short Title: HGW2006 

Date: 10-Aug-2006 - 12-Aug-2006 
Location: Leipzig, Germany 
Contact: Claudia Schmidt 
Contact Email: HGW2006 at eva.mpg.de 
Meeting URL: http://lingweb.eva.mpg.de/HunterGathererWorkshop2006 

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics 

Meeting Description: 

Topics to be discussed:
- Are there special social practices of hunter-gatherers which are relevant for historical linguistics?
- What are the patterns of language contact among hunter-gatherer populations and how do these influence language change in them?
- What is the typological profile of areas which predominantly consist of different hunter-gatherer language families?
- Can linguistic elements (e.g., vocabulary) be linked with archaeological signatures? 
- What are the patterns of language contact of hunter-gatherers with food producing colonizers?
- What are the circumstances of language shift of hunter-gatherers towards languages of their food-producing neighbors?
- Can hunter-gatherer substrates be identified in other linguistic populations who have incorporated hunter-gatherers?
- Are there cases where a formerly food-producing population seems to have acquired a hunter-gatherer subsistence secondarily and what can we learn from them?
- What is the world-wide distribution of language families whose populations are predominantly/ exclusively hunter-gatherers? 

Topics

 1. Internal historical aspects

    - What is the demographic range of hunter-gatherer speech communities?
    - Are there special social practices of hunter-gatherers which are relevant for historical linguistics, e.g., linguistic avoidance, social networks transcending language groups, linguistic exogamy, lack of reference varieties and/or reinforcement of linguistic norms?
    - What are the patterns of language contact among hunter-gatherer populations and how do these influence language change in them?
    - What can be discerned from attested language spreads of hunter- gatherer populations in terms of their historical triggers, underlying social processes, speed, geographical patterns (e.g., correlating with ecological zones), degree of language replacement, etc.?
    - What is the range of genealogical diversification in hunter- gatherer language families?
    - What are the different patterns of language densities and by what are they determined (e.g., ecological factors etc.)?
    - What is the typological profile of areas which predominantly consist of different hunter-gatherer language families (e.g., southern Africa, Australia, Bering Strait, Gran Chaco)?
    - What are the differences between non-sedentary~low density and sedentary~high density hunter-gatherer groups?
    - Can linguistic elements (e.g., vocabulary) be linked with archaeological signatures? 

2. External historical aspects

    - What are the patterns of language contact of hunter-gatherers with food producing colonizers (e.g., kind and stability of clientship, etc.)?
    - What is the time depth of the earliest contact with food producing colonizers in a certain area?
    - Are there differences in contact patterns of hunter-gatherers with agriculturalists vs. pastoralists?
    - What are the circumstances of language shift of hunter-gatherers towards languages of their food-producing neighbors (e.g., Okiek, Pygmy, San, Dama, Negrito, Vedda) and do these target languages still betray linguistic traces of their substratum?
    - Can hunter-gatherer substrates be identified in other linguistic populations who have incorporated hunter-gatherers?
    - Are there cases where a formerly food-producing population (speaking a language of such a group) seems to have acquired a hunter-gatherer subsistence secondarily (e.g., Mlabri) and what can we learn from them? 

3. Global geographical patterns

    - What is the world-wide distribution of language families whose populations are predominantly/ exclusively hunter-gatherers?
    - Are there cases of hunter-gatherer populations with a coastal/seafaring rather than a terrestrial orientation?
    - In the case that hunter-gatherers had a profound substrate influence on the first food-producing colonizers on a wider scale, is there any chance to correlate modern areal patterns with the global typological profile before the spread of food production?





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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-1661