Cornell Conference on Language and Poverty

经济资源的获取会影响人们使用的语言，反之亦然。当人们放弃一种少数民族语言而选择一种主流语言时，通常是因为他们认为经济优势，或者因为经济变化导致使用少数民族语言的社区不稳定。语言维护工作也依赖于诸如教师培训和就业、材料开发和技术支持等方面的财政资源。另一方面，人们所说的语言和方言有助于决定他们获得工作和教育的机会，以及他们充分参与社会的能力。康奈尔语言与贫困会议将汇集代表广泛学科观点和语言领域多样性的专家，为期两天，探讨语言、说话者和社会在其经济背景下的复杂相互作用，以及这些相互作用对个人和社会机构的影响，这些影响必须考虑到它们。第一天将为普通观众强调语言和贫困之间复杂的相互联系。第二天将促进语言学家和社区语言项目活跃人士之间的理论和实践交流。国家科学基金会的支持包括为20名学生和其他面临语言濒危问题的社区的人提供旅行津贴。更好地理解语言与贫困之间的相互作用对更大的社会以及与少数民族和濒危语言直接相关的社会都很重要。政府和其他资助机构，即使对濒危语言有好感，也经常面临优先考虑的难题。相对于其他社会需求，如何评价维护土著语言的努力？通过将资源导向其他经济需求来促进少数民族语言的发展是否可行？在语言似乎不可能存活的地方，能否调动资源进行文献记录？对于一种语言消亡所导致的文化贫乏，我们应该给予怎样的关注？各国政府、法律和教育制度还必须应付下列困难问题：在教育、公共服务（例如执照考试）、传播信息、官方语言和资助少数民族语言使用者学习主要语言的努力。语言和贫困问题并不局限于发展中国家，而是美国公民和政策制定者每天都会遇到的问题。

Access to economic resources affects the languages people speak and vice versa. When people abandon a minority language in favor of a dominant language, it is usually because they perceive economic advantages or because economic changes lead to destabilization of the communities in which the minority language is spoken. Language maintenance efforts, too, depend on financial resources for such things as teacher training and employment, materials development, and technological support. On the other hand, the languages and dialects people speak help determine their access to jobs and education, as well as their ability to participate fully in society. The Cornell Conference on Language and Poverty will bring together specialists representing a wide range of disciplinary perspectives and a diversity of language areas for two days exploring the complex interactions of languages, speakers and societies in their economic context, and the implications of these interactions for the individuals and societal institutions which must take them into account. Day one will highlight the complex interconnections of language and poverty for a general audience. Day two will promote theoretical and practical exchange among linguists and people active in community-based language programs. NSF support includes travel award stipends for 20 students and other people from communities facing language-endangerment issues. A better understanding of the interactions between language and poverty is important to the larger society as well as those directly connected to minority and endangered languages. Government and other funding agencies, even when favorably disposed toward endangered languages, often face difficult questions of priority. How are efforts to maintain indigenous languages to be valued relative to other societal needs? Is it feasible to promote minority languages by directing resources toward other economic needs? Where language survival seems unlikely, can resources be mobilized for documentation? What attention should be paid to the cultural impoverishment that results when a language dies? Governments, legal and educational systems must also contend with difficult questions having to do with accomodation of minority languages in education, public services (e.g.,licensing examinations), dissemination of information, official languages, and subsidizing efforts by minority language speakers to acquire the dominant language. Issues of language and poverty are not confined to the developing world but are encountered daily by US citizens and policy-makers.