Vital Voices: Linking Language and Wellbeing at the International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation

“幸福”是一种身体和心灵的状态，包括积极的情绪和情感，生活满意度，成就感和积极的功能，以及没有焦虑等负面情绪。 公共卫生专家，政策制定者和经济学家正在认识到福祉对整个社会以及个人的影响，这要归功于越来越多的跨部门，纵向和实验研究结果，包括疾病控制和预防中心指出的结果。越来越多的研究人员在几个领域已经注意到语言维护和濒危语言社区的福祉之间的正相关性。虽然语言和幸福之间的联系的性质仍然是许多辩论的主题，但考虑到与幸福相关的一系列结果，这种联系的存在并不完全出乎意料。此外，语言是知识体系的编码，因此语言的丧失不仅代表着交际体系的丧失，也代表着传统知识体系的丧失。重要的是，传统知识体系将与福祉有关的文化习俗编码。 了解语言和福祉之间的联系可能会对公共卫生和政策以及其他方面产生影响，但也对语言研究人员产生影响，因为传统知识系统是濒危语言中最受威胁的领域之一。在基本词汇和语言结构之前，植物分类和传统药物等深奥领域的知识就被遗忘了。因此，这些传统知识领域正是语言文献工作者需要优先考虑的领域。 该项目将汇集来自世界各地的领先学者，探索语言与福祉之间的联系，作为2017年语言文献与保护国际会议（ICLDC）的一部分。自2009年成立以来，ICLDC已成为推动濒危语言和其他语言的文献、维护和振兴的旗舰场所。 参与者包括来自语言学、人类学、生物学和其他学科的本科生、研究生和教师。 ICLDC还包括了大量来自历史上在科学领域代表性不足的群体的公民科学家，如美洲原住民，阿拉斯加原住民，夏威夷原住民和其他太平洋岛民，为扩大语言科学的参与提供了机会，这是本次会议更广泛的影响之一。 ICLDC为高度多样化的受众提供了非正式科学教育和培训的机会，其中包括尖端语言文献的新方法和最佳实践，并跨越传统学科界限。 此外，这次会议是传播语言文献和保护及相关学科研究成果的最重要场所之一。

"Wellbeing" is a state of the body and mind that encompasses the presence of positive moods and emotions, life satisfaction, fulfillment and positive functioning, and the absence of negative emotions like anxiety. Public health experts, policymakers and economists are coming to recognize the implications of wellbeing for society as a whole, as well as individuals, thanks to a growing set of results from cross-sectional, longitudinal and experimental studies, including those noted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Increasingly, researchers in several fields have noted a positive correlation between language maintenance and wellbeing in endangered language communities. While the nature of the connection between language and wellbeing remains the subject of much debate, the existence of a connection is not entirely unexpected, given the range of outcomes associated with wellbeing. In addition, languages encode knowledge systems, so language loss represents not only the loss of a communicative system, but also the loss of traditional knowledge systems. Importantly, traditional knowledge systems encode cultural practices related to well-being. Understanding the connections between language and wellbeing will potentially have implications for public health and policy and beyond, but also for language researchers, since traditional knowledge systems are among the most threatened domains of endangered language. Knowledge of esoteric domains such botanical classification and traditional medicines is forgotten well before basic vocabulary and language structure. Hence, these areas of traditional knowledge are precisely the areas which need to be prioritized by language documenters. This project will bring together leading scholars from across the world to explore connections between language and wellbeing as part of the 2017 International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC). Since its inception in 2009, ICLDC has become the flagship venue driving scholarship in the documentation, maintenance and revitalization of endangered and other languages. Participants include undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty from linguistics, anthropology, biology and other academic disciplines. ICLDC has also included a large number of citizen scientists from historically underrepresented groups in the sciences, such as Native Americans, Native Alaskans, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, offering opportunities for broadening participation in the language sciences as one of the broader impacts of this conference. ICLDC offers its highly diverse audience opportunities for informal science education and training that includes new methodologies and best practices in cutting edge language documentation and that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries. In addition, this conference serves as one of the foremost venues for the dissemination of research findings in language documentation and conservation and related disciplines.