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

“幸福”是一种身心状态，包括积极情绪和情绪、生活满意度、成就感和积极功能的存在，以及焦虑等负面情绪的缺失。公共卫生专家、政策制定者和经济学家开始认识到福祉对整个社会和个人的影响，这要归功于越来越多的横断面、纵向和实验研究的结果，包括疾病控制与预防中心（Centers for Disease Control and Prevention）指出的结果。越来越多领域的研究人员注意到濒危语言社区的语言维护与福祉之间的正相关关系。虽然语言和幸福感之间联系的本质仍然是很多争论的主题，但考虑到与幸福感相关的一系列结果，这种联系的存在并非完全出乎意料。此外，语言是知识系统的编码，语言的丧失不仅是一种交际系统的丧失，也是传统知识系统的丧失。重要的是，传统知识系统编码了与福祉相关的文化习俗。理解语言和幸福之间的联系可能会对公共卫生和政策等方面产生影响，也会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受威胁最严重的领域之一。深奥领域的知识，如植物分类和传统药物，在基本词汇和语言结构之前就被遗忘了。因此，这些传统知识领域正是语言文档编写者需要优先考虑的领域。该项目将汇集来自世界各地的顶尖学者，探索语言与福祉之间的联系，作为2017年语言文献和保护国际会议（ICLDC）的一部分。自2009年成立以来，国际语言发展中心已成为推动濒危语言和其他语言文献、维护和振兴奖学金的旗舰场所。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，例如美洲原住民、阿拉斯加原住民、夏威夷原住民和其他太平洋岛民，这为扩大对语言科学的参与提供了机会，这是本次会议的更广泛影响之一。ICLDC为其高度多样化的受众提供了非正式科学教育和培训的机会，这些教育和培训包括前沿语言文档中的新方法和最佳实践，并且跨越了传统的学科界限。此外，该会议是传播语言文献和保护及相关学科研究成果的重要场所之一。

"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.