Political Instability and Language Endangerment

政治不稳定和暴力造成了语言丧失和社会不稳定的环境。确定与语言有关的政治和社会不稳定的交叉原因和后果，对国家安全是有利的。政治不稳定和语言危害会议的目的是彻底了解政治不稳定和暴力如何使社区分裂，并削弱他们传递书面和口头语言的能力。这次跨学科会议将汇聚政治学、语言学等领域的专家，对政治和语言濒危的交集进行全球全面的阐述。更广泛的影响包括本科生和研究生的参与，他们中的许多人是第一代人，他们自己来自代表性不足的群体，通过提供网络和共同撰写机会来指导学生，并提供在私营和公共部门工作中将非常宝贵的培训。由来自北德克萨斯大学的语言学家和政治学家组成的跨学科团队领导的政治不稳定和语言濒危会议将整合这两个学科的知识，并将为跨学科研究制定新的战略。理解语言濒危原因的主导范式考虑了当地的社会和经济因素。通过考虑到暴力、权力和资源在社会和治理机构中的作用的政治学观点，有可能进行更全面的了解。为了利用这一新的跨学科视角促进研究，与会者将探讨(1)政府政策、战争和其他形式的冲突如何导致语言濒危；(2)经济强迫移民造成的不稳定如何导致语言濒危；以及(3)语言濒危和国家语言政策导致的政治冲突如何导致政治抗议、动乱和暴力。由此产生的白皮书和编辑后的卷将是从业人员、学者以及最重要的是受影响社区制定语言保护战略的宝贵资源。为史密森学会设想的后续会议将有助于提高公众对这一现象的认识。

Political instability and violence create the environment for language loss and resulting social instability. Establishing the intersecting causes and consequences of political and social instability as tied to language is of interest to national security. The purpose of the Political Instability and Language Endangerment Conference is to develop a thorough understanding of how political instability and violence break apart communities and erode their ability to pass down their written and spoken word. This interdisciplinary conference will bring together experts from political science, linguistics and other fields to develop a global and comprehensive account of the intersection of politics and language endangerment. Broader impacts include the engagement of undergraduate and graduate students, many of whom are first generation and themselves from underrepresented groups, by providing networking and co-authoring opportunities to mentor students and to provide training that will be invaluable in both private and public sector work. Led by an interdisciplinary team of linguists and political scientists from the University of North Texas, the Political Instability and Language Endangerment Conference will integrate knowledge from both disciplines and will produce new strategies for interdisciplinary research. The dominant paradigm for understanding the causes of language endangerment takes into consideration local social and economic factors. The potential for a more comprehensive understanding is possible through the perspective of political science which takes into account the role of violence, power and resources in societies and across institutions of governance. In order to stimulate research utilizing this novel interdisciplinary perspective, conference participants will explore (1) how government policy, instability due to war and other forms of conflict lead to language endangerment; (2) how instability due to economically forced immigration contributes to language endangerment; and (3) how political conflict due to language endangerment and national language policies can lead to political protest, unrest and violence. The resulting white paper and edited volume will be invaluable resources for practitioners, academics, and most importantly, the affected communities to develop strategies for language preservation. A follow-up conference envisioned for the Smithsonian Institution will help raise greater public awareness of this phenomenon.