A comparative study of the impact of displacement on multilingualism and language endangerment

世界各地的社区经常受到自然灾害或政治冲突等事件造成的流离失所的影响，当流离失所者移居的地区与他们来自的地区所使用的语言不同时，他们的语言环境往往发生重大变化。例如，一个说濒危语言的农村社区的成员在自然灾害后搬到城市地区，可能会从一天中遇到的大多数人都说他们的第一语言的环境转变为只有他们的亲密朋友和家人才说的环境。同样，逃离家园的难民可能会发现他们所在的难民营里住着来自许多不同地区的人，这些人至少在最初并没有共同的语言。此外，流离失所可能改变的不仅仅是个人在日常生活中使用的主要语言。在世界许多地方，与小社区有关的语言的使用者是多语种的，并积极使用三种或更多种语言。当他们搬家时，他们可能会学习一种新的语言，但也会停止使用他们所知道的其他语言，包括濒危语言。流离失所对使用多种语言和濒危的影响尚未得到系统的调查，尽管增加这一领域的知识将有助于完善旨在支持维护少数民族语言和改善流离失所者状况的政策。该项目研究了三个具有明显语言多样性的社区，这些社区最近以不同的方式经历了流离失所。一个社区目前因政治冲突而流离失所，另一个社区因几十年前解决的冲突而流离失所。第三个社区是一个难民营，居住着来自语言多样的邻近地区的流离失所者。通过研究这三个社区的语言使用，研究人员能够对多语言环境中流离失所如何影响语言活力进行比较分析。研究人员使用一系列定性和定量的方法来收集数据，包括民族志观察，社会语言学访谈和语言能力评估任务。 还将建立流离失所者使用语言的文件记录。该项目的创新之处在于，它强调理解促进语言活力的社会动态，而不是把重点放在濒危主要是全球趋势的结果。该项目还加强了语言学、政治学和其他研究和平与冲突的学科之间的联系。该项目的成果可以为研究面对逆境的社会复原力提供信息。其结果也有可能为政府制定促进使用少数群体语言的政策提供信息，使决策者更清楚地了解促使发言者继续使用这些语言的因素。 该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Communities all over the world are frequently impacted by displacement due to events such as natural disasters or political conflict, and displaced people often experience significant changes to their linguistic environment when the areas that they move to are dominated by different languages than those spoken in the regions that they come from. For instance, members of a rural community speaking an endangered language who move to an urban area after a natural disaster may shift from an environment where most people they meet during the course of a day speak their first language to one where only their close friends and family members do. Similarly, refugees fleeing their homes may find themselves in camps occupied by people from many different areas who do not, at least initially, share a common language. Moreover, displacement may change more than just the primary language that an individual uses in their day-to-day lives. In many parts of the world, users of languages associated with small communities are multilingual and actively use three or more languages. When they move, they may learn a new language but also stop using other languages that they know, including endangered languages. The impact of displacement on multilingualism and endangerment has yet to be systematically investigated, even though increased knowledge in this domain would help refine policies intended to support minority language maintenance and to improve the conditions of displaced people. This project studies three communities with demonstrated linguistic diversity that have experienced recent displacement in different ways. One community is currently experiencing displacement due to active political conflict, and another experienced displacement due to conflict that was resolved decades ago. The third community is a refugee camp housing displaced individuals from a linguistically diverse neighboring region. By studying language use across these three communities, the investigators are able to conduct a comparative analysis of how displacement impacts language vitality in multilingual contexts. The investigators use a range of qualitative and quantitative methods to collect data, including ethnographic observation, sociolinguistic interviews, and language proficiency assessment tasks. Documentary records of language use among displaced people will also be created. The project is innovative in that it emphasizes understanding the social dynamics that promote language vitality rather than focusing on endangerment primarily as an outcome of global trends. This project also strengthens connections between linguistics, political science, and other disciplines studying peace and conflict. The project's outcomes can inform the study of societal resilience in the face of adversity. Its results also have the potential to inform government policies seeking to promote the use of minority languages by giving policy makers a clearer perspective of the factors that contribute to speakers continuing to use those languages. Results also have the potential to lead to actionable recommendations for organizations that work with displaced people.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.