Political Instability and Language Endangerment

政治不稳定和暴力为语言丧失和社会不稳定创造了环境。建立与语言相关的政治和社会不稳定的交叉原因和后果关系到国家安全。政治不稳定和语言濒危会议的目的是全面了解政治不稳定和暴力如何分裂社区，并削弱他们传承书面和口头语言的能力。这次跨学科会议将汇集来自政治学、语言学和其他领域的专家，对政治和语言濒危的交叉点进行全球和全面的阐述。更广泛的影响包括通过提供网络和共同创作的机会来指导学生，并提供对私营和公共部门工作都非常宝贵的培训，让本科生和研究生参与进来，其中许多人是第一代学生，他们自己也来自代表性不足的群体。由北德克萨斯大学的语言学家和政治科学家组成的跨学科团队领导，政治不稳定和语言濒危会议将整合这两个学科的知识，并为跨学科研究制定新的策略。理解语言濒危原因的主流范式考虑了当地的社会和经济因素。从政治科学的角度考虑暴力、权力和资源在社会和治理机构中的作用，有可能获得更全面的理解。为了激发利用这一新颖的跨学科视角的研究，会议参与者将探讨(1)政府政策、战争和其他形式冲突导致的不稳定如何导致语言濒危；(2)经济上被迫移民导致的不稳定如何导致语言濒危；(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卷将成为从业者，学者，最重要的是，受影响的社区制定语言保护策略的宝贵资源。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.