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

由于自然灾害或政治冲突等事件，世界各地的社区经常受到流离失所的影响，当流离失所者迁入的地区使用的语言与他们所在地区的语言不同时，他们的语言环境往往会发生重大变化。例如，说濒危语言的农村社区成员在自然灾害后搬到城市地区，可能会从他们一天中遇到的大多数人说第一语言的环境转变为只有他们亲密的朋友和家人说第一语言的环境。同样，逃离家园的难民可能会发现自己被来自许多不同地区的人占据，这些人至少在一开始并不使用共同的语言。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。在世界许多地区，与小社区有关的语言的用户使用多种语言，并积极使用三种或三种以上语言。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知道的其他语言，包括濒危语言。流离失所对多种语言使用和濒危的影响尚未得到系统调查，尽管增加这一领域的知识将有助于完善旨在支持少数群体语言保持和改善流离失所者条件的政策。该项目研究了最近以不同方式流离失所的三个具有明显语言多样性的社区。一个社区目前因活跃的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。第三个社区是难民营，收容来自语言多样化的邻近地区的流离失所者。通过对这三个群体的语言使用情况的研究，研究者能够对多语言环境下置换如何影响语言活力进行对比分析。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水平评估任务。还将创建流离失所者语言使用情况的记录。该项目的创新之处在于，它强调了解促进语言活力的社会动态，而不是主要将濒危问题作为全球趋势的结果。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时的社会韧性提供参考。它的结果也有可能为寻求促进使用少数族裔语言的政府政策提供参考，使政策制定者更清楚地了解导致说话者继续使用这些语言的因素。结果也有可能为从事流离失所者工作的组织带来可行的建议。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.