Purity in Minoritised Languages

A key issue in the study of language policy and planning is to describe – theoretically and practically – the language to be promoted or protected. This often presupposes an essentialist perspective of language: languages are seen to exist as uniform or mono-dimensional entities.  It is considered possible to determine what counts and does not count as part of a particular language, with sociolinguistic variation considered to be disturbing and language contact seen as potentially damaging. Notions of purity are invoked implicitly or explicitly to distinguish between what is core to a language and what is peripheral. What appears uncontroversial in everyday life is highly problematic in the systemic and social study of linguistics. This conference seeks to delve deeper into the fundamental nature of this problem by focusing on minoritized and minority languages.

The overarching aim of this conference is to explore dynamics of norm-setting and norm-transmission as means to change the status and use of linguistic features. To allow for good comparison between case studies, contribution should focus on minoritized varieties and languages and make refers to the applicability – or non-applicability – of the notion of purity.

Plenary Speakers

• Prof. Aneta Pavlenko (York):
  Language, purity and war: History-in-the-making
• Dr James Hawkey (Bristol):
  Never to be touched, never to be changed”: Purism, variation and stancetaking among speakers of Esperanto.
• Prof. Julia Sallabank (SOAS London):
  ‘What are we saving?’ Experiences from Guernsey and Cornwall

Organisation

Organised by the Institute for Frisian Studies and Minority Research, with the generous support of the Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, Bonn), the Centre for Smaller and Regional Languages (KURS, EUF) and the Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies (ICES, EUF) at the University of Flensburg, as well as the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI, Flensburg).

Organising Committee:

• Nils Langer (Flensburg, Germany)
• Silvia dal Negro (Bolzano/Bozen, Italy)
• Henrik Rosenkvist (Göteborg, Sweden)
• Jeff Williams (Texas Tech, USA)

Mear ynformaasje

Mear ynformaasje is hjir te finen.