Language Contact and Change: Multiple and Bimodal Bilingual Minorities

Date: May 28, 2009
Location: Tartu, Estonia
Workshop at the International Conference on Minority Languages XII (ICML 2009)
Website: http://www.dipfilmod-suf.unifi.it/CMpro-v-p-236.html
Contact: tartulcc at gmail.com

The workshop aims at exploring the language contact and language change
phenomena that characterize multiple linguistic minorities. It focuses
on but is not confined to signed, Uralic and Caucasian languages.

On the one hand, we intend to explore the situation of bimodal
bilingualism. Data from changes in multi-modal bilingual contexts can
lead to new insights into bilingualism, the typology and structure of
languages, and language change and contact in general. Research into
bimodal bilingualism can draw upon several methods and approaches
developed for studying the bilingualism of other minority languages, and
vice versa.

On the other hand, we know that it is difficult to reach the bilingual
individuals and communities that are deaf and belong to several
linguistic minorities. Therefore, we approach the bimodal target via
individual studies on minority languages. More specifically, we
concentrate on the issue of language change in contact in the context of
a typologically wide range of minority languages. We are looking for
answers to questions such as the following:

- How do deaf children of (hearing) parents belonging to linguistic
minorities (e.g., Nganasan) communicate with the Deaf communities in
their country and with their own parents?
- How does their language change?
- How can we test the change in the structure of the languages in
contact in a uniform way?
- What are the factors that influence the developments?
- Can we work towards a typology?

Invited keynote speakers:

Csilla Bartha (hearing) (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest): The
situation of the Deaf and national minorities in Hungary;
Östen Dahl (hearing) (Stockholm University): Contact induced changes in
tense and aspect systems;
Tatiana Davidenko (Deaf) (Moscow Centre for Deaf Studies and Bilingual
Education): Sign Language Diversity in Post-Soviet Countries;
Anna Komarova (hearing) (Moscow Centre for Deaf Studies and Bilingual
Education): Development of Bilingual Education of the Deaf in
Post-Soviet Countries;
Gaurav Mathur (Deaf) (Gallaudet University): The relationship between
agreement and finiteness in sign languages;
Johanna Mesch (Deaf) (Stockholm University): Variations in tactile
signing - the case of one-handed conversation;
Helle Metslang (hearing) (University of Tartu): Changes in Finnish and
Estonian tense and aspect;
Christian Rathmann (Deaf) (Hamburg University): Minority Communities
within German Deaf Community;
Don Stilo (hearing) (Max Planck Institute, Leipzig): Introduction to an
Atlas of the Araxes-Iran Linguistic Area.

Check for updates, our interdisciplinary areas, and more research
questions at
http://www.dipfilmod-suf.unifi.it/CMpro-v-p-236.html

Submission (deadline January 15, 2009, notification January 31, 2009).

Abstracts (in English, maximum 2 pages, including data and references)
have to be submitted electronically as portable document format (.pdf)
or Microsoft Word (.doc) files via the EasyChair conference management
system (https://www.easychair.org/login.cgi?conf=lcc09).

If you do not have an EasyChair account, click on the button "I have no
EasyChair Account" on that page and follow the instructions. When you
receive a password, you can enter the site and upload your abstract.

Organizers:

Nino Amiridze, Utrecht University (The Netherlands)
Östen Dahl, University of Stockholm (Sweden)
Anne Tamm, University of Florence (Italy) and Institute for the
Estonian Language (Estonia)
Manana Topadze, University of Pavia (Italy)
Inge Zwitserlood, Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands)