Languages of Europe: Typology, History and Sociolinguistics
The Center for Postgraduate Education and Research on “Languages of Europe: Typology, History and Sociolinguistics” (LETiSS) is the first center in Italy (and in Europe) specifically dedicated to the linguistic situation of Europe, approached from a variety of perspectives.
Three thousand years of uninterrupted linguistic and historical documentation make Europe a particularly favourable observatory on language change and language contact phenomena. The considerable amount of economic and cultural exchanges that characterized the history of the European society has determined patterns of linguistic convergence, which in turn have led to the formation of the so-called Standard Average European, defined as a bundle of typically “European” linguistic features, which characterize European languages in opposition to languages spoken outside Europe.
Convergence, however, should not conceal the great typological variation that characterizes the languages of Europe, nor the existence of mechanisms of preservation of language-specific idiosyncratic features. The co-existence of a significant typological diversity and language contact phenomena attested through centuries allows for both synchronic and diachronic comparative analyses, which may hardly be possible in other linguistic areas. Furthermore, the massive immigration wave of the last fifty years has deeply changed the linguistic constellation of Europe, leading to the formation of alloglot communities more or less integrated in the local social (and sociolinguistic) fabric.
The LETiSS center aims to become partner of other centers of excellence in and outside Europe, as well as a reference point for international discussions concerning the languages of Europe.
Why a center specialized on the linguistic situation of Europe?
In the last years, International institutions such as the European Union and the UNESCO are paying increasing attention to the linguistic situation of Europe (e.g. see the program Languages and Multilingualism promoted by UNESCO and the European Commission’s Action Plan for Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity ). In January 2007, the European Commission nominated the Rumanian Leonard Orban as the first Commissioner for Multilingualism. The United Nations declared 2008 the International Year of Languages with the slogan Languages matter!.
The problems and the opportunities that linguistic integration posits to Europe constitute the starting point for a deeper understanding of linguistic diversity and language itself. This specialized observatory on the languages of Europe, on their history and on their destiny, is bound to become a place of discussion, education and research on the dynamics of convergence (and divergence), integration (and isolation), change (and death) of languages.
Research areas
The research areas of the Center include the following topics:
- Linguistic typology: the nature and complexity of cross-linguistic variation in Europe; Europe as a linguistic area; “exoticity” of European languages in a world-wide perspective; under-described languages and the preservation of cultural heritage.
- Historical linguistics: 3000 years of uninterrupted linguistic documentation and their importance in the understanding of language change; long-lasting contacts among languages and cultures in Europe and their impact on the linguistic profile of today’s Europe.
- Sociolinguistics: linguistic consequences of immigration phenomena; preservation of dialects and non-standard varieties; problems of obsolescence and language death; the emergence of new urban varieties.
Aims of the Center
The Center’s mission includes the following goals:
- creating a reference point for research on the linguistic dynamics of Europe (in the present and in the past);
- favoring international cooperation on language change and linguistic integration phenomena in Europe;
- making European citizens aware of the linguistic diversity that characterizes Europe, through the interaction with local and national institutions (schools, local organizations, foundations, etc.).
Activities of the Center
The activities of the Center will include:
➢ Spring/Summer Schools (see below Appendix 1).
➢ Seminars, conferences, and workshops on various topics:
o The destiny of European languages: diversity and globalization
o Field work methods and documentation
o European languages and the languages of the world (typology of European languages; linguistic areas in Europe; the Standard Average European)
o Linguistic history of Europe (contacts among peoples and languages; language change and evolution)
o The European linguistic heritage
o Standard and non-standard languages (e.g. vitality of dialects in Europe)
o New (socio-)linguistic scenarios in today’s Europe: immigration and integration
Workshops will be conceived of as exploratory workshops, with a view to gathering together researchers from all over the world and maximizing interaction among them. Ideally, workshops should lead to the establishing of new research networks as an outcome of these fruitful interactions between European and non-European researchers.
➢ Participation in national and international research programs.
Admissions
LETiSS announces the Workshop on:
LANGUAGE CONTACT AND LANGUAGE DECAY: SOCIO-POLITICAL AND LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVES
8-9 April 2010
Aula Magna – IUSS
Contact and information: letiss@iusspavia.it or caterina.mauri@unipv.it or andrea.sanso@uninsubria.it
Introduction
The workshop will be organized in two thematic sessions, each concerned with a particular thematic area.
The first thematic session will be dedicated to the social/cultural/political conditions of endangered languages, with contributions dealing with topics such as the following
- language policies,
- analyses of bilingual contexts in which a language gets endangered (general models and case studies),
- the correlation between language decay and social/cultural environment
- proposals on how to promote the use of endangered languages,
- etc.
The second thematic session will be devoted to the description and analysis of those phenomena that typically characterize the decay of a language. Contributions to the second session will thus deal with topics such as the following:
- what happens in specific areas (morphology, syntax, phonetical and lexical interference, etc.) when a language gets endangered
- borrowing phenomena
- first signals of endangered condition
- case studies of particular functional domains whose coding undergoes significant changes in a situation of asymmetric bilingualism
- etc.
Programme
8th of April 2010 – 1st Day
09.00 – 09.30 : Opening
1st session - External (socio-political) linguistic issues
09.30 – 10.15 : Teresa Condeço (Administrator at the DG for Education and Culture at the European Commission): Issues on EU policy on multilingualism
10.15 – 11.00 : Jeroen Darquennes (University of Namur, Belgium): Language revitalization along the Germanic-Romance language border: theoretical, methodological and practical challenges
11.00 – 11.30 : Coffee Break
11.30 – 12.15 : Gabriele Iannàccaro (University of Milano Bicocca): Patterns of language maintenance: a quantitative approach
12.15 – 13.00 : Suzanne Romaine (University of Oxford): Language ecology and language death
13.00 – 15.00 : Lunch
2nd session - Internal (contact/decay) linguistic issues
15.00 – 15.45 : Wolfgang Dressler (University of Vienna): Early linguistic indicators of language decay
15.45 – 16.30 : Silvia Dal Negro (Free University of Bozen): The definition of semi-speakers on the basis of linguistic features
16.30 – 17.00 : Coffee Break
17.00 – 17.45 : Mauro Tosco (University of Turin) : Issues in the Ausbauization of minority endangered languages
17.45 – 18.30 : Peter Bakker (University of Amsterdam): A presentation/discussion of some Michif phonomorphosyntactic data
18.30 – 19.15: Yaron Matras (University of Manchester): The afterlife of a language: the case of Anglo-Romani
20.30 : Social Dinner
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9th April 2010 - 2nd day
1st session - External (socio-political) linguistic issues
09.30 – 10.15 : Tomasz Wicherkiewicz (University of Poznań/Poland): Endangered diaspora languages in Central & Eastern Europe
10.15 –11.00 : Sandro Caruana (University of Malta): Bilingualism and language policy in Malta
11.00 – 11.30 : Coffee Break
11.30 – 12.15 : Rik Vosters (University of Brussels) : Dutch in Flanders - an endangered language? Historical-sociolinguistic perspectives on the language situation in Flanders during the late 18th and early 19th century
12.15 – 13.00 : Bruno Moretti (University of Bern), Elena Maria Pandolfi (Swiss Italian linguistic Observatory) : Outlining a Vitality Index of Italian Language in Switzerland
13.00 – 15.00 : Lunch
2nd session - Internal (contact/decay) linguistic issues
15.00 – 15.45 : Thomas Stolz (University of Bremen): Loss vd. Growth of irregularity in morphology
15.45 – 16.30 : Dimitra Melissaropoulou (University of Patras): Loan verb borrowing and adaptation mechanisms:Evidence from Greek Dialectal Variation
16.30 – 17.00 : Coffee Break
17.00 – 17.45 : Walter Breu (University of Konstanz): Contact-induced change in the grammar of Slavic microlanguages
17.45 – 18.30 : Rita Franceschini (Free University of Bozen) : Relative openness of subsystems in a contact situation with unfocussed language acquisition
Organizing committee:
Paolo Ramat, Anna Giacalone, Gabriele Iannaccaro, Andrea Sansò, Emanuele Miola, Caterina Mauri.
Contact: letiss@iusspavia.it or caterina.mauri@unipv.it or andrea.sanso@uninsubria.it
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LETiSS announces the International Spring School 2009 on
Standard and non-standard languages in Europe: future and vitality of dialects, language contacts and new linguistic scenarios in today's Europe
(Pavia, 6-10 April 2009)
The aim of the school is to enhance dialogue among young linguists interested in the topics announced in the title, under the guide of leading specialists. This is why the number of participants has been limited (see below), in order to facilitate interactions among them.
When and where?
The Spring School will last one week, from Monday the 6th until Friday the 10th April 2009, at the IUSS (Institute for Advanced Study) in Pavia (viale Lungo Ticino Sforza 56, 27100 Pavia, Italy – www.iusspavia.it).
Timetable
The school will offer four courses that will last five days, according to the (provisional) timetable provided below. The courses will be taught by four scientists who have specific expertise in the topics of the school.
Friday evening there will be a farewell dinner at 20.00
Who and what? The teachers and the topics of the courses
1st course – Bernd Kortmann (Universität Freiburg i.Br.)
topic: Dialectology and Typology. Outline of the course
2nd course – Thomas Stolz (Universität Bremen)
topic: Standard Average European. Outline of the course
3rd course – Davide Ricca (Università di Torino)
topic: Dialects as Endangered languages. Outline of the course
4th course – Suzanne Romaine (University of Oxford)
topic: Endangered languages and varieties in Europe. Outline of the course
The students
20 advanced students in linguistics and related fields will be selected by the Scientific Committee of the School. The main criterion will be the degree of relatedness/pertinence of their research interests with the topics of the School.
In particular:
- applicants must have achieved at least the B.A. + M.A. level (= a five years cycle); therefore the students may be Ph.D. students, Post-docs, and young researchers;
- in the CV applicants should indicate any research activity and publication that may be relevant for the admission;
- applicants should also attach a short description (one/two pages) of their past and ongoing research projects.
List of participants: pdf
Application guidelines
Please send an e-mail to letiss (at) iusspavia.it with the following information:
- Name
- Contact info
- Position and affiliation
- Motivation for application (max 500 words)
- CV (as a separate attachment)
- Brief description of past and ongoing research projects (as a separate attachment).
NO TUITION FEE IS REQUIRED!!
Each participant will receive 250 Euros as partial refund for his/her travel and accommodation expenses, and a certificate of attendance will be issued at the end of the school.
Important dates
30th September: deadline for manifestation of interest (please write an e-mail to letiss@iusspavia.it).
31st October: deadline for applications.
30th November: notification of acceptance. The applicants who have been accepted will receive a communication with all the relevant informations.
15th December: the list of the accepted participants will be online.
Contacts:
Organizers:
Caterina Mauri
Andrea Sansò
Paolo Ramat
Please send your application and any questions to:
letiss@iusspavia.it
Calendar
8-9 Apri 2010
Workshop on:
LANGUAGE CONTACT AND LANGUAGE DECAY: SOCIO-POLITICAL AND LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVES
Aula Magna - IUSS
Website
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6- 10 April 2009
International Spring School on Standard and non-standard languages in Europe: future and vitality of dialects, language contacts and new linguistic scenarios in today's Europe
Instruments
Workshop on:
LANGUAGE CONTACT AND LANGUAGE DECAY: SOCIO-POLITICAL AND LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVES
(8-9 April 2010)
If you are interested in participating to the workshop, please write an email to letiss@iusspavia.it or to caterina.mauri@unipv.it or andrea.sanso@uninsubria.it
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Application guidelines - International Spring School 2009
Please send an e-mail to letiss (at) iusspavia.it with the following information:
- Name
- Contact info
- Position and affiliation
- Motivation for application (max 500 words)
- CV (as a separate attachment)
- Brief description of past and ongoing research projects (as a separate attachment).
20 advanced students in linguistics and related fields will be selected by the Scientific Committee of the School. The main criterion will be the degree of relatedness/pertinence of their research interests with the topics of the School.
Deadline for applications: 31th October 2008
Notification of acceptance: 30th November 2008
People
Scientific Committee of the Center:
Salvatore Veca (IUSS, Pavia)
Paolo Ramat (IUSS, Pavia)
Pier Marco Bertinetto (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)
Bernard Comrie (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig)
Anna Giacalone (Università di Pavia)
Maurizio Gnerre (Università ‘L’Orientale’, Napoli)
Wolfgang Klein (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen)
Ekkehard König (Freie Universität – Berlin)
Christian Lehmann (Universität Erfurt)
Alain Peyraube (CNRS/EHESS)
Vito Pirrelli (Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale – CNR, Pisa)
Thomas Stolz (Universität Bremen)
Johan van der Auwera (Centre for Grammar, Cognition, and Typology, University of Antwerp)
Director of the Center:
Paolo Ramat (IUSS, Pavia)
Scientific Managers:
Caterina Mauri (University of Pavia)
Andrea Sansò (Insubria University - Como)
Partners
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Linguistics, Leipzig
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
- Centre for Grammar, Cognition, and Typology, University of Antwerp
- Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale del CNR, Pisa
- Fédération de Recherche Typologie et Universaux Linguistiques, CNRS, Francia
- UNESCO Endangered Languages Programme: http://portal.unesco.org/culture
- Dipartimento di Linguistica Teorica e Applicata e Dottorato di Ricerca Internazionale in Linguistica, Università di Pavia
- Department of Linguistics, University of Erfurt
- Institut für Englische Philologie, Free University of Berlin
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LETiSS announces the Workshop on:
LANGUAGE CONTACT AND LANGUAGE DECAY: SOCIO-POLITICAL AND LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVES
8-9 April 2010
Aula Magna – IUSS
Link to programme: scarica
LETiSS announces the International Spring School 2009 on
Standard and non-standard languages in Europe: future and vitality of dialects, language contacts and new linguistic scenarios in today's Europe
(Pavia, 6-10 April 2009)
Link to the Announcement and Application Guidelines
Download the flyer
NEWS!!
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