29 - 30 NOVEMBER 1999
LATROBE UNIVERSITY, BUNDOORA, VIC., AUSTRALIA
Language Endangerment & Language Maintenance
This conference was held within the framework of an international three- year research programme, entitled Language Endangerment & Language Maintenance: an active approach that is funded both by the Australian Research Council and UNESCO. The goal of the programme was to study language endangerment among minority groups in indigenous and migrant settings in order to provide tools to assist in the survival of such languages.
By AONE VAN ENGELENHOVEN
Research by Barry Blake and Maya and David Bradley, all three at LaTrobe University, focused on the indigenous setting and studied Aboriginal languages in Victoria, Australia, and minority languages in Mainland Southeast Asia, respectively. Blake's contribution to the conference discussed the interpretation of older sources in order to meet the need among Aboriginal communities in Victoria to revive the indigenous languages that they had lost. Jane Simpson and others (Sydney University) discussed the role of dictionaries in language maintenance and revival, which was exemplified in Tonya Stebbins' (Melbourne University) report on the Sm'algyax in Canada. Stephen Morey's (Monash University, Melbourne) talk on Tai languages in Assam (India) had clear links to the contribution of the Bradleys on the language policy of the Yi in China. Peter Mÿhlh(breve)susler's (Adelaide University) report on the ecology of the pidgin spoken on Norfolk Island provided a case study from Oceania.The paper by Christina Eira (Melbourne University) on Hmong speakers in Melbourne related to research by Kate Burridge (LaTrobe University), Margaret Florey (University of Newcastle, NSW) and myself. Our research focuses on languages in the migrant setting, respectively German as spoken in Mennonite communities in Pennsylvania, USA, and indigenous languages ('bahasa tanah') among Moluccan migrants in the Netherlands. Burridge's own paper on Pennsylvanian German and Anders Ahlquist's (National University of Ireland, Galway) comparison between Irish and Swedish in Finland elaborated on the language attitudes of minorities. In our paper, Margaret Florey and I elaborated how ethnolinguistic complexity has created four different types of language attitude and usage in the Moluccan community in the Netherlands. John Hajek's (Melbourne University) report on languages in East Timor distressingly exemplified language endangerment in the aftermath of war.
John Bowden (ANU, Canberra) and Alexandra Aikhenvald (LaTrobe University) discussed the impact of language contact on language obsolescence (respectively Malay on Taba in Maluku, Indonesia, and Tucano on Tariana in Amazonia, Brazil).
The conference was a nicely judged blend of description, application, and theory. The plenary session at the beginning of the conference featured talks on theoretical issues of language maintenance (David Bradley), language shift from the perspective of immigrants (Michael Clyne (Monash University) and multilingualism (Alexandra Aikhenvald, Stephen Wurm (ANU). Sometimes a contribution would seem to have been better scheduled in another session, as for example David Nash' (ANU) contribution. His survey of the technical tools for the documentation of languages would have perfectly fitted into the plenary session. Sometimes a contribution discomforted the audience, as in the case John Hajek's paper. All papers were highly appropriate and exemplified phenomena of language endangerment and maintenance in different places.
Besides hearing interesting talks, conferences are excellent opportunities to meet colleagues and discuss each other's research results. This was in full flow during the coffee breaks in between and the dinner meetings after the sessions. During these informal gatherings John Bowden (ANU), Margaret Florey (University of Newcastle), and Aone van Engelenhoven (Leiden University) set up the outlines of an 'East Nusantara Workshop' at which linguists working in East-Indonesia and East Timor can meet. This workshop is planned in July 21-23, 2000, and will be hosted by the Australian National University in Canberra.
All in all, this conference has been very fruitful and provided clues to future research on language endangerment and maintenance. There are plans to publish the conference papers in a special volume. *
Aone van Engelenhoven, Leiden University.
E-mail: engelenhoven@let.leidenuniv.nl