Nov. 14, 2024 - Nov. 16, 2024
http://www.nordlang24.unifi.it
This conference is the first international conference of its kind aiming to bring together high-level research on multilingualism in the Nordic countries from an interdisciplinary perspective. The three main areas addressed by the conference are: 1) the Nordic countries as multilingual societies; 2) receptive multilingualism; 3) literary multilingualism. While on the one side the Nordic countries have a common history and are considered by sociologists and historians to represent a “cluster”, on the other side they are quite heterogenous from a linguistic point of view. This heterogeneity can be observed in various ways. Multilingualism is thus visible in the Nordic countries on many levels and can be investigated from a wide range of theoretical and methodological perspectives. The conference invites papers on the Nordic countries as a multilingual region in which languages exist side by side, come into contact with and influence each other, are used as identity markers and political instruments, and give rise to multilingual texts.
Themes might include, but are not limited to:
• Receptive multilingualism as a political ideal
• Verbal and non-verbal strategies to communicate across languages
• Code-switching, mutual intelligibility, and language choice
• Factors determining the level of mutual intelligibility in Scandinavia
• Attitudes towards minority languages
• Uses of minority languages at an individual and group level
• Language policies in a transnordic perspective
• Repression and revitalization of indigenous languages
• Language endangerment and language loss
• Bi- and multilingual acquisition
• Bilingualism in individuals and society
• Language maintenance and shift
• Instruction in the other Nordic region languages in primary and secondary schools in the Nordic countries
• The impact of English on the languages of the Nordic countries
• The relationship between the use of various languages and identity
• The role of translation in communicating minority languages and cultures both within and outside the Nordic region
• Different forms of literary multilingualism
• Functions of literary multilingualism
Lectures and round tables will be divided into different sessions that reflect the key issues of the conference. The conference will conclude with a public event on Sami culture.
Submission instructions:
Please submit a one-page abstract (ca. 200 – 300 words) and a short bio-note (50 words) by 15 May. Presentations (in English) will consist of a 20-minute talk followed by 10 minutes for questions and discussion. All abstracts should be submitted to [email protected]
After the conference, participants will be invited to submit an article to a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal LEA (Lingue e Letterature d’Oriente e d’Occidente) published by the University of Florence. LEA is a “class A” journal, the highest ranking that can be accorded to a scientific journal in Italy. The publication will mirror the structure of the conference and thus consist of three main sections (Multilingualism in Society, Receptive Multilingualism, Literary Multilingualism).
Submissions open: April 1, 2024 - May 15, 2024
Abstract review period: May 16, 2024 - June 15, 2024