Abstracts

Language Science is one of the biggest sciences of life ever studied systematically giving us results that are verifiable across time and space. The Language Science defines the discipline of Linguistics as an empirical science, to which the disciplines of the social sciences, philosophy, human and evolutionary biology, genetics and genomics, computer science, language technology, and neuroscience are integral and integrated. We shall consider how does language loss affects our relationship with nature and how does environmental change affect the resilience of languages. The lecture exposes the audience how the research on the complexity of language structure has helped us to understand human evolution, its culture, social system, and cognition of the world.

Small and minoritised languages are characterised by pervasive variation. This may be caused by regional differences or geographical distance (especially in remote areas or across borders); or it may be related to differences across generations; or it may be a result of language contact. Often language variation is caused by a mixture of all these and more.

We also have to remember that all languages change over time. We can say that healthy change is an indicator of heathy growth; but it has also been established that languages undergoing shift or endangerment change faster than ones which are not under threat. This can be hard for communities to come to terms with.

All this makes it difficult for a linguist to capture a uniform picture of a particular language. Often all we can hope for is to take a snapshot of a way of speaking (or signing) at a particular point in time and space. I will demonstrate some examples of ways in which linguists around the world have addressed language documentation and description in such circumstances.

Small and minoritised languages are usually not standardised, often have no agreed writing system or orthography, and the majority are not recognised officially. This is often portrayed as a problem and as a deficit, especially when it comes to producing materials for community members. However, I would like to reconsider this as an opportunity to challenge the dominant Western model of what counts as “a language”, to decolonise linguistics, and to recognise the multilingual and multidialectal skills of speakers who negotiate their way round language variation and change on a daily basis.