Workshop and Mini-course on Formal Approaches To Celtic Linguistics; Tucson AZ, March 1-8, 2009

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Modern Celtic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Breton, Cornish) are part of the cultural heritage of more than 20 million Americans. These languages are now rarely spoken, either here in the U.S. or in their home countries. All of these languages are in danger of extinction. When a language is lost, so too is much of the culture. One step towards preserving endangered languages is providing a complete description of their grammars. The Celtic languages have many grammatical properties which make them distinct from other European languages, so the linguistic analysis of these languages can be a challenge to formal theories of grammar which are based on better-studied languages such as French, Spanish and English. Prof. Andrew Carnie, along with three other internationally recognized experts in Celtic linguistics, will be leading a week-long mini course into formal approaches to the description of the sentence structure, sound structure and word structure of these languages. This mini-course will be a starting point for training the next generation of linguists working on Celtic languages. The lectures, seminars and practicum sessions will not only teach students the fundamentals of working on the grammars of these languages, but will teach them about ethics, documentation and preservation of data, as well as providing cultural context to the research. The mini-course will culminate in a workshop bringing together experts who will report on the latest advances in these same areas. The workshop is designed to encourage scholars working on these areas to collaborate, exchange ideas, and inspire young linguists working on these languages.