CALL: Variation and Change in Endangered Languages

[Vlada Baranova]

Дорогие коллеги,

в университете Гамбурга 1-2 октября 2026 планируется конференция, посвященная вариативности и структурным изменениям в ситуации языкового сдвига и ревитализации. Возможно участие онлайн. См. объявление ниже или по ссылке https://www.slm.uni-hamburg.de/ifuu/forschung/tagungen/variation-and-change.html

Влада (от лица оргкомитета)

Workshop: Variation and Change in Endangered Languages

Date: 01-Oct-2026 - 02-Oct-2026
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Contact Email: vace...@uni-hamburg.de
Meeting URL:
https://www.slm.uni-hamburg.de/ifuu/forschung/tagungen/variation-and-change.html

Linguistic Field(s): Language Documentation; Morphology; Phonology;
Sociolinguistics; Syntax

Submission Deadline: 28-Feb-2026

Workshop Description:
Many indigenous languages currently face endangerment. Language shift
involves not only social practices of bi/multilingualism with a
dominant language(s), but also impacts on the structure of an
endangered language itself. Specifically, it can lead to great
variation and significant changes in its phonetics and morphosyntax
(cf. Dorian 1981; 1989; 2010; Schmidt 1985; Grinevald & Bert 2011;
Stanford & Preston 2009; Hildebrandt et al. 2017).
The workshop aims to consider structural variation and change in
endangered languages depending on various linguistic and
extralinguistic factors, such as:
 - Structural features of an endangered language (see, e.g., Gruzdeva
& Vakhtin 2017 on language shift effects in polysynthetic languages)
 - Intensity of contact and duration of language shift (see, e.g.,
Khanina 2021 for an explanation of the surprisingly few structural
changes in the moribund Enets language, which is due to an abrupt
break in language transmission)
 - Factors associated with language policies and language attitudes,
including language oppression, educational policy and revitalization
(see on structural peculiarities in new speakers, e.g., in
Rodríguez-Ordoñez 2021; Nance & Moran 2022; Gondra et al. 2024)
 - Factors related to a speech community, such as its size (cf., e.g.,
Evans 2001 on individual features of a speaker as a relevant factor),
dialectal diversity, geographical dispersity, mobility, accessibility
of communication between community members (cf., e.g., Partanen &
Saarikivi 2016 on a growing variation in language shift, induced by a
fragmentation of a speech community)
Other relevant questions are:
- Simplification vs. complexification of language structure in
language shift. A widespread assumption on shift-induced phenomena is
that a language system undergoes simplification; however, recent
studies show that the picture is much more complicated (see, e.g.,
Kantarovich, Grenoble, et al. 2021).
- Structural change or individual variation. Variation at all language
levels can occur both within individuals and between individuals,
potentially leading to language change over time (Eckert 2018). Under
what circumstances does linguistic variation become recognized as
language change? The border between variation and change is not always
clear (for example, noun incorporation in Chukchi is far less
productive among attriting and new speakers than among older speakers,
but all groups still share a common system of rules regulating its
variable use, Kantarovich 2022).
- Outcomes of language contact vs. language shift. An endangered
language influenced by a socially dominant one manifests not only
phenomena specific for language shift (“language attrition”), but also
phenomena generally associated with language contact, e.g., pattern
borrowing (Matras & Sakel 2007). The question arises whether there is
a clear borderline between contact-induced and shift-induced phenomena
and if so, which ones are more prevalent in an endangered language.
Within the workshop, we hope to represent linguistic and
sociolinguistic diversity as much as possible. Case-studies in
endangered languages of various areas and families, as well as
comparative studies are welcome.
The topics we are planning to discuss at the workshop include, but are
not limited to the following:
- Phonetic and morphosyntactic variation in endangered languages
- Phonetic and morphosyntactic change in endangered languages
- Structural patterns of code-switching and adaptation of borrowings
specific for endangered languages
Abstract Submission:
Abstracts should be anonymous. They should not exceed one page
(excluding examples, figures, and references).
Abstracts should be submitted to the conference email address
vace...@uni-hamburg.de as PDF files. Please indicate the following
information in the body of your email (your name(s); title of your
paper; your affiliation(s); your email(s); if you need an invitation
(e.g. for a visa).
Online participation and attendance (via Zoom) is possible, although
in-person participation is preferable.
There is no registration fee. If your abstract has been accepted, you
do not need to register in advance.
Invited Speaker:
Dr. Ekaterina Gruzdeva (University of Helsinki)
Important Dates:
- Abstract submission deadline: February 28, 2026
- Notification of acceptance: April 1, 2026
- Conference dates: October 1-2, 2026

Organizers:
Beáta Wagner-Nagy, Vlada Baranova, Natalia Stoynova

References:
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Dialect. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Dorian, N. (ed.). (1989). Investigating obsolescence: studies in
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Dorian, N. (2010). Investigating variation: the effects of social
organization and social setting. Oxford: OUP.
Eckert, P. (2018). Meaning and linguistic variation: The Third Wave in
sociolinguistics. Cambridge: CUP.
Evans, N. (2001). The last speaker is dead – long live the last
speaker! In: Newman P, Ratliff M. (eds.). Linguistic Fieldwork.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 250-281.
Gondra, A., Rodríguez-Ordóñez, I., Franco-Landa, E. (2024). Variation
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