The 8th Colloquium on Problems and Methods of the History of Language will be resumed at the University of Girona, Spain, on June 20th, 21st and 22nd 2011, keeping the aim of stimulating the debate among specialists in theoretical aspects related to the history of languages. On this edition, the reflection will focus on the emergence and death of languages, fundamental processes that have become very topical, in the Catalan context as well as to understand the role of languages in a globalized world.

In these processes two variables take part in a decisive way: the first is the magnitude (the magnitude of the language, the magnitude of each dialect, the magnitude of the groupings of dialects), that makes viable the existence of languages; the second is the distance (the purely linguistic distance between each dialects or between the distance between each the dialect and its language or, rather, the prototype of language), that allows or prevent the “individuation” of a language. We start from the idea that languages, as social constructions, can not be either too large or too small. This approach departs from the prevailing political correctness, because it may collide with certain linguistic rights (those of too small minorities) or with certain “scientifically objective” approaches. However, we suspect that these issues have a much greater importance than the one that the specialists have traditionally granted them, at least apparently. If a language is always an abstraction of a set of "real" lects, which is given the value of "representation" of a linguistic community, it raises the question: are there any minimum requirement, a minimum and maximum magnitude or a minimum and maximum distance so that the necessary abstraction can be produced?

For the development of the 8th Colloquium we propose three topics:

 The concept of language
 The linguistic distance and the magnitude of the languages
 Language and dialects: a process of occultation

The Colloquium foresees some sessions for the presentation of 30 minuts papers on any of the three topics mentioned. Contributors should submit a publishable 150 words abstract by 15th March to the address ilcc@udg.edu Every contributor should send two copies of the abstract, an anonymous one and another one with the following information: title, author’s name, author’s institution or job, country, phone and e-mail. The text of selected papers must be submitted no later than the beginning of the Colloquium. The languages accepted are any Romance language and English. The Organizing Committee will take charge of the expenses on the journey and of the accommodation of the authors of the accepted communications. The resolution of the Scientific Committee will be communicated to interested contributors no later than April 15th.

Contact information:
Olga Fullana
Institut de Llengua i Cultura Catalanes
Facultat de Lletres
University of Girona
Plaça Ferrater Mora, 1
17001-Girona (Spain)
e-mail:olga.fullana@udg.edu

Further information and registration:
http://www.udg.edu/ghl