The International Working Group on Non-Dominant Varieties of Pluricentric Languages (WGNDV) is pleased to announce its 10th conference on Pluricentric Languages and their Non-Dominant Varieties with a special focus on Africa. This conference will be hosted by the University of Leipzig and will be held online from 23 to 24 August 2023.
1. GENERAL OBJECTIVE OF THE CONFERENCE
The main objective of the 10th WGNDV conference is to extend our knowledge on pluricentric languages further. To that end, we particularly welcome scholars from Africa and the rest of the world to provide their insights into the linguistic situation and the specific characteristics of pluricentric languages and their varieties in Africa and beyond.
This international conference builds on the outcome of the previous nine conferences and workshops held in Graz (2011), Salamanca (2012), Guildford (2014), Graz (2015), Mainz (2017), Nitra (2018), Graz (2019), Stockholm (2019), Graz (online 2021) all of which resulted in these published volumes. Our conferences and workshops explore the field, define terminology and concepts associated with the descriptions of pluricentricity, describe the current situation of non-dominant standards as comprehensively as possible and discuss sociological, educational and cultural implications of managing language standard systems.
2. IMPORTANT DATES
| Submission deadline for the abstracts | April 15, 2023 |
| Notification of acceptance after reviewing the abstracts | May 10, 2023 |
| Submission deadline for the recorded presentations | August 10, 2023 |
| Registration deadline | August 10, 2023 |
| Dates of the conference | August 23-24, 2023 |
3. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE CONFERENCE
Session (1): Pluricentric languages, multilingualism and linguistic dehegemonisation in Africa
- This session focuses on pluricentric languages in Africa including, but not limited to Afrikaans, Arabic, Berber/Tamazight, Hausa, Kiswahili/Swahili, Somali, and English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish.
There are a considerable number of native African languages that have not yet been studied with respect to the concept of pluricentricity. Several languages might be pluricentric due to geographical and linguistic circumstances, e.g.: Bambara (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal); Chewa/Nyanja (Malawi, Zimbabwe); Fula/Fulfulde (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauretania, Niger, Senegal); Guinean Portuguese/Português Guineense (Guinea-Bissau); Kabuverdianu (Cape Verde, São Tome & Principe, Guinea-Bissau); Kikongo (Angola, Democratic Republic of Kongo, Gabon); Kiswahili/Swahili (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda), Lingala (Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo); Shangane (South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe); Soninke (Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal); Sotho (Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe); Swazi/Swati (Eswatini, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland); Tuareg (Mali, Niger); Setswana/Tswana (Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe); Tigrinya (Eritrea, Ethiopia); Venda/ Tshivenḓa/Luvenḓa (South Africa, Zimbabwe); Xhosa (South Africa, Zimbabwe) etc. - Apart from these, there will probably be many other African languages that possibly are pluricentric, but have not been researched yet. We would like to welcome scholars working on languages of African origin specifically to check their status as a pluricentric language and present their results at the conference.
Session (2): General session – Pluricentric languages worldwide
- In this general session, we are looking forward to papers about pluricentric languages in the rest of the world.
- Additional subsessions and panel proposals can be included as well.
4. CONFERENCE TOPICS
The conference’s topics include, but are not limited to:
5. CONFERENCE LANGUAGES
- The conference languages will be Arabic, English, French, Hausa, Portuguese and Swahili.
- Additionally, the languages of the sessions relating to specific languages could be used, if there are enough presentations to establish a session in this language.
- However, to facilitate smooth transfer of knowledge all written material (slides, handouts) must be provided in English.
6. SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS
- Length: The abstracts for both individual papers and panels should be 1 to 2 pages (A4), as they are expected to outline the content of the presentation in greater detail. Please make sure to include the conference topic it relates to, your research objectives, methodology and main findings.
- Language: All abstracts must be written in English. Please include the language you prefer to use in your presentation: Arabic, English, French, Hausa, Portuguese, or Swahili.
- Form: Abstracts must be submitted via the dedicated form (docx file) which can be downloaded from our website.
- Abstracts must then be sent as an attachment to the following e-mail address.
- Please write “Abstract 10th International WGNDV Conference” in the subject line.
- Deadline for submitting the abstracts: April 15, 2023.
- All submissions will be peer-reviewed by May 10, 2023.
7. MODE OF PARTICIPATION
- We welcome individual papers of one or more authors, but also panel proposals: The presentation time for individual papers is limited to 15 minutes to make sure there is enough time for discussion and to enable enough participants to present their paper at the conference.
- The oral presentation can be held in Arabic, English, French, Hausa, Portuguese, or Swahili, but all written material (slides, handouts) must be in English.
- In order to avoid delays caused by technical issues with microphones, cameras, internet connections, etc.), we would like all presentations to be recorded beforehand, but they will be streamed in the presence of the presenter. Presentations therefore will not be held live. After streaming the presentations in each session, a general live discussion of all papers will be held in which the authors answer the questions live.
- We ask all presenters to record their presentation, for example via:
- the functionality in PowerPoint see Record a presentation in PowerPoint
- the recording feature in Teams see Record a meeting in Teams
- the recording feature in Zoom see Recording a Zoom Meeting (YouTube tutorial)
- Deadline for submitting the recorded presentation: August 10, 2023.
- Please e-mail your video file to 10wgndv-conf2023@oedeutsch.at, should the file be too large (more than 6 MB) you could for instance use the free file transfer service offered by WeTransfer.
8. REGISTRATION AND FEES
All participants have to register to attend the conference, as only registered participants will be allowed online access. Please fill out the registration form and send it to us. We will confirm your registration as soon as we have received the payment of the registration fee.
| Students studying at higher-education institutions in Africa | no fee |
| Participants affiliated to higher-education institutions in Africa | € 20 |
| Students from other countries | € 25 |
| Non-presenting participants from other countries | € 30 |
| Presenting participants from other countries | € 45 |
9. PUBLICATION OF PAPERS
We are planning to publish a selected number of papers in one or two peer-reviewed open access volume(s) thematically aligned with the themes of the conference at PCL-Press. This will be discussed on the final day of the conference during the closing session.
10. CONFERENCE ORGANISERS AND ORGANISING COMMITTEE
General conference organisers:
Reglindis De Ridder (University of Stockholm, Sweden)
Kelen Ernesta Fonyuy (University of Bamenda, Cameroon)
Sebastian Greußlich (University of Bonn, Germany)
Máté Huber (University of Szeged, Hungary)
Benjamin Meisnitzer (University of Leipzig, Germany)
Organising committee:
Reglindis De Ridder (Stockholm, Sweden)
Sabine Diao-Klaeger (Landau, Germany)
Stefan Dollinger (Vancouver, Canada)
Maria Eugenia L. Duarte (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Gerhard Edelmann (Vienna, Austria)
Paulo Feytor Pinto (Coimbra, Portugal)
Kelen Ernesta Fonyuy (Bamenda, Cameroon)
David Paul Gerards (Mainz, Germany)
Sebastian Greußlich (Bonn, Germany)
Máté Huber (Szeged, Hungary)
Ana Raquel Matias (Lisbon, Portugal)
Benjamin Meisnitzer (Leipzig, Germany)
Albana Muco (Milano, Italy)
Rudolf Muhr (Graz, Austria)
Morgan Nilsson (Gothenburg, Sweden)
Augusto Soares da Silva (Braga, Portugal)
Juan Antonio Thomas (New York, USA)
Ildiko Vanco (Nitra, Slovakia)
E-mail address: