On Friday and Saturday, October 23 and 24, Trace Foundation will host the third event in its lecture series Minority Language in Today’s Global Society, which is entitled Vitality and Viability of Minority Languages. While many minority language communities recognize the need to maintain their languages, what are some tools available to help them gauge the relative health of their language and language communities? What kinds of policies have worked to support and maintain the vitality and viability of minority languages? What practices might be appropriate for various communities attempting to maintain their languages? This event will bring together experts from diverse backgrounds to pursue answers to such questions surrounding assessment of language vitality, policies to support viability, and practices to ensure a flourishing future for minority languages, with a special focus on the Tibetan language case.
Trowo Gyaltsen
Trowo Gyaltsen graduated with a degree in philosophy and went on to teach political theory at the Barkham Nationalities Normal School. He is the editor-in-chief of the Tibetan- and Chinese-language journal, Tibetan Regions Education Forum, which explores issues such as Tibetan regions education systems, mother tongue education in bilingual education, and more. He published a collection of essays on philosophy entitled The Allure of the Light of Reason. He has written many important papers that have been influential in Tibetan education practice today.
ཨེ་ལི་ཊི་སེ་པར་ལིང་།
དགེ་རྒན་ཆེན་མོ་སེ་པེ་ལིང་ནི་བོད་ཀྱི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་མཁས་དབང་ཞིག་ཡིན་པ་དང་། ཁོང་གི་ཆེད་ལས་ནི་རྒྱ་བོད་འབྲེལ་བའི་སྐོར་རེད། ༡༩༨༤ལོའི་མག་ཨར་ཐར་"ཕུལ་བྱུང་།"གཟེངས་རྟགས་ཐོབ་མྱོང་མཁན་མཁས་དབང་ཁོང་གི་གསུང་རྩོམ་ཁོངས་སུ་དུས་རབས་༡༤ནས་ད་བར་གྱི་ཨེ་ཤེ་ཡ་དཀྱིལ་མའི་ཁྱིམ་མཚེས་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་དབར་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བའི་སྐོར་ལ་ཞིབ་འཇུག་རྩོམ་ཡིག་མི་ཉུང་བ་བཞུགས་ཡོད། ད་བར་པར་སྐྲུན་བྱས་ཟིན་པའི་གསུང་རྩོམ་ཁོངས་སུ། ༢༠༠༩ལོར་པར་བཏབ་པའི། བོད་དང་རྒྱ་ནག་དབར་གྱི་ནང་ཆོས་ཅེས་པའི་དེབ་ནང་ལ། "བོད་ཀྱི་ནང་ཆོས། རྟོག་པ་དང་འཆར་ཡན། མིང་གོང་མའི་དུས་སྐབས་ཀྱི་རྒྱ་བོད་ས་མཚམས་ཁུལ་གྱི་གནས་ཚུལ།"ཞེས་པའི་ཆེད་རྩོམ་ཞིག་དང་། ༢༠༠༤ལོར། "བོད་དང་རྒྱ་ནག་གི་རྩོད་གཞི། ལོ་རྒྱུས་དང་རྩོད་རྙོག"ཅེས་པ་དང་། ༢༠༠༡ལོར། འཆར་ཡན་ནང་ལ་བོད་བཞེངས་པ། འདུ་ཤེས་དང་། དམིགས་པ། འཆར་ཡན་"ཞེས་པའི་དེབ་ནང་ལ། "ཤར་ཕྱོགས་རིང་ལུགས་དང་བོད་ཀྱི་སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་ནང་གི་དྲག་སྤྱོད།"སོགས་སྤེལ་ཡོད།
Arienne Dwyer
Professor Dwyer is a specialist on language documentation and revitalization, was part of the 2004 UNESCO ad hoc Expert Committee on Language Endangerment which developed recent language vitality assessment tools. Her area of expertise is in the sociolinguistics of Chinese and Central Asian languages and she has directed several projects to document and archive languages of these regions, including Salar, Kazakh, Uyghur, Mongour, Wutun, Kyrgyz, and also archaic German dialects in Kansas.
Jaye Trabu
Professor Jaye Trabu is a renowned scholar of Tibetan grammar, folk culture, and history. He holds degrees from Qinghai Nationalities College and Beijing Normal University. He has numerous publications ranging from literary pieces, classical and contemporary poetry to essays on the relationship between religious folk customs and ecological equilibrium, educational reform, and Tibetan festivals, foods, and dress. His most recent publications include edited books entitled Tibetan Language Textbook for University (སློབ་གྲྭ་ཆེན་མོའི་བོད་ཀྱི་སྐད་ཡིག་སློབ་དེབ།) .
Joseph Lo Bianco
Professor Lo Bianco has served as a consultant on language education policy in over twenty countries, including Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United States, China, Italy, South Africa and the United Kingdom. He is the author of Australia’s first National Policy on Languages, which was established in 1987. Most recently, he has edited several books including Language Learning from the Inside: Learners’ Voices & Public Policy Ambitions, and China and English: Globalization and Dilemmas of Identity. Both his policy contributions and writings have been recognized through numerous awards in Australia and internationally
Thubten Phuntsok
Thubten Phuntsok is a prolific scholar of Tibetan Studies with dozens of books and numerous articles published in the fields of Tibetan history, Tibetan medicine, and Tibetan literature, grammar, and poetry. Originally a Tibetan medicine doctor in his hometown of Derge, he has an academic background in archeology and Tibetology. He is currently a professor and researcher in the department of Tibetan Studies at the Central Nationalities University in Beijing, China. He is also the director of the Tibetan Medical Institute and the president of Tibetan AIDS Prevention Association. He has won many national awards for his publications on language, history, religion, and medicine.
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