The Ninth
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON THE LANGUAGES OF JAVA
(ISLOJ 9)
20 May 2023
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, USA
The island of Java is home to several major world languages. Javanese—spoken mainly in Central and East Java— is among the world’s most widely spoken languages in number of native speakers. It has one of the oldest and fullest recorded histories of any Austronesian language. It also has been of considerable interest to scholars because of its unique speech level system. Sundanese—spoken in West Java— has over 27 million speakers, and Madurese—spoken on the neighboring island of Madura and throughout parts of East Java— is the third largest local language, with up to 13 million speakers. Geography, history, and typology bind these languages with linguistically related languages on the neighboring islands to the east, Bali, where Balinese is spoken, and Lombok, where Sasak is spoken, each by about 3 million speakers. Each of these languages displays a range of dialects, isolects, continua, and contact varieties and yet they have received relatively little attention from linguists. With this symposium, we offer an opportunity for scholars working on any aspect of Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, Balinese, Sasak, or any non-Malay language spoken on these islands, to come together and share their findings. We aim to encourage and promote continued research on these important and unique languages.
Abstracts are invited for papers to be presented on any linguistic topics dealing with the languages of Java and its environs—Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, Balinese, and Sasak. Papers on other languages will be judged according to their relevance to the symposium topic. Papers are welcome from any subfield of linguistics and using any approach or theoretical background. Studies of non-standard(ized) versions, dialects, and isolects, including contact varieties, are particularly welcome. All papers are to be presented in English.
The keynote speaker for the both the ISMIL and ISLOJ conferences will be Dwi Noverini Djenar of the University of Sydney. There will also be a special joint session on m/Minimalism in ISMIL/ISLOJ Languages featuring keynote speakers Maria Polinsky (University of Maryland, College Park) and Eva Wittenberg (Central European University).
Thanks to support from the National Science Foundation (BCS#1921334), we will be able to offer some travel funding for students as well as scholars from developing countries.
Anonymous one-page abstracts (data and references may be on a second page) should be submitted in electronic form (PDF and MSWord) to the following address:
isloj.linguistics AT gmail.com
Please indicate your name, affiliation, and title of abstract in the body of the email. Please also indicate if you would like to participate in the special session on m/Minimalism (see below).
Extended Deadline for submission of abstracts: 31 January 2023
Notification: 28 February 2023
[Early submissions also possible; notifications will be made within two weeks of receipt of submission.]
Given the potential difficulty in obtaining a US visa, abstracts from presenters who need to obtain a visa may be submitted at any time prior to the deadline, and a determination will be made within two weeks of submission.
Please note that the 26th International Symposium on Malay-Indonesian Linguistics (ISMIL 26) will be held adjacent to ISLOJ 9, on 18-19 May, 2023. Both conferences will take place at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa.
Inquiries: gil AT shh.mpg.de
Further information: