CJS Noon Lecture Series | Gathering Fading Voices: Endangered Dialect Research in Japan Today

Please note: This lecture will be held in person (room TBA) and virtually on Zoom. If you would like to attend via Zoom, registration is required. Once you've registered, joining information will be sent to your email. Register for the Zoom webinar at: https://myumi.ch/VDMnJ.

Many of Japan's regional dialects are now critically endangered, as intergenerational transmission breaks down in aging and depopulating communities. This lecture surveys the current state of endangered dialects in Japan and introduces a range of efforts to document and pass them on to future generations. In particular, it focuses on Professor Taniguchi’s fieldwork in Ikawa, a remote mountain community in northern Shizuoka Prefecture, and presents the various revitalization activities she has carried out in collaboration with local residents.

Joy Taniguchi (Ph.D., The University of Tokyo) is a professor in the faculty of informatics at Shizuoka Institute of Science and Technology and a collaborating researcher on a joint project at the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL). A sociolinguist, she leads efforts to document, preserve, and revitalize the endangered dialect of Ikawa, a mountain community in northern Shizuoka Prefecture. She also conducts large-scale surveys of language variation and change across Shizuoka.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.