Conference: Symposium on Northwest American Indigenous Languages (SNAIL)

Website: https://www.snailconference.org/

Date: July 12-13th, 2025
Location: Eugene, Oregon, USA
Contact Person: Jordan AG Douglas-Tavani
Topics: Any linguistics, language revitalization, or presentation about language use for a language of the Pacific Northwest

Call Deadline: Sunday, January 5th, 2025 at 11:59 PM (Pacific Standard Time)

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Scott DeLancey (University of Oregon)

Call for Papers:
Anonymous abstracts are invited for talks on any topic relevant to indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest, a geographic area ranging from Alaska to Northern California to Montana, and including British Columbia. The similarities of the languages were observed by both Sapir, and then later his student Swadesh (1953). Later linguists would go on to further describe the similarities of languages in the area (e.g. Thompson and Kincade 1990, Beck 2000, Mithun 2000). More recently, the area has been a hotbed for language revitalization and reclamation work, often through university and tribal partnerships, such as at the University of Oregon, Simon Fraser University, and the University of Washington. This conference seeks to provide a venue for language speakers, artists, communities, and linguists to come together to share knowledge and celebrate the beauty and diversity of languages within the PNW Sprachbund.

Talks will be 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for discussion. Abstracts should be 500 words or less (excluding examples, figures, and / or references). Abstracts and presentations may be given in any language. Abstracts in an indigenous language will need translations provided for review. Individuals may submit abstracts for one single-authored and one co-authored paper. Please indicate your source(s) and type(s) of data in the abstract (e.g. recordings, texts, conversational, elicited, narrative, etc.). For co-authored papers, please indicate who plans to present the paper, who will be in attendance, and who are the corresponding authors.

Abstracts should be submitted in .pdf format via the Abstract Submission form (also available via the conference website). Please submit two abstracts, one with the identifying information of the person or persons giving the presentation along with affiliations and contact information, the other with no indication of the author(s). If authors must be cited, they should be referred to as (Author [DATE]).

Notification of acceptance will arrive by email no later than: Friday, February 7th, 2025.

For further information, please contact the conference coordinators, at snail.conference@gmail.com.