Experts in the field of linguistics predict that half of all languages spoken in the world today will be extinct by the end of this century. Scholars across numerous disciplines have identified the sources of this "vanishing languages crisis" as largely economic in nature.

Taking an economic focus on endangered and minority languages across the world, the Cornell University Department of Linguistics will sponsor a multidisciplinary three-day Conference on Language and Poverty Oct. 14-16. The talks, panel discussions and workshops are free and open to the public.

The Oct. 14 events will be held in 700 Clark Hall, starting at 9 a.m. with "Economic Influences on Language Death and Revitalization: How Important Are They?" -- a talk by Leanne Hinton, University of California-Berkeley. The events on Oct. 15 and 16 will be held in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. For a complete listing of events, visit the conference Web site at http://ling.cornell.edu/language_and_poverty/.

Conference presenters include specialists on endangered languages in Africa and the Americas, and specialists on minority languages and language rights in Africa, the United States and India. In addition to scholars and researchers, the program also includes people actively involved in community-based language maintenance and revitalization efforts. The Tlingit language of the Northwest United States and Alaska and the Onondaga language of upstate New York, two seriously endangered Native American languages, will be among those represented.

"The Cornell Conference on Language and Poverty is a singular event in a number of ways," said Wayne Harbert, Cornell professor of linguistics and director of undergraduate studies in linguistics. "It is the first international conference to focus specifically on minority and endangered languages in their economic contexts, and to bring together experts in such diverse disciplines as linguistics, anthropology, sociology, economics, law and government to share their perspectives on the bi-directional relationship between language and poverty."

Harbert said that the two complementary themes of the conference "are poverty as a cause of language endangerment and language death, and the role of languages spoken or not spoken in determining people's access to economic, educational, social and legal resources." The second theme -- "language as a determinant of economic and social well-being" -- has also come steadily into prominence in an increasingly global world, he said.

While some workshops on the second and third days of the program are specifically for specialists in language documentation and maintenance efforts, most of the program is aimed at a general-interest, multidisciplinary audience.

The conference is made possible with support from the Cornell Poverty, Inequality and Development Initiative and the National Science Foundation.