Professor Peter Austin to Speak on Endangered Languages

Professor Peter K. Austin, a leading researcher on language diversity and endangered languages, will deliver a public talk at the University of Hong Kong on April 7, 2016. In his talk, organized by the HKU Department of Linguistics and entitled “7,000 Languages: Linguistic and Cultural Diversity from Global and Local Perspectives”, Professor Austin examines the nature of global and local linguistic and cultural diversity, and looks at what is being done to document and preserve it, as well as efforts to revitalise and support threatened languages before it is too late.

Members of the media are cordially invited to attend the event. Details are as follows:

Date: April 7, 2016, Thursday

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

(Tea Reception and Registration start at 6:00 pm)

Venue: Convocation Room, Main Building, HKU

Language: English

This talk is one of the keynote events of the Conference “Documentary Linguistics: Asian Perspectives” which will be held at the University from April 6 to 9, 2016. HKU made the global top 10 universities in the world in Linguistics in the latest QS University Subject Rankings released in March 2016. Linguistics was ranked 10th in this annual survey of the top universities worldwide, the second consecutive year that it has been in the global top 10.

About Professor Austin:

Peter K. Austin is Märit Rausing Chair in Field Linguistics at SOAS, University of London, and Visiting Research Professor, Department of Linguistics, The University of Hong Kong. For over 40 years he has been documenting Australian Aboriginal languages and languages of eastern Indonesia and has published 20 books and 85 articles, including 1,000 Languages, Living, Endangered and Lost and The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages (with Julia Sallabank). In 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate honoris causa by Uppsala University in recognition of his international contributions to the study of endangered languages. Since 2010 he has been working with the Dieri Aboriginal Corporation, South Australia, on a language revitalisation project.

For media enquiries or individual interview requests, please contact Mr Cyrus Chan, Events Coordinator, Faculty of Arts (tel: 3917 4984 email: cyrusc@hku.hk).