This talk will explain why language revival is (1) right, (2) beautiful, and (3) beneficial. In our current world, more and more groups are losing their intangible heritage. Language reclamation (e.g. Hebrew and the Barngarla Aboriginal language of South Australia), revitalization (e.g. Shanghainese and the Adnyamathanha Aboriginal language) and reinvigoration (e.g. Te Reo Māori and Welsh) are becoming increasingly relevant as more and more people seek to reconnect with their heritage, recover their cultural autonomy, empower their spiritual and intellectual sovereignty, and improve their wellbeing and mental health. There is an urgent need to offer comparative insights, for example from the Hebrew revival, which resulted in a cross-fertilized Semito-European hybrid that I call "Israeli".

Ghil‘ad Zuckermann (DPhil Oxford; PhD Cambridge, titular; MA Tel Aviv, summa cum laude) is Professor of Linguistics at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. Prof. Zuckermann is the author of Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond (Oxford University Press, 2020) and 多源造词研究 (A Study of Multisourced Neologization; East China Normal University Press, 2021). Professor Zuckermann is the founder of Revivalistics, a new global, trans-disciplinary field of enquiry surrounding language reclamation, revitalization and reinvigoration. His MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), Language Revival: Securing the Future of Endangered Languages, has attracted 20,000 learners from 190 countries (speakers of hundreds of distinct languages): https://www.edx.org/course/language-revival-securing-future-adelaidex-lang101x.

THIS IS A HYBRID EVENT (SPEAKER IN PERSON).

Zoom link: https://hku.zoom.us/j/93741887377?pwd=RFp6ZmNwMEVkMER2REdCbjFteEF5QT09

Meeting ID: 937 4188 7377
Password: 165988