International Conference on Graphemics at UiA: ScriptandSound-5

From the Maya Script to the Germanic Runes – Case Studies on the Typology of Scripts and Research on Writing Systems

University of Agder, Fevik Conference Hotel, October 25–28, 2022

The conference and book series LautSchriftSprache/ScriptandSound is devoted to Historical Graphemics. It promotes research on the general structures of documented scripts and writing systems, both synchronically and diachronically. Thus it explores changes in the language systems and their graphemic responses and consequences within individual writing systems, scripts and orthographies. As a multidisciplinary research field, Historical Graphemics bridges a gap between philology, language history, epigraphy, palaeography, semiotics and other disciplines. Historical Graphemics is a research field in the making; most importantly it constitutes an interface between the above fields and has been gaining in profile, not least through the LSS conference series.

The fifth LSS conference continues this trend in the now established series: The field of investigation will be further extended, including, e.g., Native American and Chinese scripts and writing systems, as well as theoretical and comparative approaches. It also presents Grapholinguistics, a recently developed research field grounded in what German-speaking scholars label Schriftlinguistik.

While the first four LSS conferences dealt predominantly with phonographical issues, and in particular with the alphabetical type of script (including the runes), the planned conference in Kristiansand will move into focus further types of script and writing systems. This will hopefully lead to a review of different constellations of language and script in geographical areas hitherto not taken into consideration (e.g., North and South America, China, India) as well as of different time lines (from the Linear Elamite writing around 2200 BC to the Cherokee syllabary in the 19th century AD).

The major aim of the conference is this: By including independently developed systems such as the Maya script, it will hopefully deepen our understanding of script typology and historico-cultural dimensions. For writing systems must be regarded as products of different cultures and contact situation, meaning that Historical Graphemics cannot ignore language, culture and communication.

The planned conference with its extraordinarily interdisciplinary circle of experts, not only on graphemics, but also on the diverse written languages, will constitute a further crucial step in the development of the field of Historical Graphemics. Here the specific constellation of scripts, writing systems and languages will be discussed in a joint forum.

LautSchriftSprache 5, Kristiansand–Fevik, 25.10.–28.10.2022

From the Maya Script to the Germanic Runes – Case studies on the Typology of Scripts and Research on Writing Systems

Organizer and host: Michael Schulte and Gaby Waxenberger (co-organizer)

In collaboration with Paola Cotticelli, Kerstin Kazzazi, Alessia Bauer, Alfredo Rizza and Daniel Petit (scientific advisory board)

Conference programme Tuesday 25.10. – Friday 28.10.2022

The programme is subject to changes if necessary.

How to get to Kristiansand and to the Fevik Conference Hotel?

Here are some options and travel informations for your trip.

The Fevik Conference Hotel is located about 50 km in eastern direction from Kristiansand, close to Grimstad and Arendal (see URL Hotellet - Classic Norway).

You have two major options to get to Kristiansand and to the Fevik Conference Hotel:

• First you may travel by ferry (e.g., Color line or Fjordline) from Hirtshals in Denmark to Kristiansand
• Second by plane to Kjevik Airport (Kristiansand). There are several connecting flights via Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Oslo from diverse directions.

From Kjevik Airport there is a regular bus to Kristiansand city center, and there is another bus from the bus terminal in Kristiansand going to Fevik (see in particular URL 100 Rute: rutetider, holdeplasser og kart - Kristiansand Via Fevik (Oppdatert) (moovitapp.com) and Flybuss til og fra Kristiansand - Agder kollektivtrafikk (akt.no)).

Note that it is also possible to travel directly from Kjevik Airport to the Conference Hotel, but you have to change bus (Kjevik to Fevik - 2 ways to travel via bus, taxi, and car (rome2rio.com)).

You may consider to come to Kristiansand already one day before the conference starts, i.e. on Monday, 24^th of October and stay one night at a nice hotel in the center of Kristiansand which is a beautiful place especially in summer. There are several nice hotels and accommodations in the city center and the vicinity, with very different prices and standards. Those of you who arrive on Monday already might meet for dinner in town at the seafood restaurant of Sjøhuset right at the seaside (see URL Sjøhuset (sjohuset.no)). We can meet there at 6 pm for instance if this is desirable, and I will be able to book a table in advance.