Center for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems
Encyclopedia
Center for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems (CRD) is an international body created to study, document, and educate people about language problems and international relations throughout the world.
. The Center's European headquarters is in Rotterdam
, The Netherlands, where its research library, the Hector Hodler Library
, is located. It also operates as a unit of the University of Hartford
, in USA.
During its first two decades, CRD was guided by the Croatian jurist Ivo Lapenna
. Since 1974, Humphrey Tonkin
has played a key role in CRD. Writers and researchers who have collaborated with the Center include: William Auld
, Detlev Blanke
, Marjorie Boulton
, W. Collinson, Probal Dasgupta
, Isaj Dratwer, Mark Fettes, Rudolf Haferkorn, Ulrich Lins, François Lo Jacomo, G. F. Makkink, Paul Neergaard
, Robert Phillipson
, Claude Piron
, Juan Regulo Perez, R. Rokicki, Victor Sadler
, Klaus Schubert, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Gaston Waringhien
, and R. Wood.
History
CRD was created in 1952 at the initiative of the World Esperanto AssociationWorld Esperanto Association
The World Esperanto Association is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with members in 121 countries and in official relations with the United Nations and UNESCO. In addition to individual members, 70 national Esperanto organizations are affiliated to UEA...
. The Center's European headquarters is in Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
, The Netherlands, where its research library, the Hector Hodler Library
Hector Hodler Library
The Hector Hodler Library is one of the largest Esperanto libraries, with approximately 30,000 books, with periodicals, manuscripts, photos, music, and other collections. It occupies three rooms in the central office of the Universal Esperanto Association in Rotterdam, Netherlands.Other major...
, is located. It also operates as a unit of the University of Hartford
University of Hartford
The University of Hartford is a private, independent, nonsectarian, coeducational university located in West Hartford, Connecticut. The degree programs at the University of Hartford hold the highest levels of accreditation available in the US, including the Engineering Accreditation Commission of...
, in USA.
During its first two decades, CRD was guided by the Croatian jurist Ivo Lapenna
Ivo Lapenna
Ivo Lapenna was a Jugoslav Professor of Law, Esperanto speaker, and President of the World Esperanto Association...
. Since 1974, Humphrey Tonkin
Humphrey Tonkin
Humphrey R. Tonkin is professor of English, president emeritus of the University of Hartford in Connecticut, and a dedicated Esperantist. Born in Truro, UK, Tonkin is a dual citizen of the U.K. and the U.S. He earned his undergraduate degree from Cambridge University and his PhD from Harvard...
has played a key role in CRD. Writers and researchers who have collaborated with the Center include: William Auld
William Auld
William Auld was a Scottish poet, author, translator and magazine editor who wrote chiefly in Esperanto. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999, 2004, and 2006 making him the first and only person to be nominated for works in Esperanto...
, Detlev Blanke
Detlev Blanke
Detlev Blanke is an interlinguistics lecturer at Humboldt University of Berlin. He is one of Germany's most active Esperanto philologists and has been since 1991 both the chair of the Gesellschaft für Interlinguistik and the editor of its newsletter, Interlinguistische Informationen...
, Marjorie Boulton
Marjorie Boulton
Marjorie Boulton is a British author and poet writing in both English and Esperanto.Author of Zamenhof: Creator of Esperanto — a biography of L. L...
, W. Collinson, Probal Dasgupta
Probal Dasgupta
Probal Dasgupta is the current president of the Universala Esperanto-Asocio ....
, Isaj Dratwer, Mark Fettes, Rudolf Haferkorn, Ulrich Lins, François Lo Jacomo, G. F. Makkink, Paul Neergaard
Paul Neergaard
Pierre Paul Ferdinand Mourier de Neergaard was a Danish agronomist and esperantist....
, Robert Phillipson
Robert Phillipson
Robert Phillipson is Research Professor at Copenhagen Business School's Department of English. He is perhaps best known for writing Linguistic Imperialism and English-Only Europe?: Challenging Language Policy...
, Claude Piron
Claude Piron
Claude Piron was a psychologist and a translator for the United Nations from 1956 to 1961....
, Juan Regulo Perez, R. Rokicki, Victor Sadler
Victor Sadler
Victor Sadler is a British-born Dutch Esperantist.- Sadler and Esperanto :Victor Sadler learnt Esperanto when he was 14, in 1951.After his graduation in phonetics, in 1962, at the end of that year he started working at the central office of the World Esperanto Association , in Rotterdam , where he...
, Klaus Schubert, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Gaston Waringhien
Gaston Waringhien
Gaston Waringhein was a French linguist, lexicographer, and Esperantist. He wrote poems as well as essays and books on linguistics...
, and R. Wood.
Activities
- CRD supports the publication of the scholarly journal Language Problems and Language PlanningLanguage Problems and Language PlanningLanguage Problems and Language Planning is a peer-reviewed linguistic academic journal published by John Benjamins Publishing Company in cooperation with the Center for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems. Its core topics are issues of language policy as well as economic and...
.
- The organization's newsletter, Informilo por Interlingvistoj, focuses on interlinguisticsInterlinguisticsInterlinguistics is the study of various aspects of linguistic communication between people who cannot make themselves understood by means of their different first languages...
and is published three times a year. It is edited by Detlev Blanke.
- An Annual Bibliography of publications on Esperanto studies and interlinguistics is published as part of a much larger reference work by the US-based Modern Language AssociationModern Language AssociationThe Modern Language Association of America is the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature...
.
- Esperanto-studies Conferences (Esperantologiaj Konferencoj) are part of the annual World Esperanto CongressesWorld Congress of EsperantoThe World Congress of Esperanto has the longest tradition among international Esperanto conventions, with an almost unbroken run of more than a hundred years. The congresses have been held since 1905 every year, except during World Wars I and II...
.
- Nitobe Symposia on language policy are organized (often with local or international partners), as are other specialist conferences and seminars, for example at the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. From the Nitobe symposia emerged the Nitobe Centre for Language Democracy which "raises questions about international communication and egalitarian language policy."
- CRD also works with the program at Adam Mickiewicz University in PoznanPoznanPoznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
, PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, which offers a 3-year distance diploma program in interlinguistics. The program, with an international faculty and student body, focuses on international and intercultural communicationIntercultural communicationIntercultural communication is a form of global communication. It is used to describe the wide range of communication problems that naturally appear within an organization made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. Intercultural communication is...
, planned languagesConstructed languageA planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
, and EsperantoEsperantois the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
. In 2008-9, the program celebrated its 10th year.
- From 1982 to 1996, together with the United Nations Office of Conference Services, CRD organized an annual conference in New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. For most of the early years CRD published annual conference reports, with all papers given at the conference in question. The Center now publishes, in cooperation with University Press of AmericaUniversity Press of AmericaUniversity Press of America is an academic book publisher based in the United States. Part of the independent Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, it was founded in 1975 and boasts of having published "more than 10,000 academic, scholarly, and biographical titles in many disciplines"...
, a series of monographs which includes selected papers from the conferences.