The First World War continues to inspire academic research, professional and amateur historians alike. The first global conflict still attracts front tourism and produces a wealth of language use or cultural references in current affairs, not least the pandemic of the Spanish flu towards the end of the war and the coronavirus counterpart acentury later.

The centenary period of the First World War saw a growth of scholarship in the field of the linguistic and verbal discourse of the conflict. In this global war involving journalism, a huge amount of forces’ correspondence, propaganda, and the movement of people across different regions and social classes, often from countries and empires with many languages themselves, language was an essential aspect of managing, mediating the experience and, in the aftermath, trying to make sense of the conflict.

The third Languages and First World conference aims to extend the reach of the current narratives on the language landscapes of the First World War.

For the third Languages and First World War conference, 20-minute papers will seek to expand First World War scholarship in relation to its languages and immense linguistic diversity beyond the more traditional narratives.

A book proposal for a fourth volume will be finalised following the conference.

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/languages-and-the-first-world-war-third-conference