Mercator Network Newsletter 127

The Mercator newsletter informs you about the news of the five Mercator Network partners:

Newsletter focusing on multilingual regions dealing with regional or minority languages, but also immigrant languages and smaller state languages, with emphasis on language needs arising from migration and globalization. Submit your subscription request, comments or suggestions to: Johanneke Buning (Fryske Akademy).

Mercator Network wishes you a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year!

9, 10 November 2016: kick-off meeting of the COMBI project in Ljouwert, Frisia

The kick-off meeting of the COMBI “Communication competences for migrants and disadvantaged background learners in bilingual work environments” project was held on the 9th and 10th of November in Leeuwarden (The Netherlands).

Partners convened in Leeuwarden to discuss the project and assign responsibilities to each member according to his or her competences.

The goals of COMBI project are to develop innovative and inclusive/systemic practices and methods focused on acquiring communication competences in the languages required in the workplace. It takes into consideration the multilingual reality of European regions. The aim of the project is to make sure that the regional language is taken into consideration as far as it fulfils language requirements in the workplace.

The project involves six partners from five different countries: Fryske Akademy (coordinator, The Netherlands), Elhuyar-Zubize (Spain), Banaiz Bagara elkartea (Spain), Axxell Utbildning AB (Finland), Swansee University (United Kingdom), Centro per lo Sviluppo Creativo “Danilo Dolci” (Italy).

The project is funded by the DG Education and Culture – Erasmus+ Programme, KA2 Strategic Partnerships for Adult Education.

Report on the International Conference on Endangered Languages, Tbilisi, 20-24 October 2016

By: Tjeerd de Graaf

This Conference has been organized by the Giorgi Akhvlediani Society for the History of Linguistics and Ivané Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, under the auspices of CIPL, Comité International Permament des Linguistes. The aim of the conference was to gather the researchers working on the problems on endangered languages in different countries.

Main themes of the conference were related to Language Endangerment and Endangered Languages. One of the invited speakers was Tjeerd de Graaf, who reported on the Use of Historical Data and Fieldwork for the Study of Ethnic Groups, of which here the text and the power point presentation are available.

A central issue during the conference was the complicated language situation in Georgia and surrounding countries, which was discussed in many papers. The local linguists provided important information about the languages in the countries of the Caucasus, which will be useful for the work of Mercator Research Centre. In the future it might be possible to prepare regional dossiers about the teaching of regional or minority languages in these countries and further exchange information with Georgian colleagues. Then it will also be possible that Georgia joins other European projects, such as the Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

More information about the conference in Tbilisi:

• A photo impression of the conference and the following excursion to some interesting touristic spots near the town of Gori.
• The conference program: International conference on Endangered Languages.
• View the contributed article, and presentation by Tjeerd de Graaf

Report on Mercator's symposium: The influence of migration on minority language education

By: Jorrit Huizinga

November 11, the Mercator Research Centre organized a symposium on the effects of migration on the position of minority languages. Experts spoke on diverse topics, ranging from general overviews of the problems surrounding contacts between different minorities to very specific best practices. The line-up existed of:

• Roberta Medda-Windischer (European Academy of Bolzano), who talked about the main challenges and perspectives related to Migration in sub-state territories with historical-linguistic minorities
• Joana Duarte (University of Groningen) & Alex Riemersma (NHL/Stenden), talking about their recent research on multilingual schools in Fryslân, highlighting the most important challenges and opportunities, both for Frisian and migrant languages.
• Gabriela Meier (University of Exeter), who explained the ‘multilingual turn’ in education and research: a new, more open and inclusive, way of looking at languages and how they are learned, which can also be very valuable when working with migrant children.
• Judith Purkarthofer (University of Oslo), who spoke about the practices of a school in Carinthia (Austria), where there is a large Slovene-speaking minority. The school considers different languages not as barriers but as bridges, linking different countries and minorities, but also the groups that form the school community.
• David Little (Trinity College Dublin), who showcased the example of a school in Dublin, where about 80% of the pupils have linguistic backgrounds other than English or Irish. In this school, pupils are actively encouraged to employ their over 40 home languages in school assignments, even when the teachers do not speak all these languages.

The seminar was attended by about 50 researchers, students, education specialists and others. For those who missed it: summary proceedings will be shared as soon as possible!

View photo's of the event on Mercator's Facebook page.

"Bildts is a mixed language"

It Bildts is a mixed language, and should be considered neither a dialect of Dutch nor of Frisian. This is the conclusion of the researchers Paulus van der Sluis (University of Wales), Eric Hoekstra (Fryske Akademy) and Hans Van de Velde (Fryske Akademy) in the International Journal of the Sociology of Language.

The researchers show that It Bildts originated largely from the vocabulary used in Zuid-Holland (Zuid-Holland is a Dutch province to the south of Frisia), and later became mixed with Frisan loanwords. The grammar of it Bilds was strongly influenced by Frisian, because the people from it Bildt (the language area where it Bildts is spoken) were bilingual Bildts/Frisian, and because there was much Frisian immigration into this area.

Read more about it Bildts, the status of this language, and its history in the International Journal of the Sociology of Language.

Vanishing voices from Russia & Eastern Europe

By: Tjeerd de Graaf

Recently a collection of historical sound recordings of speech and songs by representatives of Uralic and other peoples in Eastern Europe has become available on the website of the British Library. These recordings were digitized as part of the Endangered Archives Programme (EAP) project EAP347: ‘Vanishing voices from the Uralic world: sound recordings for archives in Russia (in particular Udmurtia), Estonia, Finland and Hungary’, initiated by Tjeerd de Graaf. The project digitized sound collections from the Uralic speaking world housed at the Udmurt Institute for History, Language and Literature, with most recordings originating from Udmurtia in Russia and the surrounding regions.

The endangered archive material is now housed in the phonogram archive of the Udmurt Institute for History, Language and Literature and copies are made available for researchers elsewhere. These collections include songs, narrations, prayers and incantations devoted to different events. In total there are 2,560 performers presenting 8 regions of the Russian Federation: Udmurt Republic, Republic of Tatarstan (former Tatar Republic), Republic of Bashkortostan (former Bashkir Republic), Republic of Mari-El (former Mari Republic), Kirovsky Region, Permsky Krai (Area) (former Permsky Region), Krasnoyarsky Krai (Area), Tomsky Region, Tyumensky Region.

More can be read about this project in the open access article: The use of sound archives for the investigation, teaching and safeguarding of endangered languages in Russia, published in the EAP anniversary publication From Dust to Digital. This article can also be downloaded as a PDF (432KB).

Save the date! 9 and 10 December: Mercator-SOAS-CIDLeS seminar on language documentation, teaching materials and didactics

This seminar will address the growing need for up-to-date teaching materials and methods for small and endangered languages and how new technologies can be used in language maintenance endeavors. For a more extensive description, as well as a list of speakers, see here. Please register before December 4.

• Date and time: Friday 9 December 2016, 09:00-17:45 I Saturday 10 December 2016, 09:30-12:30
• Location: Hampshire Hotel Oranje, Stationsweg 4, Leeuwarden (NL)
• Online registration is obligatory, and can be done through this link.
• Contact person: Jorrit Huizinga

Mercator Research Centre publishes a new Regional Dossier: Nenets, Khanty, and Selkup in the Russian Federation

Nenets, Khanty, and Selkup are the native languages of the indigenous population in the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous okrug (district). The district is situated in Western Siberia, on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains in the Russian Federation.

The Regional Dossier Nenets, Khanty and Selkup. The Nenets, Khanty and Selkup language in education in the Yamal Region in Russia gives an overview of the history and demographics of the three languages, and discusses, in-depth, language education and legislation.

The Dossier has been compiled by Dr Roza Ivanovna Laptander (Candidate of Philological Science), expert in the Tundra Nenets language and Nenets speaking society, sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology and researcher at the Artic Centre at the University of Lapland and visiting researcher at the Artic Centre of the University of Groningen.

Download the dossier here: Nenets, Khanty, and Selkup in the Russian Federation

Expert in the Spotlight December 2016: Elly Albers

For more than nine years Mercator's Expert in the Spotlight feature was in the capable hands of Mercator's information specialist Elly Albers. But all good things come to an end, and Elly will leave Mercator to retire next month. The Mercator team will sorely miss her and take over her many duties as best as possible. The final Expert in the Spotlight of December 2016 is about Elly herself and her work at Mercator Research Centre.

Read about Elly here

Italy’s Last Bastion of Catalan Language Struggles to Keep It Alive, November 21, article in the New York Times by Raphael Minder.

Invitation to the workshop The Alphabet That Will Save a People From Disappearing, November 16, Article in the Atlantic by Kaveh Waddell.

Irish president praises volunteer Duolingo translators, November 25, Michael D Higgins calls for more official support for Irish language .

2-5 December 2016, London (Unitedk): Information Structure and Discourse in the minority languages of the Russian Federation.

9-10 December 2016, Leeuwarden (NL): Language documentation, teaching materials and didactics; an opportunity for small and endangered languages? Expert seminar hosted by Mercator Research Centre.

14–15 December 2016, El Jadida (MA): Cultures and Languages in Contact.

15-16 December 2016, Donostia-San Sebastián (ES): European Language Diversity Forum. Donostia-San Sebastián.

14 - 16 December 2016, Teramo (IT): Evaluating language policies. Which objectives, criteria, indicators?, International conference.

30 January - 20 February 2017, Bolanzo (IT): Winter School on Federalism and Governance.

23 - 24 March 2017, Paris (FR): Tandem Language and Intercultural Learning in Higher Education Settings, International conference.

23 - 25 March 2017, Oxford (UK): Language, Mobility, and Belonging, conference, hosted by the University of Oxford.

19 - 21 April 2017, Barcelona and Vic (ES): First International Conference on Revitalization of Indigenous and Minoritized Languages, International conference.

27 - 28 April 2017, Ulyanovsk (RU): Language Education in the Globalized World, International conference.

3 - 5 May 2017, Bologna (IT): Learning and Assessment: Making the Connections, Call deadline 15 October 2016.

4 - 7 May 2017, Lausanne (CH): Approaches to Migration, Language, and Identity, International conference.

6 - 7 May 2017, Poznan (PL): Workshop on Multilingual Language Acquisition, Processing and Use, Call deadline 1 December 2016.

11 - 13 May 2017, Braga (PT): International Conference on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education, Call for papers: deadline 15 February 2017.

17 - 20 May 2017, Odense (DK): MultiMeDialecTranslation 7 – Dialect translation in multimedia, conference hosted by the University of Southern Denmark.

22 - 24 May 2017, Odense (DK): The Politics of Multilingualism: Possibilities and Challenges, conference hosted by the Amsterdam School for Transnational, Regional and European Studies. Call for papers! Deadline: 20 January 2017.

11 - 15 June 2017, Limerick (IE): International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB11), hosted by the University of Limerick.

11 - 15 June 2017, Limerick (IE): International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB11), hosted by the University of Limerick.

28 - 30 August, Jyväskylä (FI) ICML XVI, International Conference on Minority Languages.