April 2019

Open Mercator Network Newsletter #150 in your browser

Second ECI on minority rights wins at EU Court of Justice

The Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) welcomes the judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the case Izsák-Dabas vs Commission. The Court states that the European Commission erred in law by refusing to register the European Citizens’ Initiative ‘Cohesion policy for the equality of the regions and sustainability of the regional cultures’, that is aimed at improving the situation of national minority regions. Therefore, the Court sets aside the judgment of the General Court and annuls the Commission’s decision. FUEN considers that after the judgement regarding the Minority SafePack Initiative, the current judgement of the Court is further proof that the European Union has the obligation to protect and promote the autochthonous minority communities.


	AUOB Cymru: March for Welsh independence Amid uncertainty over Brexit, different civil society organisations are calling for a march on the 11th of May in Cardiff in support of Welsh independence. United as AUOB Cymru (Wales - All Under One Banner), they hope to attract thousands of people. AUOB Cymru and AUOB Scotland consider working together. "We think this will really upset the British establishment." Read more


	New report on national minorities in Albania In its fourth opinion on Albania, the Council of Europe’s Advisory Committee on the FCNM urges Tirana to make operational the county’s law on the protection of national minorities through the adoption of further legislation. Recommendations include the expanding of public broadcasting in minority languages, and the empowering of community councils to decide on the use of minority languages. Read more


	INTERESTING LINKS




	EUROPE

● 13 May 2020: first 'State Language Day' in Latvia

● Irish Language Act: Laws not threatening says Welsh commissioner

● Lost words: The struggle to save Turkey's disappearing languages

● Northern Basque Country to fund Occitan language policy

● Should immigrants be taught in their mother tongue at schools?

● World Book Day features Welsh-language titles in Braille

● Now available online: 'A state, a language? La organización política de la diversidad lingüística' by Albert Bastardas and Emili Boix (CUSC-UB)

● The man bringing dead languages back to life

● The International Organization of Francophonie militate against "the war of languages"

● Blog: Winter is coming? Minority newspapers and media pluralism in Europe

● Meet the deaf choir giving people a voice through sign language

● Aberdeen researchers gonnae tak wee swatch at Scots

Limburgish recognized as official regional language

Limburgish is recognized by the Dutch government as an official regional language. In a covenant that will be concluded after the summer, municipalities, province and central government agree that they will work together to preserve and stimulate the use of the Limburg language. Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongren: “If we do nothing, we run the risk that the language will eventually disappear completely." The dialect must be given a place in education and in preschools. Critics responded that this could be at the expense of Dutch language proficiency. According to Ollongren, a bilingual education is good for children's development. "My mother is from Sweden and I speak Swedish with my own children. They can switch flawlessly from Swedish to Dutch." A similar covenant was concluded on Lower Saxon, last October.


	Catalan Wikipedia wants to complete shorter articles The Wikipedia in Catalan reached the 600,000 articles already. But they could use some new writers for the basic entries. The objective is to improve the quality of Wikipedia in Catalan and to multiply the number of 'reference articles'. Read more


	First International Day of Multilingualism The 27th of March is from now on the International Day of Multilingualism, commemorating the date engraved on the Rosetta Stone (a granodiorite stele from 196 BC, inscribed with a decree in three languages). Read more


	ISHKASHIMI LANGUAGE



	Ishkashimi speaker Mohbibi Mastonova (Tajikistan) shares and explains some expressions in her language.

COMBI Conference

Theme: Migrants and minority languages in health and social care


	INTERESTING LINKS




	WORLD

● Mapping Tulu: A rich oral tradition with deep roots in Karnataka [India]

● Canadians in official language minority communities receive help to improve their essential skills and literacy [Canada]

● First Russian textbook on rare Jewish language Juhuri [Russia]

● The internet is changing the way we preserve endangered languages [World]

● Crossing divides: two Koreas divided by a fractured language [Korea]

● ‘We spoke English to set ourselves apart’: how I rediscovered my mother tongue [Nigeria]

● Ethnic minority students only understand 70% of class syllabus because of weak Chinese language foundation [Hong Kong]

● Languages, plants, and people [Russia]

● AI innovations bring good news and bad news for indigenous and minority languages [World]

● Hearing impaired demand official recognition to Indian Sign Language [India]


	UN Forum on Minority Issues in Brussels On 6-7 May 2019, the European Parliament in Brussels hosts a UN Forum on Minority Issues, discussing education, language and the human rights of minorities. This conference is organised by the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues and the Tom Lantos Institute, in partnership with ELEN and other NGOs. Register before the 12th of April. Read more


	Languages in an Open World (LOW 2019) You are cordially invited to join the international conference 'Languages in an Open World' in Graz, Austria, from 20-22 November. Topics are, e.g., changes in the linguistic landscape as a consequence of migration and globalisation, and the role and status of languages in pluralistic societies. Submission deadline is 30 June 2019. Read more

Book-reading is more important for Frisian than for Dutch

The quantity of language input at home is more important for the development of the minority language than for the development of the majority language. Evelyn Bosma and Elma Blom examined whether the same holds true for the frequency of specific language activities at home. The results showed that reading in Frisian predicted both Frisian vocabulary and morphology, while reading in Dutch only predicted Dutch vocabulary. This shows that reading at home is most important for the development of the minority language. The study is published in the Journal of Child Language.


	Plurilingual approach in classroom on video The team of the Erasmus+ project Virtual Language App (VirtuLApp) has started with the recordings of the didactical videos, part of the Toolkit they are developing. The videos are intended for sharing best practices of plurilingual approaches across European schools. The first recordings took place at a school in Joure, Friesland (The Netherlands). The Belgian partners from ATiT came to Friesland for a full day of class recordings and interviews with teachers and pupils. All videos will be published on the VirtuLApp website. If you would like to participate, please email the project coordinator. Read more


	First CSLW multiplier event for toolkit feedback On 14 March, 2019, the Fryske Akademy/ Mercator organised the first CSLW multiplier event. The Erasmus+ project CSLW developed a curriculum that supports highly educated refugees in their search for work. This teacher's toolkit consists of two modules: one for teachers which can be used in the classroom, and one for students with which they can work independently. After a short introduction and an evaluation workshop, the partnership had a fruitful discussion with the 18 teachers and learners about the materials. The consortium is grateful for the useful input, and will use it to improve the toolkit materials. Read more


	INTERESTING EVENTS



	4 - 6 April 2019, Moscow (Russia) Linguistic Forum 2019: Indigenous languages of Russia and beyond Organized by the the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the CIPL. 8 - 10 April 2019, Jönköping (Sweden) Multilingualism, Diversity and Democracy (MuDD) Conference 2019 Organized by the School of Education and Communication, Jönköping University. 12 April 2019, Swansea (United Kingdom) Language learning of migrant health care workers in bilingual workplaces (Multiplier event COMBI project) Organized by Swansea University. 9 - 11 May 2018, Corfu (Greece) Multilingual Language Theories and Practices (MLTP2019) Organized by MultiLingNet and Ionian University. 15 - 16 May 2019, Hamar (Norway) Multilingual Childhoods: Education, Policy and Practice (MC 2019) Organized by Inland Norway University and Oslo Metropolitan University. 21 - 23 May 2019, Bielefeld (Germany) International Conference on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education (ICMME 19) Organized by Bielefeld University. 22 - 24 May 2019, Leeuwarden (The Netherlands) 17th International Conference on Minority Languages (ICML XVII) Organized by Mercator European Research Centre. 29 - 30 May 2019, Västerås (Sweden) Interactional Competences and Practices in a Second Language (ICOP-L2) Organized by Mälardalen University. 17 - 19 June 2019, Jyväskylä (Finland) Thinking, Doing, Learning: Usage based perspectives on second language learning (TDL4) Organized by University of Jyväskylä. 26 - 28 June 2019, Leeuwarden/ Ljouwert (The Netherlands) International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 10) Organized by Fryske Akademy. 1 July 2019, Ghent (Belgium) Symposium: The various guises of translanguaging Organized by the Ghent University and Lancaster University. 2 July 2019, Cambridge (United Kingdom) Ninth Cambridge Conference on Language Endangerment * Deadline Call for Papers: 7 April 2019 Organized by the University of Cambridge. 3 - 5 July 2019, Soria (Spain) Fifth International Colloquium on Languages, Cultures, Identity in Schools and Society Organized by the Loyola Marymount University School of Education. 4 - 5 July 2019, Lisbon (Portugal) 2nd International Symposium on Endangered languages and language varieties in the Iberian Peninsula (LAPI 2019) Organized by the Interdisciplinary Centre for Social and Language Documentation (CIDLeS, SOAS World Languages Institute and the project FRONTESPO. 8 - 11 July 2019, Athens (Greece) 12th Annual International Conference on Languages & Linguistics Organized by the Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER) and the Athens Journal of Philology. 27 - 28 August 2019, Chania (Crete, Greece) International Symposium on Monolingual and Bilingual Speech 2019 (ISMBS 2019) Organized by the Institute of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech. 17 - 20 September 2019, Barcelona (Spain) 6th Barcelona Summer School on Bi- and Multilingualism (BSBM) Organized by Pompeu Fabra University. 26 - 27 September 2019, Stirling (United Kingdom) Languaging in Times of Change (tlang#2) Organized by University of Stirling. 14 - 15 November 2019, Udine (Italy) 2nd International Colloquium on Plurilingualism (2nd ICP ) * Deadline Call for Papers: 30 April 2019 Organized by Udine University / Centro Internazionale sul Plurilinguismo. 20 - 22 November 2019, Graz (Austria) Languages in an Open World 2019 (LOW 2019) * Deadline Call for Papers: 30 June 2019 Organized by SOAS World Languages Institute (UK), Mercator European Research Centre (NL), the Interdisciplinary Centre for Social and Language Documentation (CiDLeS), and the University of Graz /Plurilingualism Research Unit – Treffpunkt Sprachen (AT).


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AUOB Cymru: March for Welsh independence

New report on national minorities in Albania

INTERESTING LINKS

EUROPE

Catalan Wikipedia wants to complete shorter articles

First International Day of Multilingualism

ISHKASHIMI LANGUAGE

COMBI Conference

INTERESTING LINKS

WORLD

UN Forum on Minority Issues in Brussels

Languages in an Open World (LOW 2019)

Plurilingual approach in classroom on video

First CSLW multiplier event for toolkit feedback

INTERESTING EVENTS