September 2020
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Protection plan Sardinian languages approved

On the Italian island of Sardinia, the Regional Language Policy Plan has been approved by the regional council. It contains measures for the protection, enhancement, promotion and dissemination of the Sardinian language, the Catalan of Alghero, and the Sassari, Gallura and Tabarchino languages. The goal of this plan is to make people comfortable to use these languages ​​in every situation of communication in public and private life, so they can exercise the right of expression in the languages ​​spoken on Sardinia, protected by regional law.

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Europe wants more Frisian in primary education

The number of Frisian teaching hours in primary schools must be increased "without delay", according to a new report from the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional and Minority languages (ECRM). Eventhough Frisian is compulsory, the focus on Frisian is mostly limited to 45 minutes per week. "That is not sufficient for the implementation of the Charter."

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'#NormalitzaLaPlatja: Normalize the beach'

The Plataforma per la Llengua and el Tirant are jointly launching the #NormalitzaLaPlatja ('#Normalisethebeach') campaign, to raise awareness about the use of Valencian in the signage of the towns on the Valencian coast. The public is asked to take part in the campaign by taking a photo of the sign that is not in Valencian and upload it with the campaign hashtag in the BonSenyal app.

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INTERESTING LINKS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EUROPE

● "De taal... [The language Papiamento as a minority language]"

● Germany takes a historic step by taking over responsibility for the Sorbs

● OSCE enhances capacity of Moldovan agencies promoting and protecting rights of national minorities amid pandemic

● Multicultural Opole? ‘Multilingualism’ in an ethnolinguistic nation-state - Upper Silesia as the most multiethnic region in Poland

● Aragón promociona... [Aragon promotes its own languages ​​in seven regions]

● In defence of the German language: a student’s perspective

● 'I'm partially deaf. When mask-wearing came along, I had to rebuild my world'

● 'Irish is a language of the sympathetic middle class'

● Vacancy: Fryske Akademy (host of the Mercator European Research Centre) is looking for a General Director

Minority network Schleswig-Holstein and Southern Denmark

In the anniversary year of the peaceful border drawing between Germany and Denmark in 1920, eight European organisations founded the 'Minderheiten-Kompetenz-Netzwerk/ Minority Competence Network Schleswig-Holstein - Southern Denmark'. The aim of the new network is to promote understanding of national minorities and ethnic groups as well as their language and culture. The network creates a framework for encounters and exchanges between the minorities among themselves and also with the majority population. Among the founding members are the European Academy Schleswig-Holstein, the Friesenrat, the Association of German Sinti and Roma, the European Center for Minority Issues (ECMI) and the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN). [Photo: Schleswig-Holstein State Chancellery]
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2020 Gorsedd honours:
Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones

For working over 30 years in networks and projects that connect Wales and the Welsh language with continental Europe, the Gorsedd of the Bards has decided to honour prof. Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones (Mercator Institute for Media, Languages and Culture/ University of Wales Trinity Saint David) with the 'Green Robe'. Congratulations!

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COVID-19: minority case studies and interviews

The websites of the European Centre for Minority Issues and the Federal Union of European Nationalities both feature interesting series on the current situation of European minorities. ECMI interviews researchers in the field of multilingualism, FUEN publishes case studies as a continuation of their 'Do You Speak Corona?' project.

ECMI / FUEN
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'Translanguaging towards multilingualism in education'

Within two multilingual education projects in the Netherlands (3M and Holi-Frysk, Mercator is partner), a holistic model for multilingualism in education is being tested. Results show that through experimenting in a safe environment teachers gradually embraced their pupils’ multilingualism. Researchers Duarte and Günther-Van der Meij concluded that this contradicts earlier findings on teachers strongly favouring monolingual instruction.

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Podcasts on Berlin's 10 most spoken languages

During a summer seminar, researcher Marit Vos (Humboldt Universität) and her students worked on creating podcasts, mainly meant for aspiring teachers. The focus lies on the 10 most spoken languages in Berlin, on the social position of these languages as well as on difficulties for speakers of these languages in English lessons. The podcasts (in German) on Arabic, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Turkish and Vietnamese are available on Soundcloud.

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Student signs COVID-news

Journalism student Naomie Koffie brings Covid-19 news to Senegal's deaf community

Multilingual family

Having kids, but my partner speaks another language...

INTERESTING LINKS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WORLD

● Amazigh excluded from Moroccan ID cards despite being official language [Morocco]

● Learn indigenous languages through ASMR [Canada]

● Urdu names: "I regret having named him Sahil" [India]

● 'The language of Afrikaans is not the problem' [South-Africa]

● Parenting a toddler when English is your second language [Australia]

● Smartphones bringing the gospel to minority language groups [Benin]

● Canada brewery apologises for beer named 'pubic hair' in Maori [Canada]

● Language policy for China-Pakistan cooperation [China/ Pakistan]

● Solving the language puzzle [Ethiopia]

● Mother tongue to be removed from schools [Mongolia]

● Is English spelling an insult to human intelligence? [Australia]

Decade of action for indigenous languages (2022-2032)

The 'Los Pinos Declaration [Chapoltepek] – Making a Decade of Action for Indigenous Languages', now available in English, French and Spanish, is the outcome document of the high-level closing event of the International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL2019), which was organised by UNESCO and the Government of Mexico in the Chapoltepek forest. It includes milestones for developing the future Global Action Plan for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032). It also highlights the expected impact and outcomes, such as the need for the full spectrum of human rights and fundamental freedoms that deal with language vitality and sustainability issues, greater engagement, inclusion and empowerment of indigenous language users. UNESCO, as lead UN agency of the IYIL2019, will be coordinating the implementation of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.
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INTERESTING EVENTS

ONLINE: 2 - 3 September 2020, Venice (Italy)
First Conference on the Endangered Languages of East Asia (CELEA1)
Organised by the Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy.

ONLINE: 21 - 22 September 2020
European Regional Forum on Minority Issues 2020: 'Hate Speech, Social Media and Minorities'
* Register before 11 September 2020
Organised by the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Tom Lantos Institute and the Federal Ministry Republic of Austria.

ONLINE: 23 - 25 September 2020, London (United Kingdom)
Teaching and Learning Resources for Endangered Languages (FEL 24)
Organised by the Foundation for Endangered Languages and the University College London.

14 - 16 October 2020, Murcia (Spain)
13th International GLAT Congress: Le monde connecté et les approches interculturelles: vers un nouveau paradigme des frontières ?
Organised by the University of Murcia

29 - 30 October 2020, Meknès (Morocco)
Interdisciplinary colloquium: “La désuétude au carrefour des savoirs : De la langue à la culture”
Organised by the University Moulay Ismail.

2 - 3 November 2020, Valetta (Malta)
International Conference on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education 2020 (ICMME4)
Organised by the University of Malta.

ONLINE: 12 - 13 November 2020, Madrid (Spain)
2nd International Conference on Bilingualism, Heritage Languages and Migration
* Deadline Call for Papers: 21 September 2020.
Organised by Lengua y Sociedad of the Facultad de Filología, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.

ONLINE: 23 - 27 November 2020, Paris (France)
ENROPE’s second Intensive Study Week
Organised by the ENROPE consortium, hosted by the University Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris.

Dates to be announced, 2021, Zurich (Switzerland)
Symposium on Research Methods in Language Attitudes
Organised by the University of Zurich

24 - 26 March 2021, Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain)
18th International Conference on Minority Languages (ICML XVIII)
Organised by the University of the Basque Country.

10 - 12 May 2021, Paris (France)
Minority languages spoken or signed and inclusive spaces
Organised by INSHEA.

26 - 28 May 2021, Zadar (Croatia)
New Contexts for the Use of Minoritized Languages/Varieties (NEWCON 2020)
* New Call for Papers: 1 November 2020 - 15 January 2021.
Organised by by the Linguistics Department of the University of Zadar,the SOAS World Languages Institute, Mercator European Research Centre and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Social and Language Documentation (CIDLes).

June 2021, Groningen (Netherlands)
TABU - International linguistics conference
Organised by Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen.

30 June 2021 - 3 July 2021, Barcelona (Spain)
30th Conference of the European Second Language Association (EuroSLA)
Organised by University of Barcelona/ EuroSLA.

5 - 8 July 2021, Athens (Greece)
14th Annual International Conference on Languages & Linguistics
* Deadline Call for Papers: 7 December 2020.
Hosted by the Athens Institute for Education and Research.

15 - 20 August 2021, Groningen (the Netherlands)
AILA 2020: World Congress of Applied Linguistics
Organised by the University of Groningen, Multilingual Matters and others.

6 - 8 September 2021, Graz (Austria)
Language Teacher Psychology Conference 2021 (LTP)
* Deadline Call for Papers: 1 September 2020.
Organised by the University of Graz.

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