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French Constitutional Council censors minority languages bill

In our last newsletter we reported on the historic approval of the 'Molac bill' on the protection and promotion of regional languages by the French National Assembly. However, on May 21st, the French Constitutional Council partially censored this law because the plan was 'unconstitutional'. Part of the bill was not in line with Article 2 of the French constitution, which states that the language of the French Republic is French. Deputy Paul Molac issued a press release immediately: "If immersion education and an accent in endangered languages is against the Constitution, there's something wrong with the Constitution." He has called on President Macron to urgently modify Article 2 of the Constitution in response to the decision of the Constitutional Council. In the meantime, demonstrations will be held in all areas with 'regional' languages, starting on Saturday May 29th.

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Hungarian resolution to support Minority SafePack

The Hungarian Parliament adopted a resolution in support of the Minority SafePack Initiative. "The Parliament is deeply shocked that the European Commission rejected the initiative in its entirety, not only ignoring the opinion of the European Parliament but disregarding the will of European citizens," says the resolution. 157 parliamantarians voted for, only 1 against.

Read more at FUEN

 

Corsican immersive schools open next school year

The Scola Corsa association announced the opening of two immersive schools in the Corsican language. Similar projects exist in the Basque Country (Seaska) and in Brittany (Diwan) where nearly 8,000 children are educated from kindergarten onwards. "It is not completely immersive", specifies Scola Corsa president Turchini, "it is 80% of the time. The remaining 20% is in French."

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New NPLD reports on Regional or Minority Languages in the EU

In 2019, the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD) organised a call for projects to encourage its members to strengthen interregional cooperation when it comes to language promotion and to jointly work on projects that could benefit all the language communities of the Network at local, regional or EU level. One of the first projects to be granted by NPLD was submitted by the Government of Catalonia, in cooperation with Mercator/Fryske Akademy. As a result of this succesful cooperation, the NPLD presents two reports on Regional or Minority Languages in the EU: 'Analysing the EU Agreements with Spain and the UK on the use of regional or minority languages. A practical assessment', by E. Pons and K. Jiménez Weese, and 'Accessibility for regional or minority languages to the EU programmes. A practical assessment', by H. Kuipers-Zandberg and A. F. Schukking. Both reports are free to download.

Sound Atlas of Regional Languages

The Sound Atlas of the Regional Languages contains 791 language recordings and their transcriptions of Aesop's fable "The North Wind and the Sun". The atlas was made by three researchers from Le Centre national de la recherche scientifique and the University of Paris-Saclay.

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Nomination for research on multilingual BabelAR

Mercator's interns Engelina Smeins and Kirsten Wildenburg have been nominated for the daily newspaper Leeuwarder Courant-Awards for their research on the application of VIrtuLApp's multilingual Augmentend Reality game BabelAR! Until June 6, you can vote for them to win the audience award!

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Italian sign language

Italian Sign Language (LIS) has become an official language of the State on May 19th

New Catalan Rap

Plataforma per la Llengua organises rap workshops

Call for Papers: Time and language development

The French/ English journal Lidil ('Revue de linguistique et de didactique des langues') is looking for contributors for their special edition on 'Time and language development: pedagogical and practical considerations'.

Call for Papers

 

Premio Ostana: festival of language biodiversity

The festival 'Premio Ostana: Scritture in Lingua Madre' was created to defend and promote linguistic and cultural diversity throughout the world. The 2021 edition will take place from 3-5 June fully online.

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Drents and German in primary education

The project 'Drents and German in primary education' aims at improving the knowledge of the regional language Drents and the neighboring language German by pupils in primary education in the Dutch province of Drenthe. The project team recently launched Digi+, a digital bilingual Dutch-German learning method.

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Learning guide: 'We learn Aranese from Catalan'

La Direcció General de Política Lingüística has published the basic level guide 'Aprenem aranès desde el català' to make it easier for Catalan speakers to learn Aranese. The publication is part of the program 'Occitan, Aranese in Aran' that Política Lingüística promotes to promote knowledge of Aranese throughout Catalonia.

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Publication: 'Revitalizing Endangered Languages'

Of the approximately 7,000 languages in the world, at least half may no longer be spoken by the end of the twenty-first century. This (open access) guidebook (J. Olko & J. Sallabank (Eds.), Revitalizing Endangered Languages: A Practical Guide. Cambridge 2021: Cambridge University Press) provides ideas and strategies, as well as some background, to help with the effective revitalization of endangered languages.

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ECRML report: challenges and improvements

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) published the report 'Application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (2018-2020)'. It deals with the main issues related to the functioning of the Charter system in the light of the conclusions of the conference held in Strasbourg in June 2018 on the ECRML and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

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INTERESTING EVENTS

2021, NEW DATES T.B.A., Valetta (Malta)
International Conference on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education 2020 (ICMME4)
Organised by the University of Malta.


ONLINE: 10 May- 30 June (!) 2021, Paris (France)
Minority languages spoken or signed and inclusive spaces
Organised by INSHEA.


ONLINE: 4-5 June 2021, Kaunas (Lithunia)
6th International Conference on Sustainable Multilingualism 2021
Organised by Vytautas Magnus University and the Language Teachers’ Association of Lithuania.


ONLINE: 10-11 June 2021, Groningen (Netherlands)
TABU - International linguistics conference
Organised by Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen.


ONLINE: 9 - 11 June 2021, Brighton (United Kingdom)
Approaches to Migration, Language & Identity 2021
Organised by University of Sussex.


ONLINE: 28 - 29 June 2021, Konstanz (Germany)
ECSPM symposium 'Multilingualism in Higher Education in Europe'
Organised by University of Konstanz and the European Reform University Alliance (ERUA).


ONLINE: 28 June 2021 - 2 July 2021, Barcelona (Spain)
ENROPE Intensive Study Week for young researchers in the field of Plurilingualism and Language Learning
Organised by University Ramon Llull and the ENROPE consortium.


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
Hosted by the Athens Institute for Education and Research.


ONLINE: 10 - 14 July 2021, Warsaw (Poland)
International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB13)
Organised by the University of Warsaw.


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)
Organised by the University of Graz.


8 - 9 September 2021, Warsaw (Poland)
Conference: Conventional and unconventional ways of transmitting and revitalizing minoritized languages: in European context and beyond
Organised by the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Polish Academy of Science.


16 - 19 September 2021, Poznań (Poland)
50th Poznań Linguistic Meeting
Organised by the Adam Mickiewicz University


24 - 25 September 2021, Graz (Austria)
5th International Conference on Kurdish Linguistics (ICKL-5)
Organised by the University of Graz


14 - 15 October 2021, Flensburg (Germany)
International conference: Multi-platform and Connecting Communities: Contemporary Challenges for Minority Language Media
Organised by the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)


29 - 30 November 2021, Paris (France)
2nd International Symposium on Family Language Policy
Organised by the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco)


ONLINE: 15 - 16 December 2021, Sydney (Australia)
The Value of Languages in a Multilingual World
Organised by Multilingualism Research Centre (MRC)/ Macquarie University


16-19 December 2021, Tirana (Albania)
Conference 'Endangered Languages and Diaspora'
Organised by the Foundation for Endangered Languages and the Center for Research and Publication on Arbëresh


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