Mercator Network Newsletter 182

April 2022

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No Irish language legislation before assembly elections

Northern Ireland secretary Lewis has said he will not bring forward Irish language legislation before the assembly election on May 5th. This legislation was part of the New Decade, New Approach (NDNA) deal, legislation that provided for, among other things, the appointment of both an Irish language commissioner and an Ulster Scots commissioner. Irish language promotion organisation Conradh na Gaeilge is bitterly disappointed, but not surprised: "Conradh na Gaeilge believes the British Government had adequate time and opportunities to bring forward this legislation since the commitment was given by SOS Brandon Lewis MP in June 2021 and that a lack of political will, rather than a lack of time, is to blame for the ongoing delay."

Read the Conradh na Gaeilge statement


	Local charter for Basque language in France signed 49 mayors from the Communauté d'Agglomération du Pays Basque (France) signed a local version of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which marks the commitment of the signatory municipalities, including Bayonne/ Baiona and Biarritz/ Miarritze, to promoting the use of Basque in several fields of public life. Read more


	Catalan sociolinguist Miquel Strubell passed away It is with great sadness that we mourn the passing of Miquel Strubell. Sociolinguist Strubell published many studies on the Catalan language, as well as being an advisor for the Council of Europe and the OSCE. He was a strong advocate for the rights of small and minority language areas. A few days before he died, he wrote a 'Letter to Europe'. Read more


	INTERESTING LINKS




	EUROPE

● An immersive preschool in Alghero, Sardinia - the story of a fantastic experience

● ‘Griko is the sound of my parents and grandparents’, Dr Manuela Pellegrino says

● Norman dialect displayed at the entrances to towns

● 'Gaelic: Giving BBC Alba the same status as the Welsh service, would help the language survive'

● The history of Ukrainian, a language with Russian accents

● New £5.7 million language immersion centre to be built in Aberystwyth

● Linguistic Atlas of Dolomitic Ladinian and neighbouring dialects

● "The Catalan language does not die in the north, as we might have thought in the eighties"

● British Sign Language set for legal recognition

● British Sign Language in Scotland

● 'The Office of Linguistic Rights of the Generalitat Valenciana after the Supreme Court judgment 1357/2021'

● Instituto de l'Aragonés and the Institut Aragonès del Català integrated into the Aragonese Academy of Language

● uTalk, a new app to learn Breton

● Publication: 'The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages'

WikiWomen

On International Women's Day (8 March), Mercator/ Fryske Akademy and it's partners from Friesland (Afûk, Learning Hub Friesland), the Basque Country (Euskal Wikilarien Kultura, Antigua-Luberri/ Gobierno Vasco) and Ireland ( Wikimedia Ireland, Coláiste Oiriall) anounced that they have received a European ErasmusPlus subsidy for the three-year project ‘WikiWomen’. The consortium is committed to using smaller language Wikipedia's as a means of teaching digital literacy, social skills and (minority) language skills to secondary school students, with a focus on biographies of women. [Group photo: Jacob van Essen / Het Hoge Noorden]


	'Croatia should remedy gaps in minority language use ' The CoE’s Committee of Experts, which monitors the implementation of the Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, adopted a report with recommendations for immediate action, regarding eleven minority languages in Croatia (e.g. Czech, Ruthenian and Serbian). Read more


	Being bilingual can protect your brain from aging Researchers at UiT Norway's Arctic University have looked at the effect that bilingualism has on the brain throughout life, and how chemistry in the brain is changed by bilingualism. It turns out that if you are bilingual, your brain can be protected against aging. Read more


	'Minorities for Ukraine'



	FUEN launched its humanitarian aid campaign 'Minorities for Ukraine'


Lingua latina

Interactive map of European languages (romanic)


	'Refugees & intercultural communicative competence' Mercator researchers Anna Fardau Schukking and Ruth Kircher have published a new open access paper about professional intercultural communicative competence and labour market integration among highly-educated refugees in the Netherlands. Read more


	Call for Papers: 'Minority Language Policy' From 29–31 August 2022, the Soillse conference on 'Rooting Minority Language Policy in the Speaker Community' takes place in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. It is organised by Soillse, University of the Highlands & Islands. Call for Papers is open. Read more


	Hamburg University International Summer School The Hamburg International Summer School on Language Diversity will take place from 11 July to 5 August 2022. It includes a research program and a supplementary program with a language course and cultural events. Read more


	University of Groningen/ Leeuwarden Summer School The Leeuwarden Summer School on Cultural and Linguistic Diversity will take place from 20-24 June 2022. It explores how cultural and linguistic diversity is at the base of social, economic and educational inequalities. Read more


	INTERESTING LINKS




	WORLD

● Recommendations of the UN Forum on Minority Issues on the theme 'Conflict prevention and the protection of the human rights of minorities' [world]

● How my multilingual upbringing helps solve Spelling Bee [US]

● 'Canada must accommodate Indigenous and minority languages to be truly multicultural' [Canada]

● Canberra woman from the Deaf community talks about her experience ahead of AuSLan Day [Australia]

● 'Failed policies, false promises bedevil multilingualism in SA' [South Africa]

● First Mro language grammar book brings a ray of hope for the indigenous community [Bangladesh]

● New Mexico bill promotes native language education [US]

● A journey through Japan’s linguistic peripheries [Japan]

● Sri Lankas last indigenous people [Sri Lanka]


	Paper: 'Minority language rights to education' A new open access publication by Mercator/ Fryske Akademy and Utrecht University researchers about minority language education in the Dutch province of Fryslân. Read more


	Paper: 'Raising multilingual infants and toddlers' What kinds of resources help parents support their children's multilingual development? Find out in this new paper by Mercator researcher Ruth Kircher and her colleagues from Quebec. Read more

CUSC-UB coordinates study on Catalan language use in schools

The Department of Education of the Generalitat de Catalunya has commissioned Mercator Network partner CUSC-UB to carry out a study on school language use in Catalonia, with the aim of obtaining an up-to-date portrait of the linguistic reality of schools. The study will be carried out on a sample of 35,000 students from various educational stages in a total of 147 centers. The questionnaire will investigate the use of students' languages both inside and outside the classroom, in order to define an accurate diagnosis of the linguistic reality of the current Catalan school.


	INTERESTING EVENTS



	9-10 June 2022, Groningen (Netherlands) International Linguistics Conference TABU Organised by Center for Language and Cognition from the University of Groningen 16-17 June 2022, Budapest (Hungary) Rules and incentives in language policy and planning: Economic, legal, and sociolinguistic approaches Organised by research group 'Economics, Policy Analysis and Language' (REAL) 16-17 June 2022, Rēzeknes (Latvia) International Academic Conference 'Regional Languages in Education: from Literature towards Literacy' Organised by Rēzekne Academy of Technologies 20-24 June 2022, Leeuwarden (Netherlands) Summer School on Cultural & Linguistic Diversity: Diversity Management for Social Justice Organised by University of Groningen 22-24 June 2022, Granada (Spain)/ online International Conference 'Future Challenges in Early Language Learning and Multilingual Education (ELLME2022) Organised by Universidad de Granada 22-25 June 2022, online 17th International Conference of Language and Social Psychology (ICLASP17) Organised by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University 27-29 June 2022, Warsaw (Poland) World Congress of Modern Languages and the Annual Conference of the Polish Association of Modern Languages Organised by the International Federation of Language Teacher Associations, the Polish Association of Modern Languages and the Faculty of Modern Languages, University of Warsaw 30 June - 1 July 2022, Oldenburg (Germany) Small languages, big ideas (SLBI) Organised by the Universities of Oldenburg and Groningen 13-16 July 2022, Ghent (Belgium) Sociolinguistics Symposium 24 - Inside and beyond binaries Organised by Ghent University 4-5 August 2022, Tromsø (Norway) 4th International Symposium on Bilingual and L2 Processing in Adults and Children Organised by the University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway 8-12 August 2022, Koblenz (Germany) 39th International LAUD Symposium 'Multilingualism in Africa: Language contact, endangerment and cultural conceptualisation' Organised by the University of Koblenz-Landau 25-27 August 2022, online The Multidisciplinary Approaches in Language Policy and Planning Online Conference (LPP 2022) Hosted by the McGill University's Faculty of Education in Montréal (Canada) 29-31 August 2022, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis (Scotland) Soillse International Conference on Rooting Minority Language Policy in the Speaker Community * Call for Papers: open Hosted by Soillse, University of the Highlands and Islands 13-16 September 2022, Leeuwarden (Netherlands) 2nd Conference on Frisian Humanities Organised by Fryske Akademy, Mercator, NHLStenden, the University of Groningen, and RuG/Campus Fryslân 13-16 September 2022, Girona - Perpinyà (Spain/ France) III International Conference on Revitalisation of Indigenous and Minoritized Languages Organised by Universitat de Girona, Université de Perpignan – Via Domitia et Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage 15-17 September 2022, Zagreb (Croatia) 12th International Conference on Third Language Acquisition and Multilingualism Organised by University of Zagreb 6-7 October 2022, Joensuu (Finland) International Conference on Multilingual Awareness and Multilingual Practices * Call for Papers is open (Deadline 15 July) Organised by University of Eastern Finland 26-30 June 2023, Sydney (Australia) - Hybrid conference International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB14) * Call for Symposia and Papers is open Organised by Macquarie University 17-21 July 2023, Lyon (France) AILA 2023 * Call for Symposia and Papers is open Organised by ENS de Lyon


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Local charter for Basque language in France signed

Catalan sociolinguist Miquel Strubell passed away

INTERESTING LINKS

EUROPE

'Croatia should remedy gaps in minority language use '

Being bilingual can protect your brain from aging

'Minorities for Ukraine'

Lingua latina

'Refugees & intercultural communicative competence'

Call for Papers: 'Minority Language Policy'

Hamburg University International Summer School

University of Groningen/ Leeuwarden Summer School

INTERESTING LINKS

WORLD

Paper: 'Minority language rights to education'

Paper: 'Raising multilingual infants and toddlers'

INTERESTING EVENTS