Mercator Network Newsletter 184

June 2022

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EUROPEADA: European Football Championship
of autochthonous national minorities

From 25 June to 3 July 2022, the EUROPEADA - European Football Championship of the autochthonous national minorities - takes place in Carinthia/Koroška, Austria. There will not only be sport events, but also a series of political and cultural side events. Co-organiser FUEN expects about 1000 participants from all over Europe. The EUROPEADA organisation and UEFA already explored cooperation. "EUROPEADA and UEFA have many common values and interests, which is why we want to work together," said UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin at a meeting.


	Thousands gather to rally for Irish Language Act Thousands of Irish language activists took to Belfast’s streets on May 21st. The rally was organised by campaign group An Dream Dearg and they were "blown away" by the level of the support shown, and claimed that it was "the biggest Irish language demonstration of a generation". Read more


	March to defend Valencian language rights Thousands of people marched through the streets of Castellón de la Plana to demand the defense of the Valencian language. Anna Oliver, president of Acció Cultural del País Valencià, called for "normal use of our language rights by all types of administration and in any field." Read more


	INTERESTING LINKS




	EUROPE

● Europe’s other song contest: this is Liet International, the ‘Eurovision of minority languages’

● Sardinian, between standardization and extinction

● Eurovision 2022: Behind the scenes with Breton Alvan & Ahez

● Welsh and Gaelic language TV programming to be protected

● Thousands of people have taken to the streets of San Sebastián in support of the Basque language

● A Frisian voice from Vietnam: Phat Do researches synthetic speech

● 'The time has come to activate Basque'

● Social activism is pushing for the future of language

● The 50th anniversary of the Nice Occitan course in Sasserno in the Nice Matin

● Baby Blog: Supporting bilingual families around the world

● FUEN Congress 2022 to be held in Berlin (29 Sept – 2 Oct)

● Thousands of Navarrese have called on the government to end discrimination

● Sound atlas of regional languages: how do we speak in Limousin?

● 'Proud to be a Sinto': Film about minorities in German-Danish borderland celebrates premiere in Minority Competence Network

● 'Danish, Frisian, Low German: NDR is expanding its range

New report: Measurement of the street use of languages
in the Basque Country

'On the streets of Basque Country, 1 in 8 people speak Basque. But it has not lost presence in the streets. In the last 5 years data on usage is neither increased nor decreased.' That is just one of the results from the new study 'Measurement of the street use of languages. Basque Country, 2021', carried out by Soziolinguistika Klusterra. They also noted that in almost all groups (children, young people and adults), the use of Basque is more frequent among women than among men. And that the use of Basque is higher when children and older people are together than when they are apart. The Sociolinguistic Cluster now proposes a collective exercise of interpretation, debate, reflection and comparison and has organised a forum to do this on June 22nd.


	Successful course series Sater Frisian For the first time in eight years, a Seeltersk course was held in the northern German region of Saterland. Seeltersk (Saterland Frisian) is spoken by about 2,250 people. A new course series is planned for this fall. Read more


	The decline of the Breton language of Brittany Other than Celtic languages Welsh and Cornish, the Breton language sees an overall decline. According to the latest polls, 80% of the speakers are over 60 years old, and just 5% are between the ages of 15 and 40. Read more


	Book: Research Methods in Language Attitudes The book Research Methods in Language Attitudes, edited by Ruth Kircher (Mercator/ Fryske Akademy) & Lena Zipp (Universität Zürich), provides an overview of traditional and cutting-edge methods. It includes case studies from multilingual societies around the world. Available to pre-order. Read more


	CUSC-UB director Emili Boix receives Sant Jordi Award CUSC-UB researcher and director Emili Boix-Fuster has received the 19th Modest Reixach Award from Societat Catalana de Sociolingüística for the work ‘Llengua i dialectes: esperances per al català, l’anglès i el basc’, which he has co-edited with Maria Pilar Perea. Read more


	South African Sign Language



	South African Sign Language to become the country's 12th official language


Podcast

Biligualism Matters' podcast Much Language Such Talk


	Jersey language policy for schools and colleges The first language policy for all government schools and colleges in Jersey (UK) has been launched. 62 different languages are spoken in schools across the island, with Portuguese, Polish and Romanian as the three most spoken languages by pupils. Read more


	Regional Dossier: Latgalian in Latvian education The Mercator Regional Dossier 'The Latgalian language in education in Latvia' is now available for download (free). It is updated in 2022 by Sanita Martena (Lazdiņa), Heiko F. Marten, and Ilga Šuplinska, based on their first edition from 2008/2009. Read more


	INTERESTING LINKS




	WORLD

● Regional accentism that secretly affects job prospects [world]

● New study: In what language is a bilingual or multilingual person most likely to dream? [USA]

● SBS launches new free-to-air multilingual news channel [Australia]

● How language-rich math helps students learning English [USA]

● Quebec moves to protect French language and restrict use of English [Canada]

● 5 decades of invisiblisation of minor languages [India]

● Shagz Chronicles: podcast that wants you to fall in love with the Kikuyu language and culture [Kenya]

● Global coalition for language rights [Australia]

● Conflicts language stretch beyond Russia and Ukraine [world]

● How to challenge Anglocentricity in academic publishing [Australia]


	ENROPE Colloquium on plurilingualism and education The online ENROPE Colloquium is going to be on June 17, 2022 from 13-16hrs (CEST). It will be a space for presenting and discussing on-going research and teaching projects related to plurilingualism and education, welcoming researchers and educators at all stages of their career. ENROPE is a consortium consisting of 9 European partners (8 universities and 1 research centre: Mercator). Read more


	What educational models might ensure bilingualism? CUSC-UB researchers Avel·lí Flors-Mas and Montserrat Sendra participated in the NPLD round table discussion on ‘European Language Models in Education’. They offered a comparative research study on educational models in Brittany, Catalonia, the Basque Country, Ireland and Wales in an attempt to identify which models serve best to the aim of ensuring full bilingualism. Read more

Teaching modules on global citizenship education,
economic inequalities and multilingualism

The Erasmus+ project Global Citizenship and Multilingual Competences (GCMC) project is now in the process of finishing teaching modules on different aspects of global citizenship education. The modules not only focus on global interconnectedness and diversity in the class room, but also on economic inequalities and multilingualism, including minority languages. In this multilingualism module, developed by Mercator European Research Centre/ Fryske Akademy, teachers and students learn about phenomena like translanguaging, language rights and issues of language prestige. Both teacher and teaching units of the modules will eventually be available online.


	INTERESTING EVENTS



	9-10 June 2022, Groningen (Netherlands) International Linguistics Conference TABU Organised by Center for Language and Cognition from the University of Groningen 14 June 2022, Brussels (Belgium) European Conference on Language & Education Organised by International Commission of European Citizens 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 17 June 2022, online (free) ENROPE colloquium on plurilingualism and education Organised by the ENROPE consortium 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 Hosted by Soillse, University of the Highlands and Islands 14-16 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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Thousands gather to rally for Irish Language Act

March to defend Valencian language rights

INTERESTING LINKS

EUROPE

Successful course series Sater Frisian

The decline of the Breton language of Brittany

Book: Research Methods in Language Attitudes

CUSC-UB director Emili Boix receives Sant Jordi Award

South African Sign Language

Podcast

Jersey language policy for schools and colleges

Regional Dossier: Latgalian in Latvian education

INTERESTING LINKS

WORLD

ENROPE Colloquium on plurilingualism and education

What educational models might ensure bilingualism?

INTERESTING EVENTS