Mercator Network Newsletter 185

July 2022

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UN Special Procedures issues official communication to France over discrimination against territorial languages

UN Special Procedures have issued an official communication to the French state noting their concerns over discrimination against territorial languages following the Constitutional Court’s intervention against the Molac Law in July 2021. The Communication is a follow-up to the European Language Equality Network (ELEN) letter of allegation sent to the UN Special Rapporteur for Minorities in 2021. The UN Communication calls on the French state to provide information on the implementation of the Molac Law for regional languages and how the constitutional court decision has affected this. The Communication notes: “We fear that the adoption and application of this decision could lead to significant violations to the human rights of linguistic minorities in France.”


	CoE condemns aggression Russian Federation The Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages adopted a statement condemning the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, finding it unacceptable to use the situation of Russian as a minority language in Ukraine as a pretext for the aggression. Read more


	Croatia: right of education in mother tongue 16 ethnic minorities in Croatia exercise the right of education in their mother tongue, which covers education ranging from pre-school to secondary school. That is what an Education Ministry's official said on the Zagreb Conference 'Inter-cultural education in minority languages and script'. Read more


	INTERESTING LINKS




	EUROPE

● Promoting Spain’s linguistic diversity

● Strategy aims to more than double number of Manx speakers

● Saeima endorses transition to Latvian as only instruction language in schools

● Afrikaans test: Irish airline Ryanair stands by South African language quiz

● Chinese language in Brussels is different from that in Antwerp

● New Dundee publishing house gives voice to literature in minority languages

● Council of Europe: Estonia should integrate its national minorities better

● Manchester rethinks community outreach: Multicultural, multilingual team does house calls

● 'Passem' participants run to defend 'la lenga nosta'

● Aragón TV premieres the first 'late night' in Aragonese

● The linguistic crumbs of Spanish audiovisual law

● Subsidies for the incorporation of the Catalan language in technological products and video games (application until July 14)

● Imanol Larrea to begin the first research project for the Alan R. King Basque Studies Chair

● Dismissal of appeal concerning the taking of the Basque baccalaureate exams in France

Northern Catalonia agrees with the French state

that all students can learn Catalan

Catalan will gradually be extended to schools in northern Catalonia and within ten years all pupils who so wish will be able to learn it. This is laid down in the agreement signed in Perpignan by the French state, the region of Occitania and the department of the eastern Pyrenees. The Public Office of the Catalan Language (L’Oficina Pública de la Llengua Catalana) will be in charge of dynamising and monitoring the annual application of the agreement, which will be carried out on the basis of a specific agreement that will specify the practical aspects.


	New campaign: Teachers for Valencian A manifesto coordinated by Plataforma per la Llengua urges public institutions to make a legislative and economic effort to stop the decline of Valencian in education. Signatures are collected through the campaign website. Read more


	FUEN platform around minority language teaching FUEN is working on the launch of a digital platform around minority language teaching. The platform is primarily intended to inspire, promote cooperation and to master current challenges. Read more


	Bosnia and Herzegovina: new ECRML report The Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts states that a lack of co-ordination continues to hinder the implementation of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. Read more


	Avel·lí Flors-Mas director of 'Revista de Llengua i Dret' Mercator Network CUSC-UB researcher Avel·lí Flors-Mas has been designated as the new director of the journal ‘Revista de Llengua i Dret’ (Journal of Language and Law). Read more


	Saatjitji, Saamaka and Sranan



	Videos for non-Dutch speaking students in Brokopondo (Suriname)


Doc: Sense Ficció

CUSC-UB researchers in docu on future Catalan language


	Language organisations denounce audiovisual law Representatives of organisations in favour of the minority languages Galician (AMESA), Basque (Euskalgintzaren Kontseilua), Catalan (Plataforma per la Llengua, Òmnium Cultural, ACPV, Escola Valenciana, FOLC and CIEMEN), Aragonese (Nogará) and Asturian (Iniciativa Pol Asturianu) protested against the new general audiovisual law. Read more


	Wallonia: 'Language Plan' to increase employment rate The Belgian region of Wallonia adopted a new 'Language Plan'. Professional languages training will be organised in professions for which languages are an asset for finding employment. The plan also includes continuing to provide language immersion scholarships for job seekers and students. A total amount of 2.75 million euros is dedicated to it. Read more


	INTERESTING LINKS




	WORLD

● Podcast:How the Ojibwe language survived the pandemic [US]

● Lorna Wanósts’a7 Williams:"When I heard the Catalan land acknowledgement, I was hearing the voice of the land" [Canada]

● The polyglots of Dardistan: How Dardistan became one of the most multilingual places on earth [Pakistan/ India/ Afghanistan]

● Amazon releases 51-language dataset for language understanding [www]

● I Am My Language: an asset-based pedagogy for English learners [US]

● Perak’s tourist police to be multilingual [Malaysia]

● This multilingual hotline is helping migrants impacted by overseas conflicts [Australia]

● Language Matters: Crossing the monolingual divide in mainstream broadcasting [New Zealand]

● Tech entrepreneurs create app for African languages [Zimbabwe]

● Dreaming of Words: documentary film about 84-year-old school dropout who compiled a dictionary connecting four major Dravidian languages [India]


	Online course 'Discourses on the promotion of Catalan' A new online edition of the course ‘Els discursos sobre ...’ (Discourses on the promotion of Catalan. Perspectives and arguments) is to be held in the 2022/2023 academic year, organised by CUSC-UB, the Secretariat for Language Policy (Government of Catalonia) and the Department of Philology and Linguistics (Universitat de Barcelona). Read more


	Minorities of the Danish-German Borderland The Summer School Minorities of the Danish-German Borderland (7-13 August 2022) is organised by the Universities of Southern Denmark, Kiel, Flensburg and Marburg and others. It sheds light on the different narratives, visit regional memorials, and discuss the relevance of staged remembrance for today’s society. Read more

‘Historic day’ for Irish language Community as Acht Gaeilge finally to be ‘introduced’ in Westminster

Conradh na Gaeilge - the democratic forum for the Irish-speaking community- has reacted to the news that the long overdue Irish language legislation promised in New Decade New Approach is introduced at Westminster. The bill will create a new office for an Irish language commissioner who will develop best practice standards for public authorities, alongside repealing the 1737 Act of Justice (Ireland) legislation which banned Irish from courts.


	INTERESTING EVENTS



	13-16 July 2022, Ghent (Belgium) Sociolinguistics Symposium 24 - Inside and beyond binaries Organised by Ghent University 18-22 July 2022, Gandia (Spain) Summer School: 'Minority Languages: Rights and Practices' Organised by University of Valencia and ELEN 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 4-6 May 2023 (!), Ottawa (Canada) Colloque du CCERBAL 2023 - Bilinguisme et multilinguisme: Compétences transversales, mobilité et bien-être * Call for Symposia and Papers is open Organised by Centre canadien d’études et de recherche en bilinguisme et aménagement linguistique (CCERBAL), Institut de langues officielles et du bilinguisme (ILOB), Université d’Ottawa. 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


	Please send us your comments and suggestions! The next edition will be published around the 1st of September. Have a good summer!

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CoE condemns aggression Russian Federation

Croatia: right of education in mother tongue

INTERESTING LINKS

EUROPE

New campaign: Teachers for Valencian

FUEN platform around minority language teaching

Bosnia and Herzegovina: new ECRML report

Avel·lí Flors-Mas director of 'Revista de Llengua i Dret'

Saatjitji, Saamaka and Sranan

Doc: Sense Ficció

Language organisations denounce audiovisual law

Wallonia: 'Language Plan' to increase employment rate

INTERESTING LINKS

WORLD

Online course 'Discourses on the promotion of Catalan'

Minorities of the Danish-German Borderland

INTERESTING EVENTS

New campaign:
Teachers for Valencian