| Mercator
Newsletter - No.19, Nov. & Dec. 2005 |
| From January 2005 the Mercator Common Newsletter is a monthly newsletter. This way you will be kept informed with more recent and updated information. |
| 20 new members from five different minority language communities join European Network of Schools |
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20 new members from five different minority language communities join European Network of Schools MERCATOR-EDUCATION |
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In the past two months the Mercator Education Team has made a lot of effort to involve more schools in the European Network of Schools. The results of these efforts are very successful and we are proud to announce that 20 new schools from five different minority language communities (Catalan in France, Galician and Basque in Spain, Frisian in The Netherlands and Hungarian in The Slovak Republic) have decided to join our network. These involve both bilingual, trilingual and immersion schools. The extensive growth of the school network has led to the need of a structured filing system in which all relevant information of the member schools could be organized. The result is a well-organized database in which general information such as contact details and more specific information regarding teaching methods of all 52 member schools have been documented. The database is not only for administration purposes, it will also smoothen the process of linking like-minded schools to each other. For more information regarding our Network of Schools, please contact Martine van der Meulen (mvdmeulen@fa.knaw.nl) 20 new schools from five different minority language communities join Mercator Education. |
| News Nov. & Dec. 2005 (links to the Mercator websites) |
| Legislation news - Mercator-Linguistic Rights and Legislation |
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| Media News - Mercator-Media |
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£11.5m boost for the Gaelic channel It is understood that the Executive of the Scottish Government will contribute £11.5m a year towards a Gaelic digital channel in Scotland. The original sum proposed was £8.5m a year and the hope is that the channel, which will cost £17m to run, will begin by Autumn 2006. At the moment the BBC spends around £2.1m on Gaelic television but could raise its contribution to between £2.5m and £3.4m. “If the additional money is true then we welcome it “ said Neil Fraser, chairman of the Gaelic Media Service. “This is the news that we have been waiting for, the first big step towards establishing a service that we can be proud of.” In November Ofcom announced that an agreement with Scottish TV and Grampian TV would be a boost to establishing the channel. It was agreed that the companies STV and Grampian would contibute financially towards Gaelic Media Service. The contribution would mean £1.2m over three years towards programming and promotion. Vicki Nash, Director of Ofcom Scotland, said: “Ofcom's agreement with Scottish and Grampian represents a positive step forward in the progress towards a digital channel dedicated to Gaelic viewers." The first Gaelic reality television programme was broadcast on BBC2 Scotland on the 24th November. The aim of the programme Comadaidh Óir (Comedy Gold), in which 6 writers compete for the main prize over 6 weeks, is to discover new comedy writing talent. The contestants have three days to prepare comedy sketches drawing on inspiration from their location which are then performed by actors in front of an audience in six different parts of Scotland. Audiences can then vote fot their favourite sketch. There will be subtitles on-screen but the producers concede that some humour may be lost in translation. “The programme is an attempt to keep the language alive and well and to expand its appeal by showing that it can be relevant and fashionable” said Jackie Sinclair, a member of the production team. Full details: http://tinyurl.com/dm77s Claims of Discrimination on Wanadoo.fr Discussion Forum Against French Languages Language campaigners in France have been “angered by the intolerant and insulting remarks made by Wanadoo”, the main French internet service provider (ISP) on their discussion forum. Remarks in the section on forum usage titled “I am respectful of human dignity and the comments of others” note that conversations in different “patois (Alsacien, Breton, Provencal...)” are only allowed in the relevant “geographical discussion rooms” and that this talk should not “drown the discussion in the room to the detriment of the language understood by all French speakers i.e. classic French”. The guidelines have been broadly condemned, with the federation of French independentist parties – Région et Peuples Solidaires – saying in their press release that “whereas UNESCO have just adopted a convention on “the protection and promotion of cultural diversity”, the subsidiary company of France Telecom are applying a policy of linguistic segregation which is totally backward and Jacobinist”. Groups have called on users of the service to boycott until the discussion forum guidelines are revised. Wanadoo have now removed the comments namig French languages as “patois” and changed the guidelines to note that French is the main language of the discussion forum but that “any other language is welcome in the salon (discussion thread) if the subject of the aforesaid salon (discussion thread) lends itself to it.” After France Bleu, France 3: Media Decentralisation Causes Turmoil The Breton Democratic Union and Emgann expressed their solidarity
with workers ar France 3 Iroise television in Brittany, who have raised
concerns at the apparently arbitrary decision by France 3 to close local
programming for the station between the 19th and 31 December 2005. This
means that during this period viewers will not be able to see the local
French language broadcasts nor the daily Breton programme An Taol Lagad.
The station management said that “this was a chance for all of the staff
to take their leave”. This comes only three months after the recentralisation
of the France Bleu radio station, which also had regionally specific
programming, giving further concern for the future of Breton public
service broadcasting and regionally specific radio programming in general.
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| Publications |
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New: Working Paper n.20 - Mercator Linguistic Rights and Legislation |
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In its Working Paper. 20, Mercator-Linguistic Rights and Legislation publishes the 'Legislation and practice in the usage of the Basque language in the Foral Community of Navarre'. |
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Mercator 's main goal is to gather, store and distribute information through a documentation and information network for regional and minority languages in the European Union. In order to achieve this goal, one of the initiatives executed by Mercator-Education, is the creation of the Database of Experts. This database creates an easy and quick access to all expertise in the field of European minority languages and it facilitates contacts and co-operation amongst colleagues in this domain. We believe that you as a reader of our newsletter can play a significant role. Perhaps you consider yourself an expert in the field of minority languages, language policy, education, bilingualism and multilingualism, or maybe you have a friend, colleague or acquaintance with a lot of knowledge in the field. Experts are requested to subscribe to our database by filling in the form on our website, in which we ask for your name and e-mail address. After having filled in the form, we will contact the expert for the additional information. To subscribe to our database, click on: http://www.mercator-education.org/infotype/webpage/view.asp?objectID=3960 Should you require any further information regarding our Database of
Experts, please contact Cor van der Meer (cvdmeer@fa.knaw.nl)
or Elly Albers (ealbers@fa.knaw.nl).
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Conference on "Creating Outsiders; Endangered Languages, Migration and Marginalisation" - ME |
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Being in South Africa the conference participants got acquainted with some special languages: Khoe and San of the Bushman, smaller Bantu languages, which can trace their origins to the Equator, and Afrikaans, once so advantaged. Further they heard about the Edu North vernaculars in Nigeria, the marginalisation of Mosuo in China, Makhuwa spoken by the descendants of slaves from East Africa and Bhojpuri, the language of indentured Indian labourers in KwaZulu-Natal. Some of the questions discussed were: Why are migration histories so treasured as sources of language identity? Do language-communities always have better prospects of survival in their home territories? Can there be effective support between language-communities at home and scattered across the world? Can small language-communities create new identities in remote territories? Can new communities build a new identity based on a shared language? What is the value of cultural resources? Can technology help? During the conference a special evening session was devoted to a panel discussion on South Africa's language policy. The university of Stellenbosch has traditionally Afrikaans as its teaching language, but more and more courses are also presented in English in order to reach a greater number of possible students. Recent discussions show that many people fear that the position of Afrikaans is threatened by this development and other aspects of globalisation. Also attention should be paid to some of the other official 11 languages of the country, in particular Xhosa, the third language of South Africa’s Western Cape Province. On Monday 21 November, an expedition has been organised on language policy in the Western Cape province. A group of conference participants visited the !Khwa ttu San Education and Culture Centre, near the West Coast National Park, with speakers of Khwedam and !Xun, and descendants of the Khoikhoi and N/u-speaking Khomani San. During this most interesting part of the visit to South Africa they could meet with representatives of the Provincial Government's language and culture desk, the president of the National Khoisan Consultative Conference, representative of the Griqua National Conference, and other authorities who reported on the local language policy in street signs, administration, and education. |
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