From January 2005 the Mercator Common Newsletter is a monthly newsletter. This way you will be kept informed with more recent and updated information.
Mercator Network launches new central website
MERCATOR CENTRAL
The Mercator Network for regional and minority language education, legislation and media in the EU has launched a new website which brings together information on the work of its three centres in one central place (http://www.mercator-central.org). The aim of the site is to act as a portal where users can get an overview of the work of the three Mercator centres operating within the network and from which their sites can be accessed. At the moment, users can access the site in English, but soon will be available in other languages. Alongside more general information, visitors can find information on Mercator's projects, publications and get the latest news on the minority languages of the EU.
Alexia Bos from Mercator Legislation said "although the three Mercator centres are set apart geographically, we work together very closely in order to create an efficient network for collecting and disseminating information on the regional and minority languages of the EU. Alongside our yearly symposia and joint research, this website is another example of the way in which we achieve this."
News Feb. 2006(links to the Mercator websites)
- György Frunda, censured by Romanian politicians for his task in the Council of Europe [+]
- Natividad Mutumbajoy awarded the 2006 International Linguapax Prize [+]
- Law on languages, a key issue in Macedonia [+]
- The Danish minority in Germany celebrates the Language Day [+]
- Catalan now requisite for new University professors [+]
- The Mari minority faces cultural and linguistic assimilation in Russia [+]
Media news - MM
- Papers of IV Mercator International Symposium now available on line [+]
- RTVE to close down sections and reduce regional broadcasting [+]
- Reduction in number of hours of regional provision on radio and television in Brittany [+]
- Call for Papers for Irish Media Conference [+]
- Film to be made in Scottish Gaelic [+]
- Basque Region to be first European area covered by broadband [+]
- Web television on demand in Aragonese & First Asturian-English dictionary to be published [+]
Papers of IV Mercator International Symposium now available on line
The IV Mercator Internation Symposium was held in Aberystwyth on 26, 27 and 28 October last year with the theme of ‘Translation of Culture, Culture of Translation: Languages in Film, Television and Literature’. The papers are now available on line to be downloaded as either Word or pdf documents at http://www.aber.ac.uk/mercator/english/events/mercSym2005papers.htm.
RTVE to close down sections and reduce regional broadcasting
RTVE, the Spanish state-owned radio and television corporation, is to reduce its structure, staff, and programming due to heavy losses, according to a new plan. Radio 4, RTVE's channel in Catalan, will be closed down, as will RTVE's studios in the Canary Islands. Regional TV studios will see their activity reduced to a half-hour news programme a day and TV2 and Radio 5 will no longer disconnect from national programming to the regional studios. There will be a resulting impact on minority language broadcasting. The number of persons to be laid off has not yet been specified; RTVE has over 9000 employees. According to the plan, RTVE's current debt situation is "unsustainable" and the plan will help restore "efficiency" to the corporation. RTVE owes more than €7.5 billion. The corporation’s director general Carmen Caffarel said, "It's absurd for us to compete with unsuccessful programmes against regional-government-owned TV stations, because regional television is not what it was in the '70s." RTVE's studios in Madrid and Sant Cugat, Barcelona province, will not see their activities cut back.
The Galician language board, Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística, has strongly critcised the move and has asked that the autonomous government of Galicia should react to what it sees as a political decision coming from central goverment. The Mesa reminded the director of the public corporation that ‘programmes in the co-official languages of the state are a fundamental part of RTVE’s public service’ and that therefore ‘they cannot be done away with like something superfluous or unnecessary.’ The president of the Mesa, Carlos Callón, calling Carmen Caffarel a ‘demagogue’, pointed out that neither in the case of Radio 4 in Galicia, when it existed, nor now in the case of Radio 5 were there the problems with audience in Galicia that the corporation were pointing to in Catalonia and that for this reason the cuts were being implemented in Galicia more rapidly.
On the other hand, private enterprises as InfoTV, a channel in the Valencian variety of Catalan belonging to the company Infovalència Televisió SA which was established in December 2003, has now become available in the city of Ontinyent, capital of the Vall de Albaida in Valencia. This has been achieved by means of the transmissions of the local channel TVO, whose programming InfoTV will complement. InfoTV’s programmes will be broadcast on TVO during those hours when there are no local programmes, taking the place of the signal which was previously received from Euronews. The local authority of Ontinyent is one of the shareholders of Infovalència Televisió, having 7,500 shares with a value of 30,000 euros.
Reduction in number of hours of regional provision on radio and television in Brittany
A reduction in the number of hours of regional provision on the F3 television network and the France Bleu radio network in Brittany has recently been announced. In the case of the television programming, the hours of regional broadcasting are to be reduced by one quarter (or some 2.5 hours per week). The development gives grounds for concern over the programming in Breton. The Regional Council of Brittany has expressed its concern about the reduction. A demonstration is to be held on 25 March at 14.30 in front of the headquarters of Radio Breizh Izel (Radio France Bretagne Ouest) in Kemper (Quimper). The demonstration will also demand that as many hours of radio are broadcast on public radio in Breton as are in Corsican. See http://www.agencebretagnepresse.com.
Call for Papers for Irish Media (Local and Global Contexts) Conference
The Irish Media Research Network announces a one-day conference dedicated to research on Irish media on 16 June 2006, at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Aungier Street Campus.
The conference will provide a forum for recent or ongoing research on Irish media. It will provide a space to discuss approaches to such research and its academic, industrial and social significance. The conference will also officially launch the Irish Media Research Network.
Proposals for papers are invited from Irish and International researchers, including postgraduate research students. In the selection for presentation, preference will be given to papers that present new empirical findings or theoretical insights. Collective proposals are also invited for panel discussions on issues in media research.
Proposals (max. 300 words) should be sent by 16 March 2006 to Aoife.doherty@dbs.edu. The conference programme, including an invited keynote address, will be confirmed by 14 April 2006.
Film to be made in Scottish Gaelic
Christopher Young, one of Scotland’s most experienced film producers has indicated that he intends to make a feature film shot entirely in Gaelic. The film is to be called Seachd, which means ‘seven’ but will have an alternative title in English The Inaccessible Pinnacle, after a mountain in an t-Eilean Sgitheanach (Isle of Skye) which features in the plot. The film will present a series of stories related by an elderly man to his grandchildren, illustrating aspects of Gaelic history. The work has a budget of £600,000 (a little over 880,000 euros) and has been scripted by a team of five writers. There are to be four directors. Seachd will be shot on an t-Eilean Sgitheanach this summer and is to be subtitled in English.
Basque Region to be first European area covered by broadband
The Basque Autonomous Region will be the first region in Europe that will be covered in its whole territory by broadband internet access and other communications. Vice Basque Premier Idoia Zenarruzabeitia appeared at a press conference to evaluate the deployment of broadband, which is currently operating in 90 per cent of the country. The programme has required an investment of 8.4 million Euro, 900 kilometres of capillary net for transport and almost 100 base stations to broadcast the signal.
Zenarruzabeitia explained that at the beginning of 2004 the Basque government carried out a study that identified 102 boroughs in the Basque Autonomous Region as towns without broadband infrastructure or insufficiently covered. The result involved 40 per cent of the total number of towns, 47 per cent of the territory and 3 per cent of the population. As a result of this data, an expansion programme was set in motion that was awarded to Basque telecom operator Euskaltel. The programme is being implemented in two stages.
The first stage, which will end in the first quarter of 2006 expects to provide broadband coverage to the aforementioned 102 towns. At present 93 of them have already been covered, with only Gizaburuaga, Ubide, Atxondo, Alkiza, Albiztur, Peñacerrada, Zigoitia, Asparrena and San Millán remaining. In the second stage, which will finish at the end of 2006, the intention is to offer coverage to 177 urban districts or dispersal points, a service for 23,000 people. The government has already reached 109 of those places.
In order to facilitate access to broadband, the government subsidises 100 per cent of the external installation so that each home can connect to broadband making an outlay of 371 Euro.
Web television in Aragonese on demand & First Asturian-English dictionary to be published
The website http://www.charrando.com, which offers information and resources connected with the Aragonese language, has recently introduced a ‘television on demand’ service at http://www.charrandotb.com where videos in or about Aragonese can be found, made available by means of streaming technology. The aim is to increase over time the collection presented. The source of material so far is previously made programmes (some from as long ago as the 1980s) but CharrandoTB itself intends to make its own material to place on line. The project is calling for anyone who may have audiovisual material in Aragonese they would be prepared to make available or anyone who may be able to assist in the making of such material to get in touch.
The first Asturian-English/English-Asturian dictionary is about to be published. To date the only dictionaries were those from Asturian to Spanish or vice versa. Inaciu Galán, a native of Xixón (Gijón) and a student of tourism, began the work of compiling the new dictionary some three years ago, while studying for his school-leaving examinations. During this time he has translated approximately 13,000 entries. He has been advised on the work by Ana Cano, president of the Academia de la Llingua and dean of the Faculty of Philology at Uviéu (Oviedo) University. This cooperation, says Galán, should ensure that the final result is as correct as possible. He drew, in fact, on the Academia’s own dictionary as a reference for the Asturian terms. The work is to be published by Trabe d’Uvieu with a subsidy from the Asturian Conseyería de Cultura (Cultural Council).
Publications and presentations - Mercator Education (ME) Recently Tjeerd de Graaf, team member of Mercator Education at the Frisian Academy, contributed to the UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) with a review article on "Documenting endangered languages and language maintenance". During a stay at the Slavic Research Center of Hokkaido University, Japan, he wrote on various aspects of endangered languages together with Matthias Brenzinger, at present guest researcher at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Japan. Topics considered in this article are related to ethnolinguistics, language documentation, language endangerment, language maintenance, language policy, language revitalization, language shift and mother tongue education.
The article can be found on the web site of the EOLSS, which is an initiative of UNESCO. It consists of an integrated compendium of sixteen encyclopedias and is the fruits of an unprecedented global effort over the last ten years, with contributions from thousands of scholars from over 100 countries, and edited by nearly 300 subject experts. It attempts to forge pathways between disciplines in order to show their interdependence and helps foster the transdisciplinary aspects of the relationship between nature and human society. It deals in detail with interdisciplinary subjects, but it is also disciplinary as each major core subject is covered in great depth, by world experts.
After finding the website on http://www.eolss.net, those interested in the various aspects of the encyclopedia and its use can take a tour of the EOLSS Demo as a useful introduction. Further information about the possible access to the many articles of the EOLSS is also provided on the web site.
CRAMLAP, which stands for 'Celtic, Regional and Minority languages Abroad Project', is a project on the education of regional and minority languages in the higher education environment. It has partners from the universities of Oslo, Uppsala, Mannheim, Rennes and Maynooth. The projects final partners' meeting in London was followed by a seminar with guest speakers. Representatives from several institutes including the European Commission participated. Cor van der Meer gave a presentation on Mercator-Education and its relevant projects like the Regional Dossier series and the Network of Schools. A Regional Dossiers describes the situation of a minority language concerning its provisions for education, they provide lots of structured information on all levels of education, including third level settings. The series can be very helpful as a first orientation towards further research. The Network of Schools is an initiative to facilitate exchange of information and experiences for multilingual schools. A dedicated website will be launched soon.
For more information on CRAMLAP: http://www.cramlap.org
The website of Mercator-Education: http://www.mercator-education.org
Miscellany UNESCO conference marks International Mother Language Day - MM On the occasion of the sixth International Mother Language Day, celebrated 21 February, UNESCO organized a conference on linguistic diversity. Participants included: Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former President of the Republic of Iceland and Goodwill Ambassador of the Organization, Adama Samassekou, President of the African Academy of Languages, Vittorio Bo, President of Codice (Italy) and Daniel Prado, Director of the Terminology and Language Industries Department of the Latin Union. The conference was opened by UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura, Musa Bin Jaafar Bin Hassan, President of the General Conference, and Zhang Xinsheng, President of the Executive Board of the Organization.
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir discussed the impact of the disappearance of languages, which is the subject of a documentary film, In Languages We Live – Voices of the World (Denmark 2005), made at her initiative. Directed by Billeskov Jansen and Signe Byrge Sørensen, the film treats the issue through a number of individual stories.
The documentary film screening was followed by the presentation of a number of initiatives for the protection of linguistic diversity. Vittorio Bo talked about the City of the Word project for a museum dedicated to languages soon to be established in Italy. This project is an initiative of Codice, an association which creates and manages cultural research projects (http://www.codicecultura.it). Adama Samassekou presented the activities of the African Academy of Languages, which was recently instituted as an organ of the African Union (AU), entrusted with developing continent-wide programmes (http://www.acalan.org). The AU has proclaimed 2006 as the Year of African languages.
Daniel Prado presented the results of the survey about multilingualism recently carried out by the Latin Union, an institution dedicated to the promotion of the common heritage and identities of the Latin world (http://www.unilat.org).
International Mother Language Day is celebrated every year on 21 February to promote the recognition and practice of the mother languages of the world, and especially those of minorities. It was proclaimed in 1999 during the 30th session of UNESCO General Conference.
Breton Course for Welsh Speakers and Welsh Course for Breton Speakers - MM Stumdi is a charitable organisation concerned with the teaching of Breton to adults. Established in 1985, it has its headquarters in Landerne (Landerneau). Every year it offers a week-long Welsh summer course for Breton speakers. This year this course will be held from Monday 3 July to Friday 7 July. This year there will also, however, be a Breton course for Welsh speakers during the same week. The learners will be able to stay in the homes of Breton speakers. Those wishing more information should get in touch with Stumdi, Maner Keranden, F-29800 Landerne, Breizh (France); bzh.stumdi@wanadoo.fr. "Flower Garden": New mobile phone game in Basque Animatu, a digital entertainment company (http://www.animatu.com), presents a game to promote the Basque language - MM "Lorategia" (Flower Garden) can be downloaded free through the internet. It is the first game in Basque that makes use of the Advergaming strategy, a practice of using games, particularly computer games, to advertise or promote a product, organisation or viewpoint. The mechanics are simple: the player will have to remember the information that different plants and animals will provide him/her with during the course of the game.
"Lorategia" is an educational game but with a playful aspect. The player will be represented by Txiki, a monkey and protagonist of the game, who will walk around the garden and interact with the different elements encountered. These elements have to do with nature: trees, plants and animals.
The player will have to keep in mind the information provided so as to answer correctly the questions that will be asked afterwards. The application has been developed in J2ME technology.
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