II Mercator International Symposium
Europe 2004: a new framework for all languages?
Images of the symposium
Papers available soon
Ceremony of the Linguapax awards

III Mercator International Symposium
"Linguistic diversity and education: challenges and opportunities"

Symposium Announcement
Call for papers

Ljouwert/Leeuwarden
(Fryslân, The Netherlands)
25 - 27 November 2004

March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003

Bulletin 57 - ML
Working Paper 14 - ML
Working Paper 15 - ML (soon)
Regional dossier -ME

Changes at ME
Changes at ML
Digital library - ME
New titles 2004- ME

March 2004

• Campaign for a Breton television channel [+]
• New research centre for endangered languages opens in London [+]
• Plan to create voice recognition and voice synthesis technology for the Basque language [+]
• Catalan to be the normal language of Balearic TV channel [+]
• New Slovene Radio Station in Carinthia [+]
• Greens demand minority radio for Burgenland following the Carinthian example [+]
• Finnish language newspaper the fastest growing newspaper in Sweden in 2003 [+]
• Conference on the Cimbri resolves that technology will help protect the language [+]
• Asturian still not allowed in elections (Asturies.com / Andecha Astur) [+]
• CoE issues recommendations on the application of the Charter in the UK (CoE) [+]
• France: Number of Basque-speakers decrease (Diario Vasco) [+]
• Basque government says in a report that Spanish state fails to comply with the Charter [+]
• New UN report on racial discrimination in Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain, among others
  (e-noticies / Avui) [+]
• Official role of Occitan at Turin 2006 Winter Olympics is object of debate (Vilaweb) [+]
• Mercator's II International Symposium: New elements of analysis in the field of minoritised languages in the EU [+] See also Symposium's website

February 2004

• Demonstration in Basque Country one year after the closure of Egunkaria [+]
• Sgwarnog.com: Welsh e-mail services launched [+]
• Amendments to Latvian education Law provoke protests (Minelres / RFE/RL Newsline) [+]
• France "saves up" at the expense of its minority languages (Vilaweb) [+]
• Turkey: New legal measures on broadcasting in and teaching of non-official languages [+]
• Greece: Court decision says Macedonian is a non-existent language (Greek Helsinki Monitor) [+]
• New institutional structure for languages other than Italian in Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Lenghe.net) [+]
• European Parliament will host conference dealing with linguistic transfrontier cooperation (Entitats.info) [+]

• Hungarian government to spend nearly four million euros setting up Transylvanian Hungarian TV in Romania [+]
• Lenghe.net: new Friulan news and features web portal launched [+]
• Frisian language bill welcomed by Schleswig-Holstein's Parliament[+]
• New multilingual portal of the Spanish Official Gazette launched (Europa Press) [+]
• European Parliament adopts resolution on cultural diversity [+]
• The new Afghan Constitution protects several languages [+]
• Social unrest about the Balearic Government's language policy (Avui / Diari de Balears) [+]
• New EBLUL member state committee established in Poland [+]

• Archive of Basque language newspaper lost in fire [+]
• New Basque Local Newspaper [+]
• Framework convention for the protection of national minorities: Resolutions on Switzerland, Sweden and Lithuania [+]
• Several measures to improve the status of Irish launched [+]

Campaign for a Breton television channel
A petition calling for a free-to-air Breton television channel has been launched by ‘Une télé bretonne pour tous’ (a ‘Breton channel for all’). Set up by a group of people involved in the world of Breton culture, language, media and IT, this association is lobbying for the allocation of a terrestrial frequency for a Breton channel. The French audiovisual authorities have so far refused the use of existing frequencies by regional channels, in contrast to most European countries.

The association was founded after TV Breizh, the private Breton channel broadcast by satellite, announced severe cutbacks in Breton programming. A few months before the announcement TV Breizh had been refused local and regional frequencies it applied for by the French broadcasting authority the CSA.

The purpose of the campaign is ‘to ask the broadcasting authority to authorize a Breton channel to use frequencies which already exist to broadcast over the five Breton departments. The petition which we have launched aims to show that a real demand exists for such a channel among Bretons’ said Ronan Le Flécher, President of the association. ‘We cannot be satisfied with the around 80 hours of programmes per year broadcast in Breton by the channel France 3 Ouest. Needless to say that Breton is in a critical situation due to a lack of support by the authorities.’ The organisation suggests that a television for all should also have programming in Gallo, the other autochthonous minority language of Brittany.

The online petition can be signed at http://www.tvbzh.org/?page=petition
Source: http://www.eurolang.net

New research centre for endangered languages opens in London
A centre to carry out research into the saving of endangered languages opened in London at the School of Oriental and African Studies. It will house the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project, which is backed by a £20 million grant from the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund. The project leader is Professor Peter Austin.
Source: BBC

Plan to create voice recognition and voice synthesis technology for the Basque language
The Basque government has decided to have voice recognition and voice synthesis technology created for the Basque language and has signed an agreement with the Belgian company Scansoft to that end. The resulting technology will be used in such applications as call centres, business and banking operations, toys, language teaching, telephone directory assistance, public transport etc. The development of the technology requires a series of linguistic resources which will be provided to Scansoft by the government. They include an electronic textual corpus, with a total of 25 million words; a basic phonetic lexicon and acoustic databases. It is estimated that the project will take 18 months.
Source: Euskararen Berripapera

Catalan to be the normal language of Balearic TV channel
The two political parties Partido Popular and Unió Mallorquina have agreed on a model for a television and radio broadcaster for the autonomous region of the Balearic Islands. Broadcasting is to begin in March 2005 and it will be possible to pick up the programmes in the autonomous regions of Catalunya and Valencia, just as it will continue to be posssible to receive the signals of the broadcasters belong to those communities in the Balearics. The model the parties have settled on guarantees that Catalan will be the new organisation’s main language of broadcasting but without ruling out the possibility of some space for the use of Spanish as well. The television will have branches in Minorca and Ibiza.
Source: http://www.diaridebalears.com

New Slovene Radio Station in Carinthia
A radio station broadcasting primarily in Slovene went on air on 21 March after lengthy negotiations. The Slovene programming is a collaborative effort between ORF and the Carinthian broadcasters Radio dva and radio Agora. The private operators Radio dva and Radio Agora provide 16 hours of the programming per day. A further 8 hours of Slovene programming are contributed by the team of the Slovene department of ORF in Carinthia which has had its staff increased.
Source: http://www.hrvatskicentar.at

Greens demand minority radio for Burgenland following the Carinthian example
The Austrian federal government must treat all autochthonous ethnic minorites in Austria equally and ensure that frequencies are made available to the Burgenland minorities, as well, so they can develop private radio broadcasting throughout the day. That is the demand of the minorities spokesman of the Burgenland Greens, LAbg. Joško Vlasisch, in response to the recent start of all-day radio programming for the Carinthian Slovenes.

The national Austrian public service broadcaster ORF in Burgenland would be prepared to enter into cooperation with the Burgenland minorities and the private broadcasting association MORA, as provided for by legislation. The problem at present lies in the fact that the necessary frequencies are not available. For this reason the Burgenland Greens are demanding from the federal government that private all-day programming be made available at last in Burgenland.
Source: http://www.hrvatskicentar.at

Finnish language newspaper the fastest growing newspaper in Sweden in 2003
Ruotsin Suomalainen, a weekly, increased its circulation by a third in 2002-2003 and became the fastest growing newspaper in Sweden. From this March onwards the paper will be sold at a few hundred Swedish newsstands selling Finnish language papers and magazines. According to Ruotsin Suomalainen, its circulation at the end of 2003 was 7100 copies.

In the autumn of 2003 Sweden’s Finns got their first daily newspaper after a break of over twenty years as the weekly Viikkoviesti transformed itself into Ruotsin Sanomat which is now published five days a week.
Source: Sisuradio 4 March 2004 (Finnish language radio station of Sveriges Radio)

Conference on the Cimbri resolves that technology will help protect the language
Internet and radio broadcasting are the most important tools for the protection of language and culture of Cimbri according to a recent conference held organised by the Curatorium Cimbricum Veronense (the Cimbri association in Verona) and the local UNESCO Centre.

The Cimbri are a small German-speaking community of 500, living in the provinces of Verona, Vicenza and Trento in Italy. Some descendants of Cimbri emigrants in Brazil also speak the language. The internet may be able to unite what geography and history has divided and, it is hoped, save an endangered language from extinction.

Curatorium Cimbricum Veronense supports research and studies about Cimbri language and culture, and develops projects supporting the language. The centre for activity is the ‘Tzimbar Turla’ (Door for Cimbri) in Ljetzan (Giazza). ‘It gives information on Cimbri and promotes initiatives like a course on Cimbri language, educational initiatives with the local nursery school, the website http://www.cimbri.it and the first Cimbri radio station’, explains Giovanni Molinari from the Curatorium.

The radio station will broadcast online as well as on FM. ‘We made an agreement with two local private networks in order to use their frequencies for our programmes. We will be on the air soon with programmes in the mother tongue and in Italian’, says Molinari, adding that ‘the use of “Tzimbar” will help us to renew the language’. With this aim in mind the Cimbri of the three provinces have started to work together to create a common standard language.
Source: http://www.eurolang.net

Demonstration in Basque Country one year after the closure of Egunkaria
One year after the closure of Egunkaria, a demonstration and an event was organised in Donostia (San Sebastian) in February to remember the closure of the Basque language newspaper.

According to Berria, the new Basque newspaper, the need for consensus and the desire to work together were emphasised by the speakers. Joan Mari Torrealdai, Chairman of Egunkaria’s Board of Directors, and Xabier Mendiguren, Secretary General of Kontseilua, spoke about the need to protect Basque cultural activities and the need to foster consensus and cooperation, so that the injustice that occurred one year ago does not happen again. Torrealdai and Mendiguren also remembered the prisoners Iñaki Uria and Xabier Alegria. “We need them both here working”, said Mendiguren, “and we have to remember this every day until this wish becomes a reality”. Egunkaria’s former director, Martxelo Otamendi, protested the innocence of the prisoners in a half an hour silent demonstration, together with workers of the closed newspaper and Alegria’s and Uria’s relatives.

Günther Rautz, the General Secretary of the Minority Dailies Association (MIDAS) expressed his solidarity and support for Egunkaria and described how the MIDAS Association had condemned the closure in the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.

Among the audience there were representatives from the Basque political institutions, political parties, social organisations, the media, and writers.
Source: http://www.eurolang.net

Sgwarnog.com: Welsh e-mail services launched
A Welsh-language e-mail service was launched in February. Based on popular email services like Hotmail, Sgwarnog.com is the first Welsh-language e-mail system. Designed by the creators of Welsh-language dating site http://www.pishyn.com, http://www.sgwarnog.com aims to secure a permanent presence for Welsh on computer screens. ‘The aim is to make sure that people have the option to choose a Welsh language system with a local company instead of supporting these gigantic companies from America which control the world of English-language e-mail’, said Aran Jones, one of the creators of the service.

According to Aran Jones ‘the key thing is to provide services that are incredibly cheap. We charge a very small subscription. It's important that we offer this service, because if enough people support us it will be possible to develop a system here in Wales that would be every bit as good as anything else available anywhere in the world.’
Source: Agence Bretagne Presse

Hungarian government to spend nearly four million euros setting up Transylvanian Hungarian TV in Romania
The Hungarian Government is expected to spend around 1 billion Hungarian Forints (around 3.846 million euros) on setting up a Hungarian-language television in Romania. There is no Hungarian language television channel in Romania at the moment although some public and commercial TV stations have some broadcasting in a minority language.

As the new Hungarian Minister of Finances, Tibor Draskovics, announced his plan for financial austerity, Zsolt Nagy, chief of the Janovics Jeno Foundation in charge of setting up the Transylvanian Hungarian TV station, called on the Hungarian Government not to reduce the planned funding for it.

When the Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy came up with the TV idea in November 2003, he said that he hoped it could begin broadcasting by mid-2004. Nagy thinks this is however unlikely to happen until the second half of the year.
Source: http://www.eurolang.net

Lenghe.net: new Friulan news and features web portal launched
A new bilingual Friulan / Italian web portal, Lenghe.net, has been launched by journalists who produced the bilingual INT magazine (‘people’ in Friulan). Lenghe.net carries news and features from Friuli, Europe and the world. It also has an archive of all of INT’s articles published over the last two years, altogether around 450.

‘INT always had a page about Europe, focusing especially on minorities. Now this is a section on the website called ‘Europe e mont’ (Europe and the world), where special attention is paid to EU enlargement’, said Anna Bogaro, the Editor. http://www.lenghe.net will also ‘give great importance to other aspects of public life; politics, social changes, economy, all seen from the point of view of a linguistic minority which wants to share things and ideas and give its contribution to the world’s cultural richness’, said Ms Bogaro.

‘Now we won't be a newspaper on paper anymore: we will be Internet only in order to broaden our contacts and to broadcast the news from Friuli to young people. Special attention is given to Friulans living around the world, which is more than 2 million people, as well as the 1,200,000 living here, and also to everyone interested in our culture.’
Source: http://www.eurolang.net

Archive of Basque language newspaper lost in fire
On 6 December 2003 the archives of the Basque language weekly newspaper Herria in Baiona (Bayonne) were damaged by fire. Issues published between 1944 and 1951, i.e. the first seven years of the paper’s existence, were lost. Publication was, however, uninterrupted. Herria appears every Thursday with some 8-10 pages of local and national news in Basque.
Source: Euskararen Berripapera

New Basque Local Newspaper
On 22 December 2003 the first issue appeared of a new local newspaper in Basque serving the area of Debagoiena. Asteleheneko Goienkaria is the sister publication of Goienkaria and, like the latter, is a weekly. Unlike Goienkaria, however, the new title will not be distributed door to door but will instead be sent to subscribers and made available at kiosks.
Source: Euskararen Berripapera

III Mercator International Symposium
"Linguistic diversity and education: challenges and opportunities"

MERCATOR-EDUCATION

The symposium is organised by Mercator-Education in collaboration with the other two Mercator centres; Mercator-Media and Mercator-Legislation. It will be the third symposium in a row. The first Mercator International Symposium was organised in Aberystwyth on 8-9 april 2003 with as theme: "Shaping an agenda for the global age", and the second Mercator International Symposium in Tarragona on 27-28 February 2004 with as theme: "Europe 2004: a new framework for all languages?".

Key issues of the forthcoming symposium will be:
· Comparison of educational systems
· Minority languages and policy
· Information and infrastructure
· Linguistic diversity in the new EU member states
· Media & education
· Mother tongue and 2 other languages

People are encouraged to submit a paper proposal (max. 500 words). Deadline is June 1, 2004. The symposium program committee will send notification of the acceptance of papers before July 1, 2004. Abstracts can be sent to: mercator@fryske.akademy.nl

More information will or can soon be found at the website of Mercator-Education

Mercator-Education
Fryske Akademy
Postbus 54
Tel: +31 (0)58-2343063
8900 AB Leeuwarden
http://www.fryske-akademy.nl

 Bulletin 57 - Mercator-Legislation

• Balearic Islands: Decree 162/2003 and Decree 176/2003 on requirement of Catalan language command in the Administration of the Autonomous Community, September and October 2003
• Estonian Republic: Law on Amendments to the Language Law, December 2003
• European Parliament: Report on preserving and promoting cultural diversity, January 2004
• Committee of the Regions: Opinion, of 20 November 2003, on the Communication from the Commission on Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: An Action Plan 2004-2006
• Council of Europe: Resolution on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities by Austria

 Working Paper 14 - Mercator-Legislation

 Working Paper 15 - Mercator-Legislation

 New regional dossier - Mercator-Education

After four years Alie van der Schaaf has left her job as coordinator of the Mercator-Education project. In January she started working as policy advisor Research and Internationalisation at the University of Groningen. Alie had been working for the Mercator project as a researcher and coordinator since November 1999. She was responsible for the series of Regional dossiers and many readers will remember her as a charming and sociable person.

Cor van der Meer is the successor of Alie and he started in March as coordinator of Mercator-Education. He will coordinate the work and is also responsible for the development of the digital library, “digibyb” which is expected to be a model and platform for other regional and minority languages.

Cor is a sociologist by training and has a history in the field of Social Science data archiving. Before Cor started working with the Mercator project he was employed as senior specialist at the Steinmetz archive, the national data center for social science data (http://www.steinmetz-archief.nl). He took part in several working groups and committee’s to develop international standards, agreements and tools. Furthermore he has quite some experience in projects on metadata, digitisation, etc. He is active in a number of international organisations like the International Association of Social Science information Service & Technology (IASSIST).

Working for Mercator-Education is a new challenge for Cor. It is a discipline which offers lots of new exciting and interesting aspects. Cor is Frisian by decend and speaks the language well.

Update Languages of Europe website section
Mercator-Legislation's website has incresed the number of states included in the "Languages of Europe" section. Now you can find the legislation concerning to the minority languages in Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Turkey. On the other hand, the part containing General information on the languages of Europe includes a new feature: the information can be searched not only by language but also by state.

Mercator-Legislation's website will be restructured before the end of April 2004: a new section will be created including the contents of the "Languages of Europe" and "Constitutions" sections, which will dissappar as such. The new section will allow users to search information on each minority language as regards:

• The states in which it is present / The languages spoken in each state (as searched by language or by state, respectively)
• The implementation process of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
• The implementation process of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
• Basic rules and developement regulations in each state
• Bibliography and related links

New web section: Links of interest
We have created a new section gathering all kinds of interesting links about linguistic legislation and minority languages. Among others, you will find all the links included in Mercator-Legislation's bulletins and dossiers as well as links suggested by organisations (related to the languages field of study involved in language issues). We also invite anyone to suggest new links. Please contact: mercator@ciemen.org / cdoc@ciemen.org

In the summer of 2003 Mercator-Education started with a pilot project for the creation of a digital library on European Minority Languages with, text, image and sound. The project is financed by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The pilot will take one year and will be carried out with Frisian digital material.
The aim is to develop a digital library to index, classify and catalogue scientific sources concerning European minority languages and knowledge of and from academic researchers.
The content will be scientific and concerns the following areas: linguistics, sociolinguistics, literature, media, legislation, education, culture history and language policy.
The pilot will serve as a development model for partners in other European linguistic communities. A databank on specialists and projects will also be included.
The targetgroups are:

• Academic researchers
• Students
• Teachers
• Journalists
• Policymakers
• Intererested people

Results so far:
On the 22nd of October 2003 Frisian organisations and specialists met in order to discuss the proposed form and content of the the digital library.
In January 2004 a Contentplan has been written in order to describe in detail content definitions and quality criteria of the content of the website.
The set of requirements regarding the technical application has been made, open- source software will be used, standards are : XML, Dublin Core and OAI. In the meantime the choice has been made for: i-Tor (Tools and technology for Open Repositories)
(http://www.i-tor.org/en/)

Pilot Frisian

• For the pilot is choosen for Frisian as minority language.
• Content: linguistics, literature, education, media and legislation
• Facilities: databanks, news, electronic publishing, intelligent searchingmachine
• Sources: digital files of publications of the Fryske Akademy (the Centre for scientific research and education in and about Fryslân and its community, language and culture) and publications of other Frisian organisations
• The pilot will be development-model for other European partners

For more information: http://www.mercator-education.org, section Digibyb.
Email: infodigibyb@reekx.nl

• Finskan – ett sveskt språk : En kartlåggning av det finska språkets ställning i det svenska samhället i början av 2000-talet / Esko Melakari. – Stockholm : Föreningen Norden, 2003. – 129 p. – signatuur 100Fin4
• Leesbegrip, leesplezier en de Friese taalnorm : Een onderzoek naar de invloed van de taalnorm op leesbegrip en leesplezier / Bernadet de Jager. – Amsterdam : Stichting Lezen, 2003. – 47 p.
• Trilingualism in family, school and community / ed. by Charlotte Hoffmann and Jehannes Ytsma. – Clevedon [etc.] : Multilingual Matters, 2004. – 242 p.
• Lesser used languages & islands : Proceedings of the 2nd Partnership for Diversity Forum Conference / European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages and Conselleria d’Educacio i Cultura, Govern de les Illes Balears. – Brussels [etc.] : The Bureau for Lesser Used Languages, 2003. (Eblul Documents; no. 7) – 132 p.
• Linguistic diversity in Greece : Proceedings of a Conference organised by The European Bureau for Lesser used Languages, Thessaloniki, 14-16 November 2002 / coord. Jelle Bakker and Johan Häggman. – Brussels : The European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages, 2002. – 39 p.
• Le Poitevin-Saintongeais : Langue d’oïl méridionale / Jean-jacques Chevrier et Michel Gautier. – Bruxelles : Le bureau européen pour les langues moins répandues, 2002. – 48 p.
• Developing policies to improve the conversion of language competence into language use among young adult groups / Institiúd Teangeolaíochta Éirann … [etc.] - [S.l.] : [s.n.], 1998. – Report as submitted to the Commission of the European Union DGXXII: Education, Training and Youth, 31 May 1998.
• Learners for life : student approaches to learning : Results from Pisa 2000 / Cordula Artelt … [et al]. – Paris : OECD, 2003. – 133 p.
• Taalkabaal : een onderzoek naar de taalprestaties van Friese basisschoolleerlingen / Hester Deelstra. – Groningen : Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 2003. – 34 p.
• Europe, frontiers and languages : Guide for the development of language education policies in Europe: from linguistic diversity to plurilingual education = l’Europe, les frontières et les langues/ Albert Raasch. – Strasbourg : Council of Europe, Language policy division , Directorate of School, Out-of-School and Higher Education, DG IV, 2002. – 19 p.
• Key aspects of the use of English in Europe = L’Anglais en Europe / Claude Truchot. - Strasbourg : Council of Europe, Language policy division , Directorate of School, Out-of-School and Higher Education, DG IV, 2002. – 24 p.
• The consequences of demographic trends for language learning and diversity = Les consequences des tendances démographiques sur l’apprentissage des langues et la diversité linguistique / Pádraig Ó Riagáin – Strasbourg : Council of Europe, Language policy division , Directorate of School, Out-of-School and Higher Education, DG IV, 2002. – 27 p.
• Collections of opinions of the advisory committe on the framework convention for the protection of national minorities : 2000-2003 : Vol. : 1 – 2 / Council of Europe . – Strasbourg : Council of Europe, 2003.