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Mercator Newsletter
- No.9, December 2004 |
| News (links to the Mercator websites) |
| Media News - MM |
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| October 2004 - ML |
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Gaelic programmes, including lessons for learners, will be part of a recently revamped radio service which has listeners throughout the world. Based in Inbhir Pheofharain (Dingwall), Scottish Internet Radio plays Scottish music in programmes which are held on their website (www.internetradio.co.uk) and are accessible free of charge. Two of the presenters are Gaelic speakers and also well-known singers – Brian O hEadhra from Inbhir Nis (Inverness) and Fiona NicCoinnich from Inbhir Pheofharain. This service was established without assistance from the Gaelic public bodies. Association of Catalan Language Bodies denounces frequency allocation The Coordinadora d’Associacions per la Lengua (CAL), an umbrella organisation of bodies working for the Catalan language, has denounced the occupation of audiovisual frequencies by the autonomous government of the Balearic Islands. The Balearic government (www.caib.es) has allocated to the new television channel of the autonomous community, IB3, those frequencies currently assigned to channels broadcast from the autonmous communities of Catalonia and Valencia, i.e. TV3, 33/K3, Canal 9 and Punt 2. As a result, on a frequency which before carried almost entirely monolingual Catalan broadcasting, there will now be a bilingual schedule, since that is the policy of the new Balearic channel. According to CAL, this decision is no coincidence but rather part of a strategy to Hispanicise the Catalan speaking regions. The reception of TV3 in the islands was a milestone in the history of Catalan broadcasting which had to overcome many administrative obstacles. CAL demands that the Balearic government keep the frequencies occupied by TV3, 33/K3, Canal 9 and Punt 2 available for them and that new frequencies be allocated to IB3. It also considers the construction of a ‘national communicative space’ an urgent priority, based on the ‘linguistic, cultural and national reality’ of the Catalan speaking regions. New Basque Language Local Newspaper A new local Basque language daily newspaper, Goierriko Hitza, has been up and running since October this year. This brings to five the number of local dailies in the language, the others being Tolosaldeko eta Leitzaldeko Hitza, Oarsoaldeko Hitza, Lea-Artibai eta Mutrikuko Hitza and Urola-Kostako Hitza. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia Calls for Papers for Special Issue 2005 (2): "Minority languages, multimedia and the Web" Guest Editors: Information and communications technology, and in particular the World Wide Web, can be a double-edged sword as regards the maintenance and revitalisation of minority languages. On the one hand, minority language communities can be active shapers of these technologies, creating their own tools, adapting existing tools to local needs, and creating culturally authentic, indigenous electronic media. On the other hand, these technologies can be seen as a force for globalisation and neo-colonisation, reinforcing the existing dominance of majority languages and breaking down geographical boundaries that in the past may have protected minority language groups. Researching the effects of multimedia and the Web on minority languages is challenging and it is not yet clear how best to utilise these technologies to maintain and revitalise minority languages. This special issue invites researchers and practitioners who are actively engaged in addressing these issues from practical or theoretical viewpoints to share their findings and experiences and to contribute to a platform for future research. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: Minority language applications: Influence of ICTs on minority languages: Measuring online minority languages: Strategic issues: Article submissions should typically be no longer than 7,000 words (excluding references) and should follow the formatting guidelines in the Instructions to Authors on the NRHM web site (www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/13614568.asp). Submissions should be sent by email to the Guest Editors, in Word, rtf or pdf format. If you have any questions concerning the scope of the call or require further information, please contact the Guest Editors. Open topic papers meeting NRHM's scope in general are also welcome (contact the Editor for further information). Submission deadline: April 30, 2005 NRHM Editor Douglas Tudhope - dstudhope@glam.ac.uk
New minority magazine 'Azinlikca' launched in Greece The first, and up until now, only bilingual magazine, has been published by members of the Turkish minority in Greece. It reached its 5th number this month and feedback to date is generally positive. “AZINLIKCA” (“Minority Matters”) is issued and printed in Komotini (Gumulcine), western Thrace, by a small editing team. Among its columnists are Turks, Pomaks, Greeks and Cypriots, as well as the New Democracy MP Ilhan Ahmet. The main article of each issue is written in either Turkish or Greek and translated to the other language, while the other stories have so far been published either in Turkish or Greek, depending on the author. Around 3,000 copies are distributed all over western Thrace but the actual number of subscribers is only around 1,000 per month. The editing team has a quite ambitious target - to make “AZINLIKCA” profitable by the end of 2005. For such a thing to happen, though, two preconditions will have to be met. First, advertisement revenue, which remains unsatisfactory, will have to be quickly and steadily increased, and secondly, more subscribers will have to be found to secure a minimum fixed revenue each month. Considering the fact that a potential subscriber has to pay only 60 euros per year to have “AZINLIKCA” mailed right to his or her door, the editing team seems convinced that the magazine will continue to succeed and grow in the years to come. Source: Eurolang German minority newspaper launched in the Czech Republic The German minority of Western Bohemia are to have their first newspaper since the expulsion of the majority of the German speaking population from what was then known as the Sudetenland in 1945. Although two national papers in German, the privately owned Die Prager Zeitung and the Landeszeitung, published in Prague by a German minority organisation, already exist, the Karlsbader Zeitung will be the first paper published in the region where a considerable part of the historic German population still lives. The newspaper, initially with a monthly print-run of 15,000, will be managed and owned by the Prager Zeitung. Karlsbad/Karlovy Vary is a world famous spa resort in which German speakers made up the majority until 1945/46. Source: Eurolang Breton studies cancelled at Nantes University Since the beginning of the academic year in 2004 it is no longer possible to study Breton at the university of Nantes, as the university authorities have decided to cancel the courses without consultation. This is despite the fact that there are students in the first year who subscribed to this course and others who are already in their second and third year of their Breton studies. The Breton students association is leading a campaign against this decision. Cymdeithas Cymru-Llydaw / Kevredigezh Kembre-Breizh, an organisation promoting links between Brittany and Wales has also organised a petition against this decision which can be signed on line at http://www.kembre-breizh.org.uk/. The Breton students association can be contacted at: ACB 44 Institut d'Estudis Catalans introduced a new web resource of scientific magazines Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC) introduced a new web resource for scientific magazines published in Catalonia this November. According to IEC, the largest publisher of scientific books in Catalan, the institution is making a 'titanic effort' to keep Catalan a living scientific language. The web resource, www.iecat.net, is organized in several sections, including history and archaeology, biology, science and technology, philology, philosophy and social sciences. The website also includes a search engine that makes searching papers fast and easy. Source: www.eurominority.org/ Vilaweb 16/11/2004 Matarenki/Övertorneå to have a minority policy programme The municipality of Matarenki/Övertorneå (www.overtornea.se/kommun) in the Norbotten region of Sweden is developing a minority policy action plan, reports the Sisuradio Meänkieli news programme in Sweden. The action plan involves, among other things, increasing information about the availability of public services offered in Finnish and Meänkieli language in the municipality. Other municipalities in the area are also drawing up minority policy action plans. Matarenki/Övertorneå belongs to an administrative region of five municipalities in Norrbotten where each municipality is required by law to provide pre-school care and care for the elderly partly or solely in Finnish. Source: Sisuradio, 8/12/04, background information on www.sou.gov.se Eskilstuna leads the way with bilingual announcements The municipal council of Eskilstuna in Sweden has decided that announcements published in local newspapers will also be published in Finnish from the beginning of 2005. According to Hans Ekström from Eskilstuna, being part of the administrative area would be fair to the 12,000 Finnish speakers living in Eskilstuna, and also good for the local economy. The decision is part of Eskilstuna’s attempt to join the administrative region for the Finnish language. The Swedish government is currently conducting a review into the possibility of including the Lake Mälar area in the administrative region. Currently only 5 per cent of Sweden’s Finns live in an area where they can receive certain public services in Finnish. Sources: SR Sisuradio/Folket/Eskilstuna Kuriren, 8/12/04, and www.viikkoviesti.fi Sweden’s Finnish musicians celebrate 10 years of Finnish language music programme Since 1995 the Sisuradio programme Musalista has introduced Sweden’s Finnish musicians and their work to the public. From the 1500 recordings sent to Musalista, around 400 have been broadcast. For many musicians Musalista has offered a forum to have their work broadcast on radio for the first time. Each year the most popular songs have been released on CD. Musalista is broadcast five times a year and around 2-3000 listeners vote for their favourite song each time. Source: Sisuradio 3/12/04 www.sr.se Series on Minorities Broadcast on RAI Minet (Minority Network) is the title of a television series currently being broadcast by the Italian public broadcaster RAI, the third programme of which was due to be broadcast in December. The series was produced in cooperation with the European Academy in Bolzano and has as its central theme minorities in all their aspects, social, political and cultural. Programmes are broadcast every two months. Microsoft Unveils Welsh Software Welsh-language versions of two leading computer programs have been released by the Welsh Language Board and Microsoft. Users can now choose to have Windows XP and Office 2003 in Welsh. Microsoft already supplies Language Interface Packs for Irish, Maori and Hindi. Meri Huws, chair of the Welsh Language Board, said it was "a very important development for the Welsh language". The work, which took 15 months to complete, translated half a million Welsh words and phrases. All the menus and operations such as ‘file’ and ‘save as’ remain in their standard positions, making it easy to swap from English to Welsh versions. The translation work was carried out by the company Cymen and technology specialists Draig with assistance from Canolfan Bedwyr of the University of Wales, Bangor. The software will be available to download free through the Welsh Language
Board and Microsoft websites and on CDs from the Welsh Language Board.
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| Publications |
| New regional dossiers published - Mercator Education |
| Two new regional dossiers
have been published recently: The Kashubian language in education
in Poland and The Irish language in education in Northern Ireland
(2nd edition). Both dossiers were presented at the III
Mercator Symposium in Ljouwert.
The regional dossier on Kashubian, written by Tomasz Wicherkiewicz (Department of Language Policy and Minority Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan), is the first dossier on a minority language in a new member state of the EU. In the near future more dossiers on minority languages in education in new EU-member states will follow. Although the regional dossier on Irish in education in Northern Ireland is an update of the dossier originally compiled by Aodán Mac Póilin and Adalgard Willemsma in 1997, one could almost consider it as a completely new dossier. Since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, a lot of things have changed in Northern Ireland, and the same accounts for education in general and more specific the role of Irish in education. Besides, over the years, the structure of regional dossiers became stricter, for comparitive purposes. This resulted in a dossier with new, more and better structurized information. The updated version of the dossier was written by Róise Ní Bhaoill from Ultach Trust / Iontaobas Ultach in Belfast. The 2nd edition of the dossier on Slovene in education in Italy, edited by Norina Bogatec from the Slovene Research Institute (SLORI) in Trieste / Trst, will be published quite soon (probably this month or in January 2005). This second edition does not differ that much from the first version; some new figures, maps and diagrams have been added and some anoying printing errors of the first edition have been removed. Tsjerk Bottema (tbottema@fa.knaw.nl)
is responsible for the edition of the Mercator-Education regional dossier
series. You can contact him for any questions or suggestions. For ordering
a printed version of the dossiers mentioned above, please send an email
to Adrie Kaspers (akaspers@fa.knaw.nl),
secretary of Mercator-Education. |
| Bulletin 60 - Mercator-Legislation |
| IV Quarter 2004 | English and Catalan versions. |
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| Dossier 17 - Mercator-Legislation |
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The last dossier is inside Bulletin 60 in our Publications section. This document is available in English and Catalan. |
| Working Paper 17 - Mercator-Legislation |
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We have published a new Working Paper in our Publications section. This document is available in English (translation) and Spanish (original version). |
| Miscellany |
| III Mercator International Symposium - Mercator Education |
| The III Mercator International Symposium Last month the III Mercator International Symposium was held in Ljouwert/Leeuwarden. The conference theme was: “Linguistic diversity and education: challenges and opportunities”. The symposium was attended by over 75 people, there where 38 parallel sessions, 3 at a time in three different rooms. Between the lectures there was the opportunity to change between the sessions. Everyday opened and ended with a plenary session. On Wednesday the 25th of November there was the opportunity to registrate for the symposium, but not many people used this opportunity. Nevertheless it was a nice informal get together where everyone had the chance to meet with each other. The next day the symposium was officially opened by Mr. Bertus Mulder, deputy in the provincial board of Fryslân. After his presentation about the Frisian language, the other speakers began with there presentations. It was an inspiring day for most of the participants, with lots of new information, ideas, discussions etc.All this new gathered information could be discussed during the conference dinner in a Chinese restaurant in Ljouwert. Friday the 27th of November the presentations started at about nine
o’clock. There was again a great variety of information about minority
languages. On Saturday there was a special digital library session: “Towards an European digital library for minority languages”. In this session the pilot project “Digibyb” of Mercator – Education was presented and demonstrated by Mr. Cor van der Meer (projectleader) as well as options and future plans for the European portal for minority languages. After his presentation Nieves R. Brisaboa showed en presented us the extensive digital library of Galicia. At the and of this session there was an opportunity to take part in a citywalk through Ljouwert. Those who joined the walk were very enthusiastic. For a more detailed report and a photogallery of the symposium please
visit www.mercator-education.org. |
| International Conference on Minority Languages - Mercator Education |
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International Conference on Minority Languages Mercator Education (Durk Gorter) collaborates as a special advisor to the X-International Conference on Minority Languages (ICML) in Trieste in july 2005. The Slori institute that organizes the conference has been part of the Mercator-Education network for many years. Papers, panels and posters on the conference themes are welcome. Organizers would like to arrange workshops and round-tables on most of the basic aspects concerning the present and future status of minorities and minority languages and related research tools. Researchers and experts from central-eastern Europe are welcome to take part to the conference. For more information and registration vistit the website: www.slori.org/conference/index.php |
| New structure and design of Mercator-Legislation's website |
Mercator-Linguistic Rights and Legislation's website has been throughly transformed. To make it easier for our visitors to find all our news, publications and databases, we have changed the aspect of the menu, which now also includes some new sections and subsections. From now on, you can have access to all past and future Mercator International Symposia in a section and you can also find all information related to the Action Plan for language learning and linguistic diversity in the new EU & languages section. We hope you will enjoy it. http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/index-gb.htm |
| Foundation for Endangered Languages - Mercator-Education |
Mercator Education's senior staff member dr Tseard de Graaf has becom a member of the board of the Foundation for Endangered Languages. This organization based in Bath (UK) aims at raising awareness about endangered languages, among others by publishing a newsletter and by giving small grants for projects of work that will support, enable or assist the documentation, protection or promotion of one or more endangered languages. The Foundation's funds remain extremely limited and only an exceptional award will be greater than US $1,500. Deadline: The time-limit for proposals will be 30 January 2004 For more information see: http://www.ogmios.org |
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