Among these collaborations, the LIG workshops at NWM Bilbao and NWM Heidelberg should be highlighted, which focused on the topic of minority and endangered languages. During these workshops, which were delivered in April, participants discussed some problems, which arise in regions with a minority or endangered language, including when a minority language should be considered official, the presence of minority languages in education and how minority languages should be protected and promoted.
But what are actually minority and endangered languages? On the one hand, minority languages are languages either different from the official state language(s) or traditionally used within a given state territory by citizens, which are numerically smaller than the rest of the state’s population (CoE). On the other hand, a language is endangered when its speakers cease to use it, use it in fewer domains or stop passing it on to the next generation (UNESCO). Therefore, there is a clear difference between a minority language and an endangered language. For instance, Catalan is a minority language and it is not an official language of the EU. There are 24 official languages in the EU, but Catalan is only official in three autonomous communities of Spain. However, it is one of the 10 most widely spoken languages within the EU and is not endangered. Yet, there are 128 endangered languages within the EU (UNESCO). Sometimes, language policies in regions with a minority or endangered language cause language discrimination and barriers that result in unequal opportunities or even conflicts. In some cases, fundamental language rights of minority language speakers are not respected. For example, some minority language communities do not have access to elementary education in their language. In other cases, the speakers of a majority language are the ones being discriminated. For instance, most traffic signs in some cities, which have two official languages, can only be read in the minority language, even though the most used language in that city is another official language. The conclusion of the workshops at these Network Meetings was clear: minority languages have to be valued and promoted. Yet, there were very different opinions on the discussed issues. Interestingly, the attitude towards a minority language greatly depends on the region from which the participant comes, which shows the influence local media have on us. For example, most Basques supported learning almost all subjects in primary and secondary school in Basque regardless of the mother language of the student, but most Frisian participants thought that learning all subjects in their language would lead to isolation and difficulties to integrate with Dutch speakers. We asked four AEGEE members to express their view on a minority language and here are their answers:
Álvaro González (AEGEE-Osnabrück& AEGEE-Heidelberg) - Basque
In terms of communication, English is undoubtedly an extremely useful language. Nonetheless, is utility a reason to get rid of minority languages, for the sake of pure efficiency? If you ask me, the answer is no. I do not live in the Basque Country anymore, and I barely use Basque currently, but for me, losing the opportunity to use this language would mean losing a pair of glasses with which I regard the world in a different way.
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Margriet Zwart (AEGEE-Groningen) – West Frisian We are proud of our own language, culture and history, and there is a ‘national’ feeling about other Frisians. However, nobody wants Frisia to be a separate country. ‘Other’ Dutch people don’t really appreciate our language and most of them don’t even acknowledge it as an independent language. Most elderly people only speak Frisian, especially in small villages, but most young people also speak Dutch and they usually move to other cities to study and work. I don’t want to live in Frisia, because there are no job opportunities in my field there. I don’t think that Frisian will become extinct, because some organisations are very active promoting it.
Happenings around the network