tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/minority-languages-16936/articlesMinority languages – The Conversation2023-08-23T16:33:00Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2110632023-08-23T16:33:00Z2023-08-23T16:33:00ZProtecting endangered languages feels right, but does it really help people?<p>Headlines <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/16/linguists-language-culture-loss-end-of-century-sea-levels-rise">abound</a> with the <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25834430-800-the-unique-vanishing-languages-that-hold-secrets-about-how-we-think/">plight</a> of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/we-will-save-this-one-desperate-effort-to-save-a-language-and-way-of-life-20190404-p51ar6.html">endangered</a> minority <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/pti-feed/story/more-than-40-languages-may-be-heading-for-extinction-officials-1172251-2018-02-18">languages</a> around the <a href="https://www.timeout.com/news/mapped-the-most-endangered-languages-in-the-world-right-now-033122">world</a>. Read a few of these and you’ll see some common themes: the rising number of languages dying worldwide, the distressing isolation of individual last speakers, and the wider cultural loss for humanity.</p>
<p>These stories often mention efforts to protect such languages. This is seen as a way to buttress their speakers’ sense of identity, to resist the grinding homogenisation of globalisation, and to set right minorities’ historical marginalisation. However, these stories tend to focus less on how such efforts materially help speakers of endangered languages. As I explore in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12463">peer-reviewed, open-access article</a>, such efforts sometimes help, sometimes harm, and sometimes they do both at once.</p>
<h2>Questions of identity</h2>
<p>Encouraging someone to keep speaking – or to learn anew – a shrinking minority language could certainly buttress his or her sense of identity. But when a bigger language is adopted somewhere, it doesn’t erase everything that came before. Often, intense contact between big and small languages leads to a fascinating new mixture – for example, <a href="https://hir.harvard.edu/sheng-in-kenya/">Sheng in Kenya</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.24.09mes">Tsotsitaal in South Africa</a> and <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/journal-gbaye-ivorian-street-slang-nouchi/">Nouchi in Côte d'Ivoire</a>.</p>
<p>In other cases, such language contact results in something closer to the incoming language, a new localised dialect. But as <a href="https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/the-traces-that-we-cant-shift/">linguist Peter Trudgill argues</a>, this too can hold a highly local identity. In another study in Ghana, one <a href="https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.33.2.03ofo">research interviewee</a> says of the localised form of English: “I own this language that everyone speaks”. Similarly in Singapore, “Singlish” (a mix of English, Cantonese, Malay, and others) holds an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2021.1997710">important identity function</a>. After all, these different new varieties are spoken nowhere else on earth.</p>
<p>These new contact-based vernaculars are globally unique, and many are spoken by disadvantaged minorities, but nobody calls for them to be celebrated or protected. Indeed, they are often looked down upon – for example, Singapore’s government has <a href="https://www.languagecouncils.sg/goodenglish/resources/grammar-rules/singaporean-blunders">a campaign to eradicate the “blunders” of Singlish</a>. Linguistically, though, these are just as fully structured as any other language. Perhaps it’s harder to romanticise something new than something old.</p>
<h2>Addressing historical wrongs</h2>
<p>The theme of righting historical wrongs among minority groups assumes they will somehow benefit from defence of their language. Sure enough, enabling a people to use their traditional language can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006920920939">make them feel better about themselves</a>. But is it really <em>helping</em> them? Let’s take this one step at a time.</p>
<p>If a people lost their language after being oppressed by colonialism and then further trampled on by rampant globalism, they probably lost a whole lot more than language. Canadian researcher Chris Lalonde focused his work on health and well-being in Canada’s indigenous communities, and what he found was much more complicated. A <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1016/j.cogdev.2007.02.001">co-authored report</a> did find positive effects of increased fluency in their native languages, but here comes the most important – and politically most difficult – point. In a later analysis (chapter 30 of <a href="https://www.routledge.com/p/book/9781138690431">this book</a>), he and his colleagues showed that simply promoting language on its own – even language <em>and</em> indigenous culture – was not influential on a fundamental measure of well-being, suicide rates:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“While culture [and language are] important, it is the integration of social, family, education and training, job creation and other elements that bring cohesion to a community. Indigenous youth suicide must be addressed as a community by forming community cohesion.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Simply adding your ancestral language as a new school subject isn’t very helpful if your school is falling down, you’re not eating well, your people are <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/oip-cjs/oip-cjs-en.pdf">disproportionately incarcerated</a>, or you don’t have adequate political representation. To think anything much can be solved just by performing CPR on a minority language is to ignore how complicated human society is, and how many different simultaneous needs we have.</p>
<h2>Details matter</h2>
<p>If it’s possible to intervene but not really help, is it also possible to intervene and cause harm? Let’s look at a couple of examples.</p>
<p>In Wales, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_language#Status">legal recognition of the Welsh language</a> has been momentous, countering centuries of denigration and decline. There have been significant benefits, but closer inspection reveals drawbacks as well.</p>
<p>Welsh is currently taught in schools across Wales, and that’s good news for families, be they Welsh- or English-speaking. Some schools use Welsh a bit, some a lot, and an <a href="https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Education-and-Skills/Schools-and-Teachers/Schools-Census/Pupil-Level-Annual-School-Census/Schools/schools-by-localauthorityregion-welshmediumtype">increasing number use only Welsh</a>. According to the 2021 census, only around <a href="https://www.gov.wales/welsh-language-wales-census-2021-html">20% of Wales’s population</a> (538,300) is fluent in Welsh and the government’s plan is to <a href="https://www.gov.wales/cymraeg-2050-welsh-language-strategy">reverse that decline</a> and reach 1 million speakers by 2050.</p>
<p>It’s an ambitious goal, and requires children from non-Welsh-speaking families to attend Welsh-medium schools. Sometimes parents actively choose this – indeed, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-63784681">it’s often prized</a> – while in other cases it’s the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/20/storm-welsh-only-schools-minority-language">only option</a>. Either way, there are upsides and downsides.</p>
<p>On the one hand, students who leave school with Welsh proficiency go on to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1680990.stm">earn more on average</a> than their monolingual peers, at least within Wales. There is also cultural enrichment that comes with any additional language, and some studies have suggested bilinguals generally enjoy cognitive advantages in life, though the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000301">evidence is mixed</a>. But on the other hand, those who didn’t speak Welsh before entering a Welsh-medium school <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2012.706248">often struggle</a> and their grades can suffer. Overall, Welsh-medium schools report <a href="http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/27969/1/161206-pisa-2015-en.pdf">lower grades</a> than English-medium schools (page 120 of that linked report has some sobering detail), and this despite <a href="https://senedd.wales/writtenquestionsdocuments/answerstothewrittenassemblyquestionsforansweron13may2013(pdf,95kb)-13052013-246535/waq20130513-cymraeg.doc">receiving equal or higher funding</a>. </p>
<p>As is to be expected, Wales’s ambitious plan to substantially increase the use of Welsh brings with it many challenges. These include a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-65639738">shortage of teachers fluent in Welsh</a>, reported <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2012.676622">tensions between Welsh- and English-medium students</a>, and difficulties accommodating <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02667363.2023.2186835">children with additional learning needs</a>. Understanding and facing up to these and other challenges could enable a more accommodating and ameliorative approach.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Canada and French flags" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C2560%2C1686&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543798/original/file-20230821-17-crwynw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While French remains a majority language in Quebec, the percentage of native speakers has fallen slightly despite numerous laws to protect and promote it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2016-08_Canada_Quebec_Flags.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another example is in Canada, where French is a minority language that has been <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/statistics-canada-to-release-2021-census-data-on-languages-today">declining for decades</a>. In Québec, French remains dominant, with just under 75% of residents having it as their native language, but the percentage has <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-proportion-of-french-speakers-in-canada-declines-everywhere-except/">fallen slightly over the past five years</a> despite muscular policies to promote its use.</p>
<p>Most recently, in 2022 the Québec Legislature passed <a href="https://www.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/Fichiers_client/lois_et_reglements/LoisAnnuelles/en/2022/2022C14A.PDF">Bill 96</a>, which among other changes, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9739267/quebec-french-bill-96-changes/">requires civil servants</a> to exclusively use French for official speech and writing, with certain exceptions. While the government has said that the bill will not affect access to health care and social services in English, medical professionals and students have expressed serious concerns about the <a href="https://healthydebate.ca/2022/07/topic/bill-96-quebec-health-care/">law’s potential impacts</a>. This is an example of the prioritisation of language even in matters as essential as health care, yet it’s unclear if the law will actually improve Québec residents’ lives, or even help preserve French in Québec.</p>
<h2>Uncomfortable questions</h2>
<p>These are uncomfortable questions to ask given the scale of minority language loss worldwide, alongside an acrid legacy of colonialism and repression. However, it’s in no one’s interests to cause new problems while trying to right past wrongs.</p>
<p>So, next time you see a media report about efforts to preserve a minority language, think whether they’ll be part of a broader range of support. Next, consider potential unintended negative consequences, and how those balance against the positive ones.</p>
<p>Promoting endangered languages can be a positive force, but we shouldn’t assume that’s universally true. In the end – and this is especially difficult for a linguist to say – perhaps we should focus less on languages in themselves, and pay more attention to the lives of the people who speak them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211063/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Sayers ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Media accounts on endangered languages abound, but they don’t always explore how to materially help native speakers. Peer-reviewed research shows that such efforts don’t always have positive effects.Dave Sayers, Senior Lecturer in Sociolinguistics, University of JyväskyläLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2036052023-06-21T15:03:22Z2023-06-21T15:03:22ZHow Mexican indigenous languages are surviving against the odds – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531375/original/file-20230612-260763-m87frt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tzeltal Maya women attend a mass wedding celebration in Zinacantan, Mexico, in March 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/zinacantan-mexico-march-12-2023-mexican-2284208649">SL-Photography/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Being able to speak the dominant language wherever you are in the world has long been shown to be <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/86/2/481/57467/Language-Skills-and-Earnings-Evidence-from">economically beneficial</a>. This is particularly the case when you’re <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00173616">looking for work</a>. </p>
<p>Being able to speak global languages can also help to secure a job in export-oriented sectors or in the civil service. The benefits accrued, for instance, by being an <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/668277?casa_token=mJqM04VUUwUAAAAA:ItNgeKc5_QPRfambYs2xOVipyZDCJOzWMZdY9OP8lQF-iWStcFsNxgciwRKPxLFRtX49yAEI">English speaker in India</a> – what sociolinguists term the “English premium” – are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775715001181?casa_token=s097jRfaMiAAAAAA:iddpLqsZjzlSvo0ajwivgsFXR-Ob7NOybuDPTtLb0Oes3F5TtoqQw5ygawqxibaYJNnpa-4">well documented</a>.</p>
<p>However, when it comes to minority languages, and especially indigenous ones, economic benefits are rarely mentioned. It is often taken as granted that it is precisely the lack of economic opportunities that drive the <a href="https://oxfordre.com/linguistics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-9780199384655-e-347">language shift</a> – the adoption of economically dominant languages from one generation to another.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Street food sellers lined up on a pavement." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531543/original/file-20230613-19-codmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531543/original/file-20230613-19-codmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531543/original/file-20230613-19-codmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531543/original/file-20230613-19-codmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531543/original/file-20230613-19-codmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531543/original/file-20230613-19-codmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531543/original/file-20230613-19-codmc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Economic opportunities for minority language speakers are often minimal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/san-de-las-casas-chiapas-january-2314681881">Nichimar/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://users.ox.ac.uk/%7Eromaine/vvoices.html">Sociolinguists suggest</a> that within the next century, 90% of the world’s languages will disappear. This shift is mostly driven by larger, often colonial, languages dominating economies, educational systems and state governance. </p>
<p>In a recent study, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X22002868">we looked at</a> minority languages in Mexico, most of which are in decline, with persistent pockets of resistance. We found that, even with minimal state support, languages can sustain themselves within tight social networks and specialised labour markets. </p>
<h2>Economic benefits</h2>
<p>Before Spain colonised Mexico in the 15th century, there were an estimated <a href="https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/empires-of-the-word-a-language-history-of-the-world-nicholas-ostler?variant=32553032646734">350 indigenous languages</a>. In 1820, about 60% of the population in Mexico still spoke them. </p>
<p>The 19th century saw that figure drop substantially. By 1930, it stood at 38%. By 2020, it stood at only 5.8%. Experts estimate that <a href="https://www.inali.gob.mx/clin-inali/">282</a>of these indigenous languages have now disappeared. Of the 68 that have survived, the three most spoken are Náhuatl, Maya and Tzeltal, accounting for 1.44%, 0.72% and 0.46% of the population, respectively.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man in a traditional parade costume with musicians." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531545/original/file-20230613-25-hcaxfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531545/original/file-20230613-25-hcaxfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531545/original/file-20230613-25-hcaxfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531545/original/file-20230613-25-hcaxfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531545/original/file-20230613-25-hcaxfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531545/original/file-20230613-25-hcaxfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531545/original/file-20230613-25-hcaxfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oaxaca is the most linguistically diverse state in Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-traditional-costume-posing-camera-on-2286266185">Seyhan Ahen/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In most countries, measuring the economic benefits of minority languages can be difficult because they are typically spoken by ethnic minorities, who are on average poorer than the majority. This is also the case in <a href="https://www.coneval.org.mx/Medicion/MP/Paginas/Pobreza_2020.aspx">Mexico</a>. However, in other countries it is often difficult to access the data needed to compare language transmission across generations, while the Mexican census documents the passage of languages within families. It also asks respondents for both ethnicity and knowledge of language.</p>
<p>For our study, we focused on 34 native languages, including Nahuatl, Maya, Tzeltal, Mixteco, Tzotzil, Tarahumara, Mayo and Cora. We augmented census data from 2000, 2010 and 2015 with household surveys from 2014-2018. We created tightly matched comparison groups of indigenous minority people who have maintained their bilingualism. We compared them to similar local indigenous people who have given up the minority language and speak only Spanish. </p>
<p>This comparison reveals that men who are bilingual, have a two percentage point higher likelihood of being employed. Their wages are also 5% higher, on average. This was not a quirk driven by a particular group. Of those 34 indigenous languages, 16 were found to have statistically significant positive employment benefits.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Children in uniform sitting on a step." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531547/original/file-20230613-23-nvayas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531547/original/file-20230613-23-nvayas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531547/original/file-20230613-23-nvayas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531547/original/file-20230613-23-nvayas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531547/original/file-20230613-23-nvayas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531547/original/file-20230613-23-nvayas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531547/original/file-20230613-23-nvayas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Only 52,318 people in Mexico speak Huichol.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/nayarit-mexico-june-30-2016-children-2044210793">Montez Kerr/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The finding goes against the view that indigenous minority languages have no economic worth. We found that employment benefits mostly originate from agriculture, crafts and other traditional occupations. We also found economic benefits appearing at the top end of the educational scale, as some highly educated indigenous people are more likely to be employed due to their bilingualism.</p>
<h2>Language transmission</h2>
<p>We then examined data about more than 200,000 bilingual families from Mexican censuses to identify patterns in how parents transmit language to their children. The data shows how language transmission is influenced mostly by family structure and social environment. But we also discovered that in rural areas, if the local indigenous language skill is estimated to improve employment prospects, the language is also more likely to be passed from one generation to another. </p>
<p>If both parents can speak the indigenous language, they have a 73% likelihood of transmitting the language to children. If either parent speaks only Spanish, the likelihood of transmission drops to only 5-8%. This highlighted the vulnerability of minority languages in mixed marriages. </p>
<p>Another important factor is how many native language speakers there are in the locality or in the household, such as grandparents. The more there are, the more likely it is that the language will be passed on to the next generation. </p>
<p>We also found that in rural areas, where 68% of the indigenous people live, those indigenous languages that provide more employment opportunities are also more likely to be passed to the next generation. </p>
<p>Most indigenous languages in Mexico are used only at elementary levels in education, and government services are rarely provided in these languages. </p>
<p>Whether a language survives or dies out depends largely on its network – the degree to which it is transmitted. State support can also make a big difference, particularly if, as our results suggest, it focuses on the economic opportunities that knowledge of the language brings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203605/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sociolinguists suggest that within the next century, 90% of the world’s languages will disappear, due largely to colonial languages dominating economies, education and governance.Panu Pelkonen, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Sussex Business School, University of SussexDiego De la Fuente Stevens, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sussex Business School, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1981712023-04-04T15:06:03Z2023-04-04T15:06:03ZRough Cut: Netflix’s first Welsh language series is a further boost for subtitled content<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517858/original/file-20230328-806-otoojz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C32%2C5457%2C3837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The drama series Rough Cut on Netflix follows a group of misfits as they try to pull off a diamond heist. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">S4C</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Netflix announced in January that it would be streaming its first ever drama series in the Welsh language, the news was met with widespread <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/29/a-real-moment-cymraegs-the-star-as-netflix-buys-welsh-language-drama">positivity</a> in the media. </p>
<p>The streaming giant <a href="https://www.s4c.cymru/en/press/post/54344/s4c-crime-drama-dal-y-mellt-sold-to-netflix/">bought the licence</a> for <em>Dal y Mellt</em>, which translates as “catch the lightning”, from the Welsh language public service broadcaster, S4C. Adapted from a novel by Iwan “Iwcs” Roberts, the gritty six-part crime thriller follows a group of misfits as they come together to pull off a diamond heist. </p>
<p>Having been available on S4C and the BBC iPlayer with its Welsh name, the series has now been given the title “Rough Cut” for Netflix and is being streamed for UK audiences with English subtitles as of April 10 2023.</p>
<p>Given <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-why-foreign-language-cinema-is-struggling-in-the-uk-59424">concern</a> in recent years over the decline of non-English language productions in UK cinemas, this is an important step. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The words Dal y Mellt appear in bold set against a sunset." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518414/original/file-20230330-26-f7scm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518414/original/file-20230330-26-f7scm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518414/original/file-20230330-26-f7scm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518414/original/file-20230330-26-f7scm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518414/original/file-20230330-26-f7scm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518414/original/file-20230330-26-f7scm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518414/original/file-20230330-26-f7scm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Originally broadcast on S4C and the BBC iPlayer, Dal y Mellt has been given the title ‘Rough Cut’ for Netflix.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">S4C</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/books/review/nordic-noir-guide.html">Nordic Noir</a>” has paved the way for subtitled drama in recent years. The dark, Scandinavian genre has <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Nordic-noir-in-the-UK%3A-the-allure-of-accessible-Stougaard-Nielsen/2353eaeafcb2ee9a9ee00e45f132bfd048eeeec4">surged in popularity</a> globally since the mid 1990s. And crime dramas such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0907702/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Wallander</a>, <a href="https://www.dr.dk/drtv/saeson/forbrydelsen_-i_351784">Forbrydelsen</a> (The Killing) and <a href="https://nimbusfilm.dk/film/broen-4/?lang=dk">Bron</a> (The Bridge) have set the tone for productions such as Rough Cut. The combination of a highly recognisable genre, coupled with a distinct sense of place, proved to be a winning formula to be exported across the world. </p>
<p>Other minoritised languages have used a similar brooding genre since 2010 too. The two Irish Gaelic series, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1749056/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>Corp & Anam</em></a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2792326/"><em>An Bronntanas</em></a>, were produced by TG4, the Irish public service television channel. While <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06fp6cc"><em>Bannan</em></a>, a production in Scottish Gaelic, was made by BBC Alba. </p>
<p>When the dark, Welsh detective drama <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03sgfbz">Hinterland</a> was filmed, it was shot back to back in Welsh and English. The English version (with brief passages of Welsh dialogue) was broadcast on the BBC, while the Welsh language version was shown on S4C. And that somewhat controversial trend continued with more recent dramas such as the BBC’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p066st1w/hidden">Hidden</a> (<em>Craith</em>), <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09s7357">Keeping Faith</a> (<em>Un Bore Mercher</em>) and Channel 4’s <a href="https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-light-in-the-hall">A Light in the Hall</a> (<em>Y Golau</em>). </p>
<p>But there is something unique about Rough Cut because there is no English version, just one production in the Welsh language. This suggests a growing confidence in Welsh language productions. It’s a far cry from the early 1990s when the first Welsh language film to be nominated for an Oscar, <a href="https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-hedd-wyn-1992-online"><em>Hedd Wyn</em></a> didn’t even receive a cinematic release in Wales or the UK. </p>
<p>Recently, the mainstream success of non-English language productions such as <em>An Cailín Ciúin</em> (The Quiet Girl), All Quiet on the Western Front and Squid Game, suggest a gentle sea-change in attitudes to subtitled content. The latter was <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/10/13/squid-game-is-now-netflixs-most-popular-show-ever-and-its-not-even-close/">Netflix’s biggest hit to date</a> in 2021. </p>
<p>Parasite, the Korean mystery drama, became the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for best picture in 2020. And when he accepted his Golden Globe for best foreign language film, Parasite’s director Bong Joon-ho <a href="https://variety.com/2020/film/awards/south-koreas-parasite-crashes-the-subtitles-barrier-1203488979/">said</a>, “once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7j-oBxViuGw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The official S4C trailer for Dal y Mellt.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All this can only be good news for any future Welsh language productions. S4C says it is <a href="https://www.s4c.cymru/en/press/post/54344/s4c-crime-drama-dal-y-mellt-sold-to-netflix/">keen to see</a> Welsh language dramas “stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world”.</p>
<p>After all, there has been a remarkable growth in global content within a brutally competitive world of streaming. And that has been coupled with a radical transformation in viewing habits, which has resulted in public service broadcasters having to further justify their existence. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-public-or-the-state-who-calls-the-shots-at-the-bbc-198607">The public or the state: who calls the shots at the BBC?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63414736">S4C’s recent 40th birthday</a> has been an opportunity to reexamine its history and purpose. Initially on a trial period of three years, it was one of only four channels offering a limited service during peak hours. Forty years later, it is a multi platform broadcaster. It offers more than 115 hours of programming per week, with the digital revolution meaning the channel’s output now has global potential.</p>
<p>As for Rough Cut on Netflix, the statistics are pretty stark. Streamed as a box set on BBC iPlayer, it had a potential domestic reach of some 28.3 million households. Meanwhile, it is estimated that 231 million households have a Netflix subscription worldwide. Though Netflix’s ambitious claim, <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/12553/html/">voiced to the House of Commons Welsh affairs committee</a>, that it hoped it can play a role in helping to “promote and preserve the Welsh language”, is yet to be tested. </p>
<p>But for its audiences, Rough Cut, or <em>Dal y Mellt</em>, represents Welsh as a rich and vibrant community language, with its narrative both mapping and showcasing different parts of Wales.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198171/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Woodward does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Welsh language heist drama, Dal y Mellt, is being streamed on Netflix with the title, Rough Cut.Kate Woodward, Lecturer in Film Studies, Aberystwyth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1978322023-02-02T17:20:53Z2023-02-02T17:20:53ZWelsh place names are being erased – and so are the stories they tell<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506659/original/file-20230126-14416-c3e4mq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C8%2C5964%2C3952&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Welsh name Yr Wyddfa is now used for the mountain instead of Snowdon by the national park authority. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Malgosia Janicka/Shutterstock.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://authority.snowdonia.gov.wales/news/article/?id=14460">decision</a> to use Eryri rather than Snowdonia, and Yr Wyddfa instead of Snowdon by the national park authority last autumn reignited a longstanding debate over the protection of place names in Wales.</p>
<p>The switch to Eryri and Yr Wyddfa was made following <a href="https://www.thebmc.co.uk/snowdon-petition-to-use-welsh-name-for-snowdonia-national-park">a petition</a> calling for the park authority to use the Welsh names. But campaigners have been pushing for better protections and use of <a href="https://www.welshlanguagecommissioner.wales/policy-and-research/welsh-place-names/why-standardise-place-nameseur">Welsh place names</a> for decades. </p>
<p>One of the most significant examples of this was the campaign in favour of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305748808000960">bilingual road signs</a> in Wales, which started in the 1960s. Before then, there were only English-language road signs in Wales. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and white image of people in scarves, hats and coats carrying Welsh language signs saying 'defnyddiwch yr iaith Gymraeg'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507353/original/file-20230131-4694-12yugh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507353/original/file-20230131-4694-12yugh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507353/original/file-20230131-4694-12yugh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507353/original/file-20230131-4694-12yugh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507353/original/file-20230131-4694-12yugh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507353/original/file-20230131-4694-12yugh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507353/original/file-20230131-4694-12yugh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first protest by Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg – Welsh Language Society took place in Aberystwyth on February 2 1963.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Geoff Charles/Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg & The National Library of Wales</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to protesters at the time, such signs were a way of indicating that Wales was an English and British territory. For the same campaigners, bilingual signs would signify Wales was a different country – one which had its own unique language and identity. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly perhaps, <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2022-04-29/anger-as-caravan-park-replaces-100-year-old-welsh-name-with-english-alternative">some recent examples</a> of English names being adopted in place of old Welsh place names and toponyms (names for geographical features such as hills), have been viewed with consternation by some. </p>
<p>That list is already long but it is one that grows from year to year, as English versions of place names and toponyms are coined. Porth Trecastell on Anglesey being referred to as <a href="https://discovernorthwales.com/cable-bay-anglesey/">Cable Bay</a>, or <a href="https://nation.cymru/opinion/its-llyn-bochlwyd-not-lake-australia-why-we-should-protect-our-welsh-place-names/">Llyn Bochlwyd in Eryri replaced by Lake Australia in tourist guides</a>, are just two examples. </p>
<p>This has <a href="https://www.cymdeithasenwaulleoedd.cymru/en/">led to a campaign</a> to protect, re-emphasise and, in some cases, rediscover Welsh place names.</p>
<h2>Connection</h2>
<p>The situation is exacerbated by the fact that English versions of place names being coined often bear little or no relation to the original Welsh meaning. As such, there is a danger that important elements of the cultural landscape, such as local histories and legends, are being lost.</p>
<p>For example, the original name of the farmhouse <a href="https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/402856/"><em>Faerdre Fach</em></a> (which translates as “little Reeve’s settlement”), near Llandysul in Ceredigion, points to its role as a local administrative centre during the Middle Ages. With the change to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03dk6wm">“Happy Donkey Hill”</a> more than a decade ago, a name meant to appeal to tourists, all sense of historical or local context was lost. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Old map featuring Welsh place names" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507080/original/file-20230130-14-a9cjhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507080/original/file-20230130-14-a9cjhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507080/original/file-20230130-14-a9cjhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507080/original/file-20230130-14-a9cjhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507080/original/file-20230130-14-a9cjhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507080/original/file-20230130-14-a9cjhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507080/original/file-20230130-14-a9cjhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bank Cornicyll, the Carmarthenshire farm, as seen in the List of Historic Place Names. It is now registered as ‘Hakuna Matata’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">List of Historic Place Names/Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, <em><a href="https://historicplacenames.rcahmw.gov.uk/placenames/recordedname/d9607c69-a917-4675-880b-375de3712c1e">Banc Cornicyll</a></em>, the former name of a farm in Carmarthenshire translates as Lapwing Bank, thus giving an indication of the local landscape and fauna where the farm is located. Its <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/outrage-historic-welsh-farm-renamed-22917409">replacement name of Hakuna Matata</a> (a Swahili phrase and title of the song from The Lion King), is divorced from the cultural landscape of the area. The owner <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/owner-defends-hakuna-matata-house-22948727">last year defended the change</a>, saying it was a decision made 25 years ago and that the Swahili term has meaning. </p>
<h2>Authority</h2>
<p>Place names are also important because they indicate patterns of power within society. The right to give places and landscape features names reflects the authority of individuals, groups and institutions. This leads us to question who has the right to decide whether a Welsh name or an alternative English name is used. Which institutions and agencies act as gatekeepers for the naming of places in Wales? </p>
<p>Criticism <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-61811395">has been levelled</a> at the Ordnance Survey (OS), in this respect, for being slow to correct the misspellings of Welsh toponyms on its current maps. The OS cited historical precedent, namely that these are the names that have appeared on its maps since the late 19th century. </p>
<p>But such a defence does not recognise the <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Map_of_a_Nation/q57yDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">problematic nature</a> of the creation of early maps in places like Wales and Scotland. Native place names were often misspelled on the basis of erroneous information received from English landowners.</p>
<p>Conversely, the farm name Hakuna Matata already appears on OS maps of Carmarthenshire. Despite differences in the contexts of these two examples, they both illustrate the significant, and arguably, arbitrary power of an institution such as the OS in the naming of places in Wales.</p>
<p>Organisations such as the <a href="https://www.cymdeithasenwaulleoedd.cymru/en/">Welsh Place-Name Society</a> and prominent individuals such as <a href="https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/bbcs-huw-edwards-wades-row-17525565">newsreader Huw Edwards</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-44481950">comedian Tudur Owen</a> have sought to draw attention to the Anglicisation of place names. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yLQ6XlG0MQ4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Comedian Tudur Owen presents an item about Welsh place names being lost on the BBC programme Wales Live in 2018.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To date, however, the Welsh government <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-39281369">has resisted</a> calls to introduce legislation which would protect place names. That said, it is examining ways of stopping people from using English alternatives for Welsh place names, stating it has an “impact on the visible presence of the language in our communities”. </p>
<p>Jeremy Miles, the minister for education and the Welsh language, further stated in November 2022 that the <a href="https://www.gov.wales/welsh-language-communities-housing-plan-html">Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan</a> would conduct research into feasible ways of stopping Welsh place names from being changed. </p>
<p>All of this points to a <a href="https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/fascinating-welsh-place-names-being-25206390">growing appetite</a> to address this issue. Whether it can be solved through legislation is open to debate, however. Many of the changes discussed in this article are taking place in the context of popular usage, by residents and visitors who, for whatever reason, choose to use English versions of Welsh place names. As such, it is a challenge that will be difficult to address, let alone resolve, in practice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197832/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rhys Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Welsh place names often reflect local legends, fauna and topography. The coining of English names to replace them has sparked an ongoing campaign to protect them.Rhys Jones, Professor of Human Geography, Aberystwyth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1965992023-01-10T11:51:54Z2023-01-10T11:51:54ZWhy being bilingual can open doors for children with developmental disabilities, not close them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501612/original/file-20221216-14-xribej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Antoni Shkraba / Pexels</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When parents learn their child has a developmental disability, they often have questions about what their child may or may not be able to do. </p>
<p>Children with developmental disabilities, such as Down syndrome, often have challenges and delays in language development. And for some families, one of these questions may be: “Will speaking two languages be detrimental to their development?” </p>
<p>However, studies consistently demonstrate exposure to an additional language, including a minority language, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-second-language-acquisition/article/abs/predicting-language-proficiency-in-bilingual-children/40E27364CCAEB48D4F878EE64C377CF2">does not impact language outcomes negatively</a>. This highlights the importance of giving children the opportunity to become bilingual.</p>
<p>Many parents feel speaking one language would be easier than two. Some may feel <a href="https://pubs.asha.org/doi/abs/10.1044/2016_JSLHR-L-15-0348">bilingualism would be too confusing</a> for a child with a developmental disability. This is a belief which is also sometimes held by teachers and clinicians who may be consulted on their view towards bilingual exposure. </p>
<p>With good intentions, paediatricians, speech–language therapists, teachers or social workers <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1460-6984.2011.00071.x?casa_token=3-Vp9tBfaUYAAAAA:1yG64kISIh9vPRWEnD1VSyE8P9lVl9skv8ZSn8o6AQbL1_A2mEd1mErgXaPm7oxdfz5AoQRcpI7SwB4">may advise parents</a> to avoid using a heritage or minority language in the home, as children will also be exposed to the majority community language.</p>
<p>Research also shows children with disabilities may have <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021992416300272?casa_token=b33PrWslSUoAAAAA:BPWMufWoUG8p0W7CB-KqpJKiBCTadDMU_K6tpzjgolramxAtSXjvKj4UrzUvpSsuWD_AAj6XIA">fewer opportunities to access services</a> in a second language.</p>
<p>However, bilingualism is possible for children with developmental disabilities, as our research on children learning both Welsh and English shows. Children who are able to access bilingual provisions may also benefit. In fact, research shows bilingualism may have a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0891422219300149?casa_token=Qk0mgmkJTCEAAAAA:kdSYpyVLrCx84jDJbtaU1LRP4MFyUFhc4GSWiWSi_JJCOcj2idcZEjut9jhrgb1BmKk-Nx_vSKM">positive impact on these children’s social interactions and the formation of their identity</a>.</p>
<h2>Bilingualism in Wales</h2>
<p>The most recent census data for England and Wales suggests <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/language/bulletins/welshlanguagewales/census2021#:%7E:text=In%202021%2C%20an%20estimated%20538%2C000,2011%20(562%2C000%2C%2019.0%25)">the number of children able to speak Welsh in Wales has declined by 1.2 percentage points</a> from 19% in 2011 to 17.8% in 2021. The largest decline was in those aged between 5 and 15 years old. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1600061790410493952"}"></div></p>
<p>While these latest figures are unexpected and <a href="https://www.gov.wales/written-statement-response-census-2021-results-welsh-language">disappointing according to the Welsh government</a>, the age group with the highest percentage of Welsh speakers was also children between the ages of 5 and 15. This gives a promising outlook for the future of the Welsh language. </p>
<p>Crucially, converging evidence shows bilingualism does not cause <a href="https://www.child-encyclopedia.com/second-language/according-experts/second-languagebilingualism-early-age-emphasis-its-impact-early">additional difficulties or lead to confusion for children learning more than one language</a>.</p>
<p>Parents may have reservations about Welsh-medium education if they do not speak Welsh themselves, for example. Parents of autistic children or children with developmental disabilities may have further reservations still. </p>
<p>Once again though, studies show <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/aur.2023?casa_token=1Iib1mcuGscAAAAA%3Akc31b2-oE-T2BP9EEu9meC6mzjiPqAuIxptAVJDAoRoo38-pRgtWMhqzp3E-sCUZ8uW4wA2j3RCazdc">bilingualism does not cause additional difficulties</a> for these groups either. This includes children with more <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699206.2020.1818288">complex and co-occuring conditions.</a></p>
<h2>Why parents should embrace bilingualism</h2>
<p>Regarding children with Down syndrome, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34126402/">we found parents need not have these concerns</a>. Indeed, our research suggests families should embrace bilingualism. We recruited children with Down syndrome alongside typically developing children who were either acquiring only English, or were exposed to both English and Welsh. These children completed a range of specialist tasks to assess their cognitive and language skills.</p>
<p>We found Welsh-English bilingual children with Down syndrome had comparable English skills in important language areas to children with Down syndrome who had only been exposed to English. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the bilingual children were also developing skills in their additional language. Those also acquiring Welsh had similar abilities in that language as younger children without Down syndrome, who were at the same level of development. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Girl with Down syndrome smiling with painted fingers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503289/original/file-20230105-14-ydlxj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503289/original/file-20230105-14-ydlxj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503289/original/file-20230105-14-ydlxj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503289/original/file-20230105-14-ydlxj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503289/original/file-20230105-14-ydlxj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503289/original/file-20230105-14-ydlxj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503289/original/file-20230105-14-ydlxj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Denis Kuvaev, Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Children with Down syndrome should therefore be supported in accessing similar educational provisions as more typically developing children. In the context of Wales, this could mean accessing Welsh-medium schools or being included in second language classes.</p>
<p>In Wales, parents can opt for their children to receive Welsh-medium education, regardless of their home language. Children who receive Welsh education can flourish if they have access to bilingual education.</p>
<p>Research on typically developing bilingual children and adults suggests there may be other <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-does-being-bilingual-affect-your-brain-it-depends-on-how-you-use-language-146264">benefits to being bilingual</a>. These include better mental skills, creativity and even the possibility of being <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6868000/#:%7E:text=Bilingualism%20is%20one%20form%20of,monolingual%20patients%20through%20cognitive%20reserve.">protected against cognitive decline</a>, such as Alzheimer’s disease. </p>
<p>Being bilingual opens up a range of opportunities such as <a href="https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/jtlge/article/view/1077">better prospects of gaining employment</a>, and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13670050.2020.1799323?casa_token=5tlcOYoZ1C4AAAAA%3AisI1jclMPKZlLwklTkl2z1rNI2LnQg1tmBpLIsgbv--ItUGNFoBtlpuV5VyQSWWEgb8itiX2WKDE">helping to develop social skills</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MMmOLN5zBLY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Research shows some of these benefits, such as enhanced thinking skills, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32157943/">may also extend to autistic children</a>. </p>
<p>Giving children the opportunity to develop abilities in two languages also enables them to be able to choose what language they want to communicate in. It may also make them feel connected to their community. </p>
<p>These findings challenge the view that bilingualism is detrimental to children’s development. In contrast, including children with developmental disabilities in bilingual provisions gives them the chance to blossom alongside their typically developing peers.</p>
<p>As a result, families should feel empowered to reach informed decisions for themselves by considering the potential opportunities being bilingual may provide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Ward has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council's Doctoral Training Partnership Programme and The Coleg Cymraeg.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eirini Sanoudaki collaborates with the Down’s Syndrome Association, schools and groups involved in supporting individuals with developmental conditions. She receives funding from the ESRC for research on bilingualism in neurodiverse populations.</span></em></p>There are many benefits to being bilingual.Rebecca Ward, Lecturer in Psychology, Swansea UniversityEirini Sanoudaki, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics (Bilingualism), Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962662023-01-08T13:26:21Z2023-01-08T13:26:21ZSupporting minority languages requires more than token gestures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503327/original/file-20230105-12-dlbbtf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C77%2C7315%2C4825&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Language policy in Canada suggests misunderstanding among government officials and the general public about language use, international language rights and their implications.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In August 2022, Statistics Canada released the latest census data on languages in Canada. According to the data, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220817/dq220817a-eng.htm">over nine million people — or one in four Canadians</a> — has a mother tongue other than English or French (a record high since the 1901 census). </p>
<p><a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2022051-eng.htm">Twelve per cent of Canadians</a> speak a language other than English or French at home. Statistics Canada observes that the country’s linguistic diversity will likely continue to grow into the future.</p>
<p>Yet, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-96-explained-1.6460764">recent developments</a> in language policy and practices in Canada reveal that there is confusion and misunderstanding among government officials and the general public about language use, international language rights and their implications.</p>
<p>In Canada, there must be greater understanding of the cultural and linguistic rights of minorities. According to universally accepted human rights, persons belonging to majorities and minorities should have equal rights. Minorities are entitled to equal conditions and services to enable them to maintain their identity, culture and language.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white street sign in the English and Inuit languages that reads: Mittimatalil." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503328/original/file-20230105-2013-1d6fbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A street sign in the English and Inuit languages at Pond Inlet on Baffin Island, Nvt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The 1966 <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-civil-and-political-rights">International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights</a>, a human rights treaty to which Canada is a party, provides that “In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language.”</p>
<p>The 1992 <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/declaration-rights-persons-belonging-national-or-ethnic">UN Declaration on Minorities</a> clarifies and expands on this treaty provision. It stipulates that UN member states should enact legislative and other measures to protect minority identities.</p>
<h2>Confusing words</h2>
<p>Two words <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-003-1024-0">are often confused</a> in Canada: integration and assimilation. When speaking about immigrants and refugees, <a href="https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-2.5/page-1.html#h-274085">Canadian law’s stated objective is integration</a>. And the default framework for integration is the majority culture and language. </p>
<p>Non-anglophone and non-francophone immigrants are expected to adapt and conform to the Canadian way of doing things, learn Canadian history, celebrate Canadian holidays and speak in one or both of Canada’s official languages.</p>
<p>But these languages reflect the cultures of Canada’s two historically dominant groups. For many Indigenous people and immigrants, histories, holidays and languages differ from the majority of Canadians.</p>
<p>Involuntary assimilation is <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G05/133/85/PDF/G0513385.pdf?OpenElement">prohibited under international law</a>. This is a colonialist and imperialist practice which ultimately forces people to alter or surrender their identity, culture and dissolve into the majority. </p>
<p>Canada’s notorious <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools">residential schools</a> were one of the harshest examples of such assimilationist policies. Other essentially assimilationist practices continue to this day. For example, the law states that provinces must provide education to English or French-speaking minorities <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art23.html">in their own language</a>. But there is no similar legislation for Indigenous languages, nor for those spoken by people who immigrate from all around the world. These policies will increasingly conflict with growing diversity as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63643912">Canada seeks to welcome 1.5 million immigrants</a> over the next three years.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/language-learning-in-canada-needs-to-change-to-reflect-superdiverse-communities-144037">Language learning in Canada needs to change to reflect 'superdiverse' communities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In contrast, <a href="https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/0/9/96883.pdf">integration</a> is based on recognition of diversity. Integration is a two-way process through which minorities and majorities learn about and engage with each other’s cultures and languages. </p>
<p>While maintaining their own distinctiveness, majority and minority groups contribute to shared foundations and institutions of the society out of common interest and for mutual benefit. This is important for the many individuals who possess multiple or overlapping identities.</p>
<p>In 2012, the <a href="https://www.osce.org/">Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe</a>, of which Canada is a participating state, released <a href="https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/0/9/96883.pdf">Guidelines on Integration of Diverse Societies</a>, in which it explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Integration is a process that requires that all members of a given society accept common public institutions and have a shared sense of belonging to a common State and an inclusive society. This does not exclude the possibility of distinct identities, which are constantly evolving, multiple and contextual. Mechanisms aiming at mutual accommodation are essential to negotiate the legitimate claims put forward by different groups or communities.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Integration requires accommodation of diversity. It also means that governments should invest proportionally in the promotion of majority and minority cultures and languages with a view to facilitating full lives in dignity and equal rights for everyone. This requires more than token support for cultural activities such as traditional food and dance.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People at a protest carry signs featuring the number 96 with a red line across it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503326/original/file-20230105-22-y6z2o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People take part in a protest against Bill 96 in Montréal. Québec’s language law reform, known as Bill 96, forbids provincial government agencies and municipalities from using languages other than French.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is also confusion around the issue of minority language status. In Canada there is a common belief that the only minority language(s) entitled to protection are the ones with official or other recognized status. But according to international human rights principles, all minority cultures and languages should be protected <a href="https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/E/GA/report/A_74_160.pdf">regardless of whether they hold “official” status</a>. </p>
<p>This means that the languages of Indigenous Peoples as well as of other people living in Canada should be acknowledged and facilitated. This is essential for their well-being and for genuine equality in rights.</p>
<h2>Not a zero-sum game</h2>
<p>Genuine integration should respect and promote diversity in the languages used in various contexts of public life. This does not necessarily require changing the number and status of official languages; it’s not a zero-sum game. But it does require adjusting language policies to reconcile with existing realities in reasonable and meaningful ways. The aim is real and effective equality. </p>
<p>Technological innovations (such as easily accessible <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/02/05/translation-tech-solutions-language-barriers-google-translate-interpreter/4596091002/">real-time translation</a>) make this more possible and cost-effective than ever.</p>
<p>In order to live together peacefully and embrace diversity, Canadians need to understand that languages are not just a means of technical communication, but are often at the core of people’s identity and culture. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/residential-day-school-survivors-who-lost-language-and-culture-seek-redress-1.3032862">Taking away a person’s language</a> often amounts to taking away their sense of self, dignity and community belonging. It also suppresses the remarkable linguistic assets that Canada possesses.</p>
<p>Building a Canadian nation through assimilation of minorities in the face of increasing diversity only generates social tensions and conflicts. It is not democracy, it is majoritarianism. It is contrary to fundamental human rights and signals social regression rather than progress. </p>
<p>Instead, Canada should foster a forward-looking, human-centred and dynamic society that embraces diversity, multiculturalism and multilingualism. This is to our advantage. Canada’s rich linguistic diversity is an asset that should be valued. We must cast off the old colonialist thinking and seize the rich possibilities that are at hand.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196266/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veaceslav Balan is a member of the University of Ottawa Human Rights Research and Education Centre.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frederick John Packer receives funding from SSHRC. He is affiliated with a number of human rights NGOs including Human Rights Watch (Canada Committee) and the International Commission of Jurists (Canada Section). </span></em></p>Canada’s population is more diverse than ever, with many different languages represented. Government policy must reflect that diversity and offer meaningful support to minority languages.Veaceslav Balan, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaFrederick John Packer, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1957952022-12-06T18:33:14Z2022-12-06T18:33:14ZEnglish only? The Emergencies Act inquiry showed Canada’s hostility towards francophones<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498744/original/file-20221202-26-bw5skl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C21%2C7303%2C4112&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite being French-speaking, CSIS Deputy Director of Operations Michelle Tessier, Director David Vigneault and Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre Executive Director Marie-Hélène Chayer testified in English only before the Rouleau Commission in November 2022 in Ottawa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://publicorderemergencycommission.ca/">The Public Order Emergency Commission</a>, which examined the federal government’s decision to declare a state of emergency during the occupation of the so-called freedom convoy in Ottawa, is bringing into the light debates over how bilingual Canada really is.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2022/11/21/commission-sur-letat-durgence-le-francais-en-prend-un-coup-une-fois-de-plus">French-language media</a> lamented the surprising absence of French during the recent proceedings. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ledevoir.com/politique/canada/772157/commission-sur-l-etat-d-urgence-trudeau-promet-de-faire-des-efforts-en-temoignant-en-francais">In response, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised he would speak French</a> during his testimony — which he did <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-testifies-public-order-emergency-commission-1.6664962">for a total of 10 minutes during the five hours of his testimony</a>).</p>
<p>Although the proceedings were established in French and English by an Order in Council and, as a national inquiry, are bound by the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/o-3.01/">Official Languages Act</a>, they were conducted almost exclusively in English. Indeed, of the more than 75 witnesses who testified, only one spoke entirely in French.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498054/original/file-20221129-12-git4lo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498054/original/file-20221129-12-git4lo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498054/original/file-20221129-12-git4lo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498054/original/file-20221129-12-git4lo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498054/original/file-20221129-12-git4lo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498054/original/file-20221129-12-git4lo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498054/original/file-20221129-12-git4lo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc testifies before the Commission on the State of Emergency in Ottawa in November 2022. The Acadian chose to testify in English only.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many francophone witnesses, such as proud Acadian Dominic LeBlanc, chose to testify in English. </p>
<p>As a discrimination researcher, I am interested in the power structures that prevent members of minority groups from asserting their rights. I seek to provide insight into the reasons for the absence of French at the commission hearings.</p>
<h2>A bilingual judge</h2>
<p>On the face of it, one would have had every reason to expect the Public Order Emergency Commission to be welcoming to both official languages. Its commissioner, Franco-Ontarian Judge Paul Rouleau, has long been an advocate for minority language rights. He was instrumental in developing and overseeing the implementation of <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/tld-documents.llnassets.com/0030000/30791/access%20to%20justice%20in%20french.pdf">pioneering access to justice initiatives for francophones in Ontario</a>.</p>
<p>So it’s not surprising that Rouleau tried to set the tone for the commission by delivering an opening speech in both languages, noting that the proceedings would be accessible in both official languages and that witnesses were encouraged to testify in either French or English. </p>
<p>In fact, the Order in Council that created the commission gave it the mandate to <a href="https://commissionsurletatdurgence.ca/files/documents/Order-in-Council-De%CC%81cret-2022-0392.pdf">“ensure that … members of the public can communicate with and obtain available services from the Commissioner simultaneously in both official languages.”</a></p>
<h2>Anglonormativity</h2>
<p>Just as researchers have observed that appointing women to head an organization is not enough to eradicate gender discrimination, simply appointing a francophone to chair the Commission is not enough to counter anglonormativity, the powerful force that prevents francophones from feeling comfortable in their language. </p>
<p>Alexandre Baril, a professor and expert in feminist, trans and intersectional theories, defines this concept as a <a href="https://journals.msvu.ca/index.php/atlantis/article/view/4088/125-137%20PDF">“system of structures, institutions and beliefs that mark English as the norm.”</a> According to Baril, anglonormativity is the norm by which non-English speakers are judged, discriminated against and excluded.</p>
<p>One of the explanations as to why, despite Rouleau’s efforts, all but one of the francophones chose to testify in French is that the commission is only a window into other anglonormative worlds.</p>
<p>Many francophones may have chosen to speak English because they were testifying about events in their workplaces, such as the police or the federal public service, which are anglonormative.</p>
<p><a href="https://lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebsite/default/en_CA/ResearchPublications/201169F?">Several reports</a> published by the Commissioner of Official Languages paint a picture of a federal public service where French is often marginalized and where the organizational culture is unapologetically anglonormative. Even for the most ardent francophones, it may simply be easier to recount conversations that took place in English and to describe documents written in English, in English.</p>
<h2>Voluntary servitude or fear of contempt?</h2>
<p>Some commentators characterized the commission’s French-speaking witnesses who testified in English as being in <a href="https://www.journaldequebec.com/2022/11/28/lart-de-secraser">“voluntary servitude.”</a> Such statements amount to victim-blaming because they fail to take into account the obvious contempt and hostility that francophone participants faced and the impact that francophobia can have on the decision to assert one’s rights to speak Canada’s minority official language.</p>
<p>Take, for example, Mathieu Fleury. The former city councillor, a strong advocate for <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/10/26/francophonie-meets-francophobia-at-the-emergencies-act-inquiry.html">francophone rights at Ottawa City Hall</a>, chose to testify in English. </p>
<p>When he expressed difficulty answering a technical question because it was not in his mother tongue, a lawyer for the freedom convoy protesters mocked him. “Je m’appelle Brendan,” the lawyer said, in a derogatory manner causing the audience to laugh.</p>
<p>One wonders what the public’s — and the law society’s — reaction would have been if a lawyer, who has a special responsibility to uphold the values of equality protected by human rights legislation, had ridiculed a witness with a hearing impairment who spoke through an interpreter, or a witness who spoke about their religious beliefs.</p>
<p>Trudeau was also subject to brutal attacks by some English speakers on social media for speaking in French for 10 minutes. The choice was described as petty, irritating and a <a href="https://twitter.com/anneslevesque/status/1596497784693219329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1596730386901786624%7Ctwgr%5E2a4999fdceb6181be3f1552745307862a8c6665d%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconversation.com%2Fle-comble-de-langlo-normativite-les-francophones-parlant-anglais-a-la-commission-sur-letat-durgence-195275">“smoke screen to dissuade people from listening.”</a></p>
<p>There was, of course, nothing malicious about Trudeau’s decision to testify in French. He had the right to speak in the official language of his choice, a language in which he grew up and which is spoken by most of the constituents in the riding he represents. </p>
<p>As our country’s highest federal official, he also has an obligation to work proactively to enhance the vitality of official language minority communities in Canada.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498050/original/file-20221129-22-mvvnfo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498050/original/file-20221129-22-mvvnfo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498050/original/file-20221129-22-mvvnfo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498050/original/file-20221129-22-mvvnfo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498050/original/file-20221129-22-mvvnfo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498050/original/file-20221129-22-mvvnfo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498050/original/file-20221129-22-mvvnfo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before the Commission on the State of Emergency in Ottawa on Nov. 25, 2022. He spoke in French for about 10 minutes out of more than five hours of testimony.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Francophobia: The last acceptable prejudice?</h2>
<p>The hostility that the two francophones faced for their choice of testimony language is a classic example of what feminists call a double bind.</p>
<p>Indeed, francophones who speak French in anglonormative contexts are often labelled as difficult or ascribed bad intentions. On the other hand, francophones who try to be accommodating and speak the language of the majority face ridicule when they are unable to speak or understand at the level of a native speaker. </p>
<p>In the eyes of francophobes, no choice made by a francophone is a good choice because, in the end, it is not the choices of francophones they deplore but francophones themselves.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, discriminatory statements against francophones who speak French are rarely denounced. Worse, most human rights laws across the country offer francophones no protection against discrimination based on their language.</p>
<p>Is francophobia, as Jean-Benoît Nadeau has written, the <a href="https://www.ledevoir.com/opinion/chroniques/467789/le-dernier-prejuge-acceptable">last acceptable prejudice</a>? </p>
<p>A recent front-page article in the <em>Toronto Star</em> <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2022/11/09/canadas-childrens-tylenol-shortage-is-getting-worse-and-bilingual-labels-are-part-of-the-problem.html">blamed the lack of children’s medication on bilingual labelling requirements</a>. </p>
<p>The headline turned out to be false. Yet even if it had been true, it is disappointing that a national newspaper would choose to blame a minority for the problem rather than the failure of governments to put in place a system that meets the necessary regulatory requirements to protect them.</p>
<p>With strong language rights protection, francophones are certainly privileged compared to other minorities and Indigenous Peoples in Canada. However, this unique protection may also expose francophones to particular forms of discrimination and contempt.</p>
<p>Rights should be a matter of levelling up rather than levelling down. Francophones should not be discriminated against for asserting their right to speak the official language of their choice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195795/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Levesque ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The almost complete absence of French at the Public Order Emergency Commission does not come from a subservient reflex on the part of French speakers so much as their fear of being scorned.Anne Levesque, Assistant professor, Faculty of Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1889292022-08-22T15:14:31Z2022-08-22T15:14:31ZGaelic psalm singing: why the ancient tradition is in danger of disappearing<blockquote>
<p>There’s just something about Gaelic psalm singing that moves me. It doesn’t matter where I am. If I hear it, it just brings me back to my youth in Staffin. It brings me back to happy events … and very sad events. It was, is and always will be powerful in my eyes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><em>Alec “Bhaltos” MacDonald, Gaelic teacher and translator, Skye</em></strong></p>
<p>Most Gaels, whether religious or not, will recognise the sound of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/aug/27/vertical-connection-to-god-the-euphoria-of-gaelic-psalm-singing">Gaelic psalmody</a> (psalm singing) as a truly emotive heartbeat of their communities and the sound accompanying the happiest, most mundane and most devastating of times. But this stirring singing tradition that has evolved over centuries is now in danger of disappearing.</p>
<p>When UNESCO highlighted back in 1996 the <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000192416">critical situation of language loss</a> around the world, and the extent to which many minority languages are endangered, our eyes were opened to the serious implications of language homogenisation, and the huge loss of language and cultural diversity that comes with it.</p>
<p>Ever since the The 1872 <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/acts/1872-education-scotland-act.html#:%7E:text=It%20provided%20for%20the%20establishment,and%20made%20elementary%20education%20compulsory.">Education (Scotland) Act</a>, when compulsory schooling in the English language was introduced to the exclusion of <a href="https://www.visitscotland.com/about/uniquely-scottish/gaelic/">Scottish Gaelic</a>, there have been concerns for the decline of the language.</p>
<p><a href="https://projects.handsupfortrad.scot/hall-of-fame/morag-macleod/">Morag MacLeod</a>, a Gaelic scholar who worked for many years at the University of Edinburgh, expressed her thoughts in an interview earlier this year, saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What I think about Gaelic just now, is how wicked it was that the language was suppressed. And … to such a degree that people believed that it was no good. And that was deep in the psyche. It still is.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Gaelic is a wonderful, unique and poetic language – a language which, when you dig deep, has ways of expressing thoughts, feelings and observations which you simply won’t find in English. Poets such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugald_Buchanan">Dugald Buchanan</a>, <a href="https://www.ambaile.org.uk/asset/41653/1/">Mairi Mhòr nan Òran</a> and <a href="http://www.sorleymaclean.org/english/life.htm">Sorley MacLean</a> are among some of the most celebrated of many writers in the Gaelic language who have demonstrated this in their work. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ROoWGPsyzFg?wmode=transparent&start=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>School and church</h2>
<p>While the education system failed to support Gaelic in schools, one of the institutions which nurtured the language was the church. In many places in the Highlands, the church remains at the heart of community and religious life. For centuries and, until recently, while Gaelic was being stamped out in schools, churches – both Catholic and Protestant (Presbyterian) – took the opposite approach.</p>
<p>Services were almost exclusively conducted in Gaelic (with Latin used in Catholic churches) within Gaelic-speaking communities and singing was also in Gaelic. Back in the 19th century it was considered so important for <a href="https://www.britannica.com/summary/presbyterian">Presbyterian</a> ministers to be able to address congregations in their mother tongue that schemes were put in place by the Church of Scotland to train Gaelic-speaking youth for the ministry. Even as far back as 1708 there were policies to ensure that Gaelic-speaking ministers were stationed in Highland parishes.</p>
<p>Today, ironically, the roles have been reversed. Gaelic and English bilingualism which in the past was given little or no credit, is now recognised as hugely beneficial to learning across the school curriculum. Scottish Gaelic is thriving in our schools, giving hope that this language confidence will continue to grow into the future.</p>
<p>However, now the opposite has become the case in churches. While the church may be aware of the need for Gaelic-speaking priests and ministers in Highland and island communities, there are no longer language policies in place and not enough clergy to cater for the needs of Gaelic communities.</p>
<p>Even in the strongest of Gaelic-speaking areas such as the island of Scalpay, near Harris, where up to 80% of the population are Gaelic speakers, there is no longer a regular Gaelic service held at either of the two churches on the island. And this decline of language use in religious life has had a knock-on effect on some of the most beautiful and unique forms of Gaelic musical expression, contributing to a sharp decline in congregational singing in the Gaelic language. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w62TN2iCP1g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Soundscape of life</h2>
<p>One tradition in particular, which has been greatly affected, is that of Gaelic psalmody: the beautiful, evocative style of singing whose origins date back to the years following the 1560 <a href="https://scottishhistorysociety.com/the-scottish-reformation-c-1525-1560/">Scottish Reformation</a>. Congregations were mostly illiterate and unaccompanied singing was led by one male singer, known as a precentor, who would sing the line for the congregation to follow. </p>
<p>Fifty years ago, Gaelic psalmody was a soundscape to a way of life in the Presbyterian Hebridean communities and the only form of musical worship heard in churches. In those days, churches were filled with hundreds of people gathered to take part in this singing tradition.</p>
<p>After the first world war when emigrant ships left from the island of Lewis for the new world, taking so many young people away from their land of birth, this psalmody was sung by those on land and on sea, as the final parting act before the waves and wind drowned out the voices. </p>
<p>This singing, in its traditional context, has become critically endangered. Today, Gaelic services are few and far between in Hebridean parishes and those still taking place have reduced hugely in numbers. English language services tend to have predominantly English singing, although there may be an occasional Gaelic psalm or hymn among them.</p>
<p>In Catholic churches a similar decline is being experienced with the singing of some of the most exquisite Gaelic verse – hymns that were composed on the islands from the late 19th century. </p>
<p>Gaelic spiritual singing wouldn’t be the first to become obsolete in its original context, and this may well become a reality if no steps are taken to ensure that it is safeguarded.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QeSrkZfpAjc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Gaelic work songs such as <a href="https://www.scotlandinfo.eu/history-of-cloth-making-and-waulking/">“waulking” songs</a> have already been repurposed as performance pieces to be sung on the concert stage, as have <a href="https://www.scotslanguage.com/Scots_Song_uid65/Types_of_Scots_Song_uid131/Bothy_Ballads_uid3315">bothy ballads</a>, <a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Sea-Shanties/">sea shanties</a>, and <a href="https://www.jazzhistorytree.com/work-field-songs/">African-American worksongs</a>. Gaelic spiritual psalms and hymns are also finding their way into the performance repertoires of musicians and composers in this way. But in a secular context the sacred role of Gaelic psalmody is being lost.</p>
<p>Language is a way to express culture. The deep spiritual connection it has with its people and the role which music plays in this, must be recognised and supported into the future if we are to keep some of the most precious aspects of Gaelic culture alive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188929/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frances Wilkins receives funding from The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and the British Academy.</span></em></p>Scottish Gaelic psalm singing is an important part of the language and culture, but this centuries-old tradition is now becoming endangered.Frances Wilkins, Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1686922021-10-05T16:36:22Z2021-10-05T16:36:22ZWe speak a lot of languages in Canada — elections should reflect our diversity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424778/original/file-20211005-15-6caq9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C210%2C3600%2C2182&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New immigrants to Canada, including Syrian-born Tareq Hadhad (centre) who founded the company Peace by Chocolate in Antigonish, N.S., swear allegiance at an Oath of Citizenship ceremony in Halifax in January 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Riley Smith </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>According to the <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/as-sa/98-314-x/98-314-x2011003_3-eng.cfm">2011 census</a>, almost 213,500 people reported an Indigenous mother tongue, including 144,000 who speak an Algonquian language and 35,500 who speak an Inuit language. All Indigenous languages are the languages of this land.</p>
<p>In the same 2011 census, <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/as-sa/98-314-x/98-314-x2011001-eng.cfm">more than 20 per cent of Canadians</a> (6.8 million people) reported a mother tongue other than English or French. At home, more than a million Canadians reported speaking a variant of Chinese, and six other languages (Punjabi, Spanish, Italian, German, Tagalog and Arabic) were each spoken by some 400,000 to 500,000 Canadians. </p>
<p>The census revealed more than 200 languages spoken by Canadians as a home language or a mother tongue, with 20 languages each numbering over 100,000 speakers.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424767/original/file-20211005-14-1f6nteg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1935&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man holds a sign that reads We Are All Immigrants (Except First Nations)" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424767/original/file-20211005-14-1f6nteg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1935&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424767/original/file-20211005-14-1f6nteg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424767/original/file-20211005-14-1f6nteg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424767/original/file-20211005-14-1f6nteg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424767/original/file-20211005-14-1f6nteg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424767/original/file-20211005-14-1f6nteg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424767/original/file-20211005-14-1f6nteg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A pro-immigration supporter attends a rally near the Canada-U.S. border in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Que., in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These “immigrant” languages are also the languages of Canadians, along with the two official languages — English and French (which are also immigrant languages). With some 350,000 new immigrants arriving to Canada each year <a href="https://www.cicnews.com/2020/10/canada-to-release-2021-2023-immigration-levels-plan-1016133.html#gs.ch5x91">and numbers rising,</a> the variety and number of non-official minority language speakers are constantly increasing.</p>
<p>Canada has taken the first steps towards the linguistic accommodation of its minority citizens. During the 2019 federal election, Elections Canada developed and offered to voters two publications — the Guide to the Federal Election and the Voter ID info sheet — in <a href="https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=eth&document=index&lang=e">more than 30 minority languages</a> and <a href="https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=abo&document=index&lang=e">16 Indigenous languages</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e-2.01/">Canada Elections Act</a> also specifies that electors may contact electoral returning officers if they require a language or sign-language interpreter. The aim is to facilitate greater participation of all citizens in the fundamental democratic process.</p>
<h2>Discretionary accommodation measures</h2>
<p><a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-7.85/page-1.html">Canada’s 2019 Indigenous Languages Act</a> states that a federal institution (like Elections Canada) may provide access to services in an Indigenous language. It may also translate a document into an Indigenous language, or provide for interpretation services to facilitate the use of an Indigenous language in the course of the federal institution’s activities. </p>
<p>However, these otherwise progressive provisions do not mandate linguistic accommodation, meaning these measures are discretionary and not guaranteed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Justin Trudeau listens to Perry Bellegarde as he gestures during a meeting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424768/original/file-20211005-29-1v5yjy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424768/original/file-20211005-29-1v5yjy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424768/original/file-20211005-29-1v5yjy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424768/original/file-20211005-29-1v5yjy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424768/original/file-20211005-29-1v5yjy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424768/original/file-20211005-29-1v5yjy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424768/original/file-20211005-29-1v5yjy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listens to Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde during a meeting with Assembly of First Nations leaders in Ottawa in 2019. Protecting Indigenous languages was a key topic of discussion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Electoral rights are universally recognized as among the most fundamental of civil and political rights. They are the hallmark of democracy. Barriers to their exercise and enjoyment — including linguistic barriers — are a human rights and equality issue.</p>
<p>The law and its practice in the United States are instructive. The language minority provisions of the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/language-minority-citizens">U.S. Voting Rights Act</a> state:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Whenever any state or political subdivision provides registration or voting notices, forms, instructions, assistance, or other materials or information relating to the electoral process, including ballots, it shall provide them in the language of the applicable minority group as well as in the English language.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These provisions apply to situations where more than 10,000 people, or five per cent of the total voting-age citizens in a single political jurisdiction, are members of a single language minority group, have depressed literacy rates or don’t speak English sufficiently well in order to exercise their electoral participation rights.</p>
<p>During the November 2020 elections, <a href="https://share.america.gov/u-s-states-and-localities-offer-ballots-in-many-languages/">voters in California were able</a> to request ballots in widely spoken languages like Arabic, Armenian, Hmong, Korean, Persian, Spanish and Tagalog. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.harrisvotes.com/VotingInfo">Harris County in Texas</a> (home to America’s fourth largest city, Houston) the ballot was printed in four languages: English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A voter and a poll workers, both wearing masks, have a conversation at a polling station." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424775/original/file-20211005-29-qtbhcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424775/original/file-20211005-29-qtbhcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424775/original/file-20211005-29-qtbhcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424775/original/file-20211005-29-qtbhcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424775/original/file-20211005-29-qtbhcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424775/original/file-20211005-29-qtbhcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424775/original/file-20211005-29-qtbhcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A voter receives his ballot access code from a poll worker on election day in November 2020 in Houston.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Cook County (home to Chicago, America’s third-largest city), where over one-third of residents speak a language other than English at home, <a href="https://www.cookcountyclerkil.gov/agency/2020-elections?language=en">elections-related information</a> and fully translated ballots were provided to the voters during the November 2020 elections in 12 languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Tagalog, Arabic, Gujarati, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Urdu.</p>
<h2>The UN urges accommodation</h2>
<p>International human rights standards under the United Nations system and within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), of which Canada is part, urge the accommodation of linguistic minorities.</p>
<p>Most notable provisions can be found in the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx">1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights</a>, the <a href="https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/17569">2001 OSCE Guidelines to Assist National Minority Participation in the Electoral Process</a> and the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Minorities/SR/LanguageRightsLinguisticMinorities_EN.pdf">2017 handbook Language Rights of Linguistic Minorities</a> by the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues. </p>
<p>Similar provisions on political participation of Indigenous peoples can be derived from the <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf">United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples</a> (UNDRIP), brought into Canadian law <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/declaration/about-apropos.html">this year through Bill C-15</a>.</p>
<p>To be more inclusive and rights-based, Canada needs to fully embrace linguistic diversity for its elections. Greater use of Indigenous and minority languages will enhance the quality of Canada’s elections in line with international norms and standards.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Mary Simon smiles as she speaks into a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424777/original/file-20211005-27-ieqbtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424777/original/file-20211005-27-ieqbtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424777/original/file-20211005-27-ieqbtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424777/original/file-20211005-27-ieqbtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424777/original/file-20211005-27-ieqbtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424777/original/file-20211005-27-ieqbtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424777/original/file-20211005-27-ieqbtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gov. Gen. Mary Simon gives her address after she took the oath to become the 30th Governor General of Canada in Ottawa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This will certainly resonate well with current pledges of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-bilingualism-change-in-canada-the-debate-over-gov-gen-mary-simon-164836">and with Canada’s Inuktitut-speaking new governor general, Mary Simon</a>. </p>
<p>As a multicultural, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2021.1931244">plurilingual</a> and well-heeled country, Canada can do better to accommodate and facilitate the fuller participation of citizens in our elections. In so doing, we can offer a leading example to the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168692/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Slava (Veaceslav) Balan is a PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, and member of the University of Ottawa Human Rights Research and Education Centre.</span></em></p>Following the Sept. 20 federal election, an important question must be asked: How is the Canadian electoral process accommodating the country’s increasing linguistic diversity?Veaceslav Balan, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1437672020-09-15T12:14:48Z2020-09-15T12:14:48ZBilingualism: why boosting the rights of minority language speakers could help save Gaelic in Scotland<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357935/original/file-20200914-22-64bwzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C13%2C4580%2C3049&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gaelic is traditionally spoken in Scotland across the Highlands and the Hebridean islands, such as Skye.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/isle-skye-bridge-ocean-mountains-186466691">Skye Studio/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent months there has been talk of a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/18/gaelic-disappearing-from-scottish-island-communities">Gaelic crisis</a>” in Scotland, based on a <a href="https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/res-themes/humanities-and-arts/language-sciences-institute/publications/the-gaelic-crisis-in-the-vernacular-community/">study</a> that predicts <a href="https://www.visitscotland.com/about/uniquely-scottish/gaelic/">Gaelic</a> may be disappearing across the country. I do not speak Gaelic, but I have spent five years researching bilingualism, and as a German native speaker who has lived in Scotland for over a decade, I am intimately familiar with what it means to communicate in a second language. </p>
<p>When we talk about bilingualism, we often assume that people are equally fluent in both languages and use them equally often. The reality is that some bilinguals may be <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223129897_Constraints_on_parallel_activation_in_bilingual_spoken_language_processing_Examining_proficiency_and_lexical_status_using_eye-tracking">more proficient in one language than the other</a> and, while some will use both languages equally often, others will <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282100027_The_effect_of_language_proficiency_on_executive_functions_in_balanced_and_unbalanced_Spanish-English_bilinguals">use one language more frequently than the other</a>.</p>
<p>The question of how frequently a bilingual person uses a particular language brings us back to the decline in the number of of active Gaelic speakers in Scotland. Despite the ubiquity of <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-gaelic-to-survive-in-scotland-its-not-enough-to-learn-it-more-people-need-to-use-it-in-their-daily-lives-128417">bilingual English-Gaelic road signs</a> and the historic presence of the <a href="https://www.scotslanguage.com/pages/view/id/6">Scots language</a>, Scotland has remained mostly monolingually English. This in itself is not surprising. Just seeing a language pictured does little to help us learn it; we need to <a href="http://www.academypublication.com/issues/past/jltr/vol03/03/16.pdf">actively use a language</a> to accomplish this and, perhaps more importantly, continue to use it.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ROoWGPsyzFg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Social settings</h2>
<p>The language we choose to communicate in sends a certain message. If I talk to someone in German in a room full of people who do not speak the language, I effectively exclude them from the conversation. If I choose to use a language others understand, I give them the opportunity to join in – and this is often viewed as the polite option.</p>
<p>But this becomes problematic if speakers of minority languages do not feel comfortable using that language in a social setting because they are concerned that they might come across as impolite or hostile. If we want to change this, we need to make room for minority languages – be it Gaelic, Scots or sign languages – to be used in social, everyday settings.</p>
<p>If I am not part of a conversation, there is no harm in my lack of understanding the language. In multilingual workplaces, people often develop their own way to deal with that situation, for example, by translating parts of what is being said, or switching languages when someone new enters the conversation. (It is also a great way to learn swear words in different languages!) </p>
<h2>Use it or lose it</h2>
<p>Once someone is fluent in a language, they are unlikely to completely forget how to speak it. But what often happens is that people might start to feel a little rusty after not using a language for a while. This is called “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/03/first-language-voice-mother-tongue-attrition-brexit">language attrition</a>” and can affect a first or second language. In other words, even if someone spoke Gaelic for the first 18 years of their life, if they then go on to use mostly English for the next 10 years, they are likely to experience some degree of language attrition.</p>
<p>Some will notice that they can <a href="https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/431390/1/Hicks_and_Dominguez_A_Model_for_L1_Grammatical_Attrition_In_press_SLR_.pdf">no longer master complex grammatical structures</a>, others may find that their <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3128922/">vocabulary has shrunk</a> or that they <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13670069040080030801">struggle</a> to pronounce words or sentences without an accent. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Sign saying welcome to Harris in Gaelic and English" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357937/original/file-20200914-18-1xcxcdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357937/original/file-20200914-18-1xcxcdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357937/original/file-20200914-18-1xcxcdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357937/original/file-20200914-18-1xcxcdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357937/original/file-20200914-18-1xcxcdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357937/original/file-20200914-18-1xcxcdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357937/original/file-20200914-18-1xcxcdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bilingual road signs in Scotland are the norm, but not enough to encourage the learning of Gaelic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/welcome-road-sign-on-isle-harris-1635328999">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>The good news for the Gaelic language is, the number of young speakers did not decline between the <a href="https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/census/2001-census/results-and-products/reports-and-data/gaelic-report">2001</a> and <a href="https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ods-web/data-warehouse.html#additionaltab">2011</a> censuses and these early learners are at a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1367006912443431">lower risk</a> of being affected by language attrition.</p>
<p>Besides age, there are two key factors that can help to prevent this problem: <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard_Lalonde/publication/258153091_Second_Language_Attrition_The_Role_of_Motivation_and_Use/links/5555e5be08ae980ca60c15c6/Second-Language-Attrition-The-Role-of-Motivation-and-Use.pdf">motivation and usage</a>. People who are motivated to maintain language skills are more likely to do so, but they need opportunities to use the “at risk” language. In other words, if we want to avoid language attrition, we need to provide more opportunities for people to speak Gaelic after they leave school. That means at work, in higher education, and as part of our healthcare and legal systems. </p>
<p>Countries which adopt formal guidelines that set clear expectations of when people should have the right to use a minority language – for example <a href="https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/statistics-and-research/2020-03/what-factors-are-linked-to-people-speaking-the-welsh-language_0.pdf">Welsh in Wales</a> or <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/98-200-x/2016017/98-200-x2016017-eng.cfm">English and French in different areas of Canada</a> – generally have a higher rate of bilinguals. This implies that if we strengthen the rights of minority language speakers, it will be a first step towards increasing their number – and possibly preventing languages like Scottish Gaelic from becoming extinct.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143767/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Mattschey is affiliated with the University of Strathclyde and the Open University.</span></em></p>Gaelic speakers need opportunities to use their language in a wide variety of social and everyday settings to avoid its presence being eroded.Jennifer Mattschey, Teaching Associate, University of Strathclyde Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1325722020-03-13T16:36:48Z2020-03-13T16:36:48ZHow a brilliant 18th century linguist linked the Celtic languages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319960/original/file-20200311-116232-eqsn4i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Poetry in Latin, Welsh and Gaelic from Edward Lhwyd's Archaeologia Britannica</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://archive.org/details/archaeologiabrit00lhuy/page/n15/mode/2up">National Library of Scotland</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Scottish <a href="https://www.poileasaidh.celtscot.ed.ac.uk/MCLEODCATALAN2.pdf">Gaelic language</a> is experiencing a new surge of interest in Scotland and further afield. A <a href="https://www.duolingo.com/courses">Gaelic course</a> launched on language learning app Duolingo in November 2019 has attracted 232,000 active learners in just four months, meaning there are just over <a href="https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2015/scotlands-census-2011-gaelic-report-part-1">four times</a> more learners than there are <a href="https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/documents/analytical_reports/Report_part_1.pdf">Gaelic speakers</a> in Scotland. <a href="https://www.gaidhlig.scot/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/D%C3%A0ta-Foghlaim-AM-FOLLAIS-2018-19-egn-3-PUBLIC-Education-Data-8.pdf">Education in Gaelic</a> is also experiencing high demand and expanding both within and beyond the language’s stronghold in <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Harris/@57.6608334,-7.9536986,8z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x488d994a185ff281:0x955e10628e919da9!8m2!3d57.9932604!4d-6.8736215">the Western Isles</a>.</p>
<p>Though once the primary spoken language in the majority of Scotland, Gaelic is a language that has been on retreat for several centuries. The <a href="https://www.gaidhlig.scot/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/National-Gaelic-Language-Plan-2018-23.pdf">current wave of initiatives</a> to promote the language are to be welcomed, but this is not the first time that people have sought to make the language more accessible to others.</p>
<p>My research focuses on the way cultural and national identities developed in Scotland and Ireland during the 16th-18th centuries. I am particularly interested in the tensions between Gaels and Scots, and in Ireland where ethnic and religious divisions led to conflict. The politics of language played a key part in these processes and my work looks at how texts written in Gaelic, Latin, and English fed in to the development of identity. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ROoWGPsyzFg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Languages with a common thread</h2>
<p>In the first decades of the 1700s, <a href="https://biography.wales/article/s-LHUY-EDW-1660#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F4674186%2Fmanifest.json&xywh=-36%2C1275%2C2074%2C1674">Edward Lhwyd</a>, a brilliant Welsh linguist (who was also a botanist, geologist and antiquarian) came to understand the connections between the surviving Celtic languages: Gaelic (both <a href="http://www.udaras.ie/en/an-ghaeilge-an-ghaeltacht/stair-na-gaeilge/">Irish</a> and Scottish), <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/wales/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-welsh-language/">Welsh</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Breton-language">Breton</a> and <a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Cornish-Language/">Cornish</a>. Through massive personal effort and the assistance of many <a href="http://emlo-portal.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections/?catalogue=edward-lhwyd#resources">helpful correspondents</a>, he became proficient in all four languages and published a set of comparative dictionaries and grammars in his 1707 book <a href="https://archive.org/details/archaeologiabrit00lhuy/page/n4/mode/2up">Archæologia Britannica</a>. This work explained the historical linkage of these languages and laid down the fundamentals necessary for his readers to learn them. </p>
<p>Once published, Lhwyd’s work was prefaced by pages of complimentary verse written by thankful and enthusiastic readers and correspondents. The poems in Welsh, Gaelic and Latin show us how Lhwyd’s readers responded to his work and how they valued his engagement with their native languages. A typical Gaelic verse reads: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ceillfair soc is cantair ceol, / The ploughshare is put away and music is sung</p>
<p>A’nrioghachd Eirion gach ein ló; / in the kingdom of Ireland every day;</p>
<p>’s cuirfhar adhbha ciuil faoi ghleus, / and a musical instrument is tuned</p>
<p>a’ ngriochuibh aoibhin na Halban. / in the pleasant lands of Scotland.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not all Lhwyd’s readers were so enthusiastic or courteous. Some indeed suspected that such interest in the languages of Ireland and Scotland could only signal some sort of political chicancery on Lhwyd’s part.</p>
<p>There is a contemporary equivalent to the positive response Lhwyd received that can be seen in the reaction to the launch of the Duolingo course. Many social media groups made up of learners and promoters of the language have sprung up. Most comments are simply thankful, like the verse to Lhwyd above. But the politics of Gaelic have not changed so much since 1707 when Scotland and England joined in a <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/act-of-union-1707/">union of parliaments</a>. </p>
<p>In January 2020, a political row <a href="https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/1975919/war-of-words-as-tory-msp-questions-gaelic-first-education-policy/">erupted</a> over new Gaelic education plans in the Western Isles after <a href="https://www.parliament.scot/msps/currentmsps/liz-smith-msp.aspx">Tory MSP Liz Smith</a> described the change as “a deeply troubling step and one that could put children … at a distinct disadvantage to their peers”, despite the <a href="https://www.gaidhlig.scot/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/OHanlon-2010-Taghadh-coileanadh-FtG-CR09-05-GME-choice-attainment.pdf">well-researched</a> advantages to bilingual education.</p>
<p>Lhwyd himself encountered just such arguments as those put forward by Smith though actually admitted that trade and commerce in Britain would be simpler if everyone just spoke English. But rather than reduce everyone to a functional monolingualism he saw his work as means for people of good will to come to understand one another’s tongues. This is a vision of linguistic understanding as an instrument of peace rather than economic gain. As one of his readers wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Le caint a dhruidfair gach shith, / With speech every peace-accord is sealed</p>
<p>bheirthair adhradh don ard Riogh: / and worship given to the high King:</p>
<p>neach da fheabhas ’s fann a chor, / anyone of whatever worth, his plight is feeble</p>
<p>’s canamhuin a bhi da easbhuidh. / if he lacks language.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Three hundred years ago, Lhwyd and his readers were already beginning to comprehend that languages were not simply economic commodities, but could form the basis for a fuller flourishing of human understanding and connection.</p>
<h2>Language, culture and politics</h2>
<p>Reading <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/759299037440696/permalink/2771829456187634/">comments</a> in Gaelic learning forums on social media, a whole spectrum of attitudes and approaches that mirror those held by Lhwyd himself and those he encountered can be identified. Discussions about Scottish independence abound, users send each other lengthy messages on Gaelic, Scottish and Irish history and the nature of imperialism (generally these are both given and received good-naturedly).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319928/original/file-20200311-116236-1spiqx6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319928/original/file-20200311-116236-1spiqx6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319928/original/file-20200311-116236-1spiqx6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319928/original/file-20200311-116236-1spiqx6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319928/original/file-20200311-116236-1spiqx6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319928/original/file-20200311-116236-1spiqx6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319928/original/file-20200311-116236-1spiqx6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Red Hand of Ulster, once used on the official flag of Northern Ireland, has provoked debate for at least 400 years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ulster_Banner.svg">Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I recently witnessed a cultural debate unfold on one of these forums on the controversial symbolism of the Red Hand of Ulster. Passions ran high, and, while I restrained myself from quoting medieval bardic poetry on the subject, the debate became an opportunity for genuine cultural interchange and learning. </p>
<p>While political debate is unavoidable on these forums, the general attitude appears to be one of goodwill, much like Lhwyd’s own attitude. Users are delighted to share language tips and cultural information. These forums are also used by native speakers who seem encouraged to practise their language skills and share their knowledge with those new to the language. Perhaps now we can really begin to say, as one of Lhwyd’s readers did three hundred years ago:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Do duisgadh riot as anúaigh, / The hardy tongue which was under a cloud</p>
<p>an chanamhuin chruaigh do bhi saoi small / has been roused by you from the grave,</p>
<p>teanga bhi cían faoi gheisaibh, / a tongue long under enchantment</p>
<p>do cuireadh leat a nglo re seal. / has presently been set in print.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132572/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Black has recieved funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Welshman Edward Lhwyd helped bring togethr Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish and Breton to show how language could connect people on a deeper level.Thomas Black, PhD Candidate in Early Modern Literature, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1323302020-03-05T14:12:17Z2020-03-05T14:12:17ZCanadians are entitled to legal help to protect their Charter rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317847/original/file-20200228-24690-1e7dmek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4293%2C2191&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seen with Québec Premier Francois Legault in December 2018 at the opening of a first ministers' meeting. Legault has accused Trudeau of insulting Québecers because of the federal Court Challenges Program.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://pcjccp.ca/">Court Challenges Program</a> was at the heart of the latest scuffle between Ottawa and Québec. The program provides financial support to Canadians seeking to assert their constitutional language and human rights before the courts.</p>
<p>Upon learning that the program provided federal funding to the <a href="https://www.emsb.qc.ca/">English Montreal School Board</a> to challenge the province’s religious symbols ban, <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/legault-blasts-trudeau-for-federal-funding-granted-to-emsbs-bill-21-challenge">Premier Francois Legault accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of “insulting” Québecers</a>. </p>
<p>Based on my work on public interest litigation, I believe Legault’s concerns are unfounded. Rather, the funding provided by the Court Challenges Program breathes life into rights guaranteed by the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-15.html">Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://library.carleton.ca/sites/default/files/find/data/surveys/pdf_files/cric-crf-02-not.pdf">Studies</a> have <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-652-x/89-652-x2015005-eng.htm">shown</a> that Canadians overwhelmingly support the Charter. But Charter rights are hollow if they can’t be enforced.</p>
<p>Supporting the Charter therefore means supporting the Court Challenges Program. It is, in fact, the unsung hero behind many of the most significant human rights advancements achieved in our country. That includes the challenge to <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2007/2007scc15/2007scc15.html?searchUrlHash=AAAAAQALZGF2aWQgYmFrZXIAAAAAAQ&resultIndex=2">the retrofitting of Via Rail’s inaccessible cars</a>, the <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2004/2004scc79/2004scc79.html?searchUrlHash=AAAAAQAgImVnYWxlIiAmICJzYW1lLXNleCIgJiAiY2hhcnRlciIAAAAAAQ&resultIndex=12">the recognition of the rights of same-sex couples</a> and <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1988/1988canlii52/1988canlii52.html?resultIndex=1">the protection of publication bans that shield the identity of sexual assault complainants</a>.</p>
<h2>Guards against unconstitutional laws</h2>
<p>It prevents unconstitutional laws from remaining on the books simply because individuals whose rights are violated don’t have the means to challenge them.</p>
<p>Because many don’t. The cost of asserting Charter rights is prohibitive. Recent studies estimate the average cost of a one-week trial in Canada <a href="https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/surveys-reports/legal-fees/the-going-rate/269815">is more than $50,000</a>. Constitutional challenges often involve particularly complex legal issues and extensive evidentiary records. </p>
<p>By way of example, a <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcca/doc/2018/2018bcca305/2018bcca305.html?searchUrlHash=AAAAAQARImxhbmd1YWdlIHJpZ2h0cyIAAAAAAQ&resultIndex=11">recent language rights trial in British Columbia</a> lasted 238 days, involved more than 40 lay witnesses and 13 experts, 1,600 exhibits and more than 1,000 pages of written arguments. It is simply inconceivable to expect anyone to spend this much money or time to assert their rights.</p>
<p>At first glance, the idea of using public funds to sue the government may seem counter-intuitive. That’s an opinion commonly expressed by those who oppose the Court Challenges Program. </p>
<p>After Stephen Harper’s Conservative government cut the former program in 2007, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/john-baird-s-decade-in-federal-politics-13-quotes-to-remember-1.2943299">former cabinet minister John Baird said he didn’t think it “made sense for the government to subsidize lawyers to challenge the government’s own laws in court.”</a> </p>
<p>But concerns regarding wasteful government spending on lawyers are misdirected. People seeking to assert their Charter rights often go up against large taxpayer-funded legal teams who fight them tooth and nail. </p>
<h2>A drop in the bucket</h2>
<p>In fact, the Department of Justice that represents the government of Canada in most of its legal matters often refers to itself as “<a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/abt-apd/recru/para.html">Canada’s largest law firm</a>.” The Court Challenges Program’s $5 million annual cost is a drop in the bucket compared to the <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cp-pm/rpp/2019_2020/rep-rap/dp-pm.pdf">$717.9 million</a> spent annually by the Department of Justice.</p>
<p>It would be a gross exaggeration to say that the program levels the playing field between individuals seeking to assert their Charter rights and governments that oppose them. It does not. Governments <a href="https://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_oag_200705_05_e_17480.html">routinely spend millions of dollars fighting individuals and groups who challenge what they allege to be unconstitutional or discriminatory laws or polices.</a> </p>
<p>Just ask Cindy Blackstock. She is the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society who, along with the Assembly of First Nations, filed a historic human rights complaint against the government of Canada for its discriminatory treatment of 165,000 First Nations children. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317844/original/file-20200228-24655-180t02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C435%2C4359%2C2464&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317844/original/file-20200228-24655-180t02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317844/original/file-20200228-24655-180t02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317844/original/file-20200228-24655-180t02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317844/original/file-20200228-24655-180t02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317844/original/file-20200228-24655-180t02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317844/original/file-20200228-24655-180t02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cindy Blackstock, executive director of First Nations Child and Family Caring Society is pictured in her office in Ottawa in July 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As detailed in <a href="https://cdp-hrc.uottawa.ca/sites/cdp-hrc.uottawa.ca/files/uottawa-cyhr1618-v11.pdf">my recent paper regarding the history of the complaint,</a> the Caring Society was represented by pro bono counsel, while the government spent <a href="https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/ottawa-spent-at-least-8-million-on-first-nations-child-welfare-case-documents">at least $8 million in legal fees</a> fighting the case. The case illustrates just how much money governments are willing to spend to fight to defend their laws and policies, even when they know they are discriminatory. </p>
<p>The Court Challenges Program provides individuals with only a fraction of what governments spend to fight them. Until governments are prepared to put caps on what they spend in legal fees fighting Charter cases, the program is one way to slightly reduce the significant power imbalance that otherwise exists in the courtroom.</p>
<h2>Why provide federal funding?</h2>
<p>The English Montreal School Board was offered funding from the program to challenge the Québec religious symbol ban based on educational rights guaranteed under the Charter. But why should the federal government get involved with education given it’s a provincial matter?</p>
<p>Because under the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/o-3.01/">Official Languages Act,</a> the government of Canada has a duty to enhance “the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada” and to support and assist their development. </p>
<p>The Court Challenges Program is one way Canada fulfils this obligation. The funding of provincial cases, and specifically those relating to education rights, are particularly important in the context of official language minority rights.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/quebecs-bill-40-further-undermines-the-provinces-english-language-school-system-131595">Québec's Bill 40 further undermines the province's English-language school system</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Supreme Court of Canada has emphasized <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1990/1990canlii133/1990canlii133.html">the vital role of education in preserving and encouraging linguistic and cultural vitality</a>. <a href="https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/bhp/2018-v26-n2-bhp03478/1043773ar/">Minority language instruction rights are what give meaning to all other language rights protected in the Charter</a>. Put more simply, the right to use one’s official language when communicating with government institutions would be meaningless if no one had been educated to speak or read in that language in the first place.</p>
<p>Accordingly, the program supported important cases such as <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1990/1990canlii133/1990canlii133.html">Mahé vs. Alberta</a>, which recognized the right to management and control over minority language facilities and instruction, and <a href="https://www.canlii.org/fr/ca/csc/doc/2000/2000csc1/2000csc1.html?resultIndex=2">Arsenault-Cameron vs. Prince Edward Island</a>, which clarified that this right includes the power of communities to determine the optimal location of their schools. </p>
<p>It’s unfortunate that the current program doesn’t provide funding for members of equality-seeking groups. I co-authored submissions for the Council of Canadians with Disabilities to the parliamentary committee tasked with making recommendations on the structure of the new Court Challenges Program. In those submissions, I urged that <a href="http://www.ccdonline.ca/en/humanrights/promoting/A-Modernized-CCD-19April2016">funding should also be provided for provincial cases alleging violations of Section 15 of the Charter</a>, which guarantees the right to equality.</p>
<p>I argued that discrimination against people with disabilities commonly occurs in provincially regulated areas such as education, health, social services, income maintenance and housing. </p>
<p>And so including funding for provincial cases would better meet the needs of historically disadvantaged communities protected under the Charter.</p>
<h2>So did Trudeau insult Québecers?</h2>
<p>A few clarifications are in order. </p>
<p>Firstly, Trudeau did not prompt the English Montreal School Board to challenge Québec’s religious symbols law by financing their litigation. </p>
<p>The Court Challenges Program is managed independently, and decisions regarding whether and how funding is allocated are made by expert panels who do not report to government. The federal government has no involvement. </p>
<p>Secondly, Charter challenges are not an insult or a threat to citizens. Rather, they’re a sign of a healthy and strong democracy in which governments are held accountable and minorities are endowed with the means necessary to maintain and promote their identities against the assimilative pressures of the majority.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/clashing-rights-behind-the-quebec-hijab-debate-117711">Clashing rights: Behind the Québec hijab debate</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Québec premier has repeatedly said he’s confident his law is constitutional. If so, he should welcome the opportunity to have courts weigh in on the matter. </p>
<p>Instead, <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/english-montreal-school-board-says-it-has-renounced-federal-funding-for-its-legal-challenges-to-bill-21-1.4800500">the Montreal English School Board declined the money</a> after Legault politicized the program. </p>
<p>It is hoped that other groups won’t follow suit. It is bad enough that those seeking to assert their Charter rights must face off against large teams of government-funded lawyers in court. They shouldn’t also be bullied into turning down money aimed to levelling the playing field. Otherwise, there will be nothing stopping governments from passing unconstitutional laws because citizens won’t be able to challenge them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132330/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Levesque is one of the lawyers representing the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society in its human rights complaint against the government of Canada for its discriminatory treatment against First Nations children. She is co-chair of the human rights committee of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities and has co-authored the brief recommending the restoration and modernization of the Court Challenges Program. She was also a board member of the former CCP from 2010 to 2016, and was briefly involved in the committee at the University Ottawa tasked with setting up the new CCP in 2018.</span></em></p>Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms doesn’t mean much if it can’t be enforced. That’s why the Court Challenges Program is so important — no matter what the Québec premier says.Anne Levesque, Assistant professor, Faculty of Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1217832019-08-13T15:02:42Z2019-08-13T15:02:42ZHow Twitter is helping the Scots language thrive in the 21st century<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287853/original/file-20190813-9429-11xvkwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Rude, crude and extremely funny, “<a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/jamiejones/funniest-scottish-tweets-of-2018">Scottish Twitter</a>” has garnered much attention in recent years for its uniquely Celtic wit – and for the specific ways it uses language.</p>
<p>Journalist Eve Livingston’s <a href="https://theface.com/society/yer-da-sells-avon-how-the-scots-language-found-a-new-home-on-twitter">recent article</a> for <a href="https://theface.com/about">The Face</a> examines the many social and cultural features of Scottish Twitter. But the fact it has provided a medium for written Scots language to evolve in a way that wasn’t possible before the advent of social media is equally fascinating.</p>
<p>Scots is officially recognised as one of the <a href="https://www.scotslanguage.com/articles/node/id/250">minority languages</a> of Scotland. It has <a href="https://theconversation.com/outlander-is-boosting-a-renaissance-of-the-scots-language-heres-how-101643">existed and thrived</a> for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdmj3E1dmkk">centuries</a> in writing as well as speech. From poets <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-robert-burns-is-for-life-not-just-for-25-january-22410">Robert Burns</a>, <a href="https://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/hugh-macdiarmid?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3p2iqIr-4wIVAbDtCh2l0Qk1EAAYASAAEgLKFPD_BwE">Hugh MacDiarmid</a> and <a href="https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/sheena-blackhall/">Sheena Blackhall</a> to novelist <a href="http://www.irvinewelsh.net/biography/">Irvine Welsh</a>, the language has a rich <a href="https://www.scotland.org/about-scotland/culture/literature">literary tradition</a>, and even has its own <a href="https://www.dsl.ac.uk">dictionary</a>. More recently, it has moved into the digital world, finding itself unexpectedly and enthusiastically embraced on social media.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jdl4mipSfL8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Private voice, public voice</h2>
<p>The internet has changed the way people write. While we still use formal writing for many purposes, most of us now have a second, informal way of writing which linguists call <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319391803_Computer-Mediated_Communication_and_Conversation_Analysis">computer-mediated communication</a> (CMC).</p>
<p>Some CMC users <a href="https://www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2017/07/27/3arabizi/">creatively manipulate</a> the formal written system to make it more representative of who they are and how they talk. As a result, regional CMCs have sprung up across the globe. Scots CMC is just one of these.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1140748378495692800"}"></div></p>
<p>Texts and Facebook messages are (or at least can be) private, informal forms of communication, and so we might expect more Scots to be used here. What Twitter gives us is a medium that sits somewhere between the private and the public.</p>
<p><a href="https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/5490745/10512-46466-1-PB_%281%29.pdf">Research shows</a> that people are more likely to write in a minority language such as <a href="https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/E17-1116">Scots</a> in posts directed at a specific user (semi-private) than they do in posts that are #hashtagged for a wider audience (public).</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"837721045750677504"}"></div></p>
<p>In <a href="https://twitter.com/GretchenAMcC">Gretchen McCulloch’s</a> recent book <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/8/2/20750773/because-internet-review-gretchen-mcculloch-linguistics">Because Internet</a>, she writes that, on Twitter, “regardless of who technically has access to their information, people tend to have a mental model of who they expect to read their posts”. That is to say, a user’s intended audience may be just their own followers, often their friends – as we see from this tweet which went viral.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1011603313702383618"}"></div></p>
<p>However, the public aspect of Twitter makes it possible for a user’s content to be seen by anyone around the world. A tweet which is liked and retweeted enough can move from the semi-private sphere to the public sphere – bringing Scots to an entirely new audience.</p>
<h2>Writing like you speak</h2>
<p>And Scots on Twitter is a fascinating source of evidence about how aware people are of the subtle ways their speech differs from other people’s, and the creative ways they find to represent this.</p>
<p>Depending on exactly where someone comes from, their (spoken) Scots will include different sounds, words and sentence structures. We see this represented in Scots CMC. In Scots dictionaries, the word equivalent to English “can’t” is generally spelled in one of two ways, reflecting a <a href="https://www.scotslanguage.com/articles/node/id/77/type/referance">traditional pronunciation difference</a>: “canna” in the north, and “cannae” in the south. Indeed, a search for “canna” on Twitter finds tweets from the north east.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"685739868387983361"}"></div></p>
<p>However, the spelling “cannae” appears to be quite rare in the southern Scots CMC. Instead, spellings like “canny” appear to be more common.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"929848250223427584"}"></div></p>
<p>In Sadie Ryan’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335062669_'Cin_u_get_aff_my_facebook_hen'_Variation_and_Identity_Marking_in_Adolescent_Glaswegian_Girls">research</a> on the CMC of Glaswegian pre-teens, other spellings used included “cany”, “canni”, “cani” and “kani”. So we see traditional Scots words represented in Scots CMC in new ways. We also see new words popping up.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"809471882835750913"}"></div></p>
<p>This tweet uses the word “deh”, a shortened version of “dinnae”, equivalent to English “don’t”. This is a relatively new Scots word, more common in the speech of young people and not (yet) recorded in Scots dictionaries. With words like “deh”, we see developments in spoken Scots playing out in Scots CMC, providing us with a new lens for <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334273841_Mapping_Lexical_Dialect_Variation_in_British_English_Using_Twitter">understanding linguistic change</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1138173491486842881"}"></div></p>
<p>Looking at Scots CMC, we see people thinking about how their language sounds and experimenting with how it’s represented visually, and we can do so with remarkable clarity. Viewing Scottish Twitter through a linguist’s eyes, you can get caught up in these amazing details. So caught up that if we’re not careful, we might almost miss the point: that tweets like these are also very, very funny.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"913414932623974400"}"></div></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>E Jamieson has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sadie Ryan has previously received funding from the Lord Kelvin Adam Smith scholarship.</span></em></p>The platform has provided a forum for the written Scots language to evolve that wasn’t possible before the advent of social media.E Jamieson, Research Assistant, English Language & Linguistics, University of GlasgowSadie Ryan, Lecturer, English Language and Linguistics, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1112602019-04-17T19:44:20Z2019-04-17T19:44:20ZMāori loanwords in NZ English are less about meaning, more about identity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269226/original/file-20190415-76862-10w93pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=60%2C165%2C4959%2C3085&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More and more Māori words are commonly used by speakers of New Zealand English. The word aroha means love or compassion.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ask the average Kiwi on the street about Māori words in New Zealand English, and most will tell you that more and more are being used in everyday language. </p>
<p>This increase in borrowing goes against observations in other language examples. Typically, most borrowing tends to happen from the <a href="https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=AbDmBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA31&dq=borrowed+words+tend+to+go+from+dominant+language+into+minority+languages&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-lLTZ3eXhAhUXf30KHVJ4AFYQ6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=borrowed%20words%20tend%20to%20go%20from%20dominant%20language%20into%20minority%20languages&f=false">dominant language to the minority or indigenous language</a>. However, it is quite astounding to find a situation where the words of an endangered language (Māori) are productively adopted by a linguistic giant (English), and perhaps equally surprising to find the trend remains positively increasing more than two centuries after initial contact. </p>
<p>But here is the rub: while we dip into Māori vocabulary to bring new words into English as well as using existing words more frequently, this trend is not homogenous <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/cllt.ahead-of-print/cllt-2017-0010/cllt-2017-0010.xml">across speakers (and writers)</a>, <a href="https://books.google.co.nz/books?hl=en&lr=&id=l17U0u6dGPMC&oi=fnd&pg=PA165&dq=marta+degani&ots=i7mQFXwu3f&sig=ajy2kk32PklJYPzMjuIZDiiTDlo&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=marta%20degani&f=false">nor across topics</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kia-ora-how-maori-borrowings-shape-new-zealand-english-82683">Kia ora: how Māori borrowings shape New Zealand English</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Making loanwords stick</h2>
<p>On the one hand, we have loanword innovators who borrow words more than others. Our <a href="https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/11317/2017_MaoriLoanwordSuccess_CLLT.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y">research</a> shows that Māori women in particular are contributing to this language innovation. But we also have topics that seem to be loanword attractors - usually topics related to Māori people or culture, such as Matariki (the star cluster Pleiades, whose appearance in the morning sky is celebrated as Māori new year), <a href="https://www.tewikiotereomaori.co.nz/maori-language-week/">Māori Language Week</a>, or kapa haka performances. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/matariki-reintroducing-the-tradition-of-maori-new-year-celebrations-79661">Matariki: reintroducing the tradition of Māori New Year celebrations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Teasing these parameters apart from the overall frequency of use was a crucial part of <a href="https://www.nzlingsoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/LangSoc-2018-complete-abstract-booklet-final.pdf">our work</a> to test the validity of the hypothesised increase in loanwords. We focused on data that hold the topic constant, so we could see whether an increase could still be gleaned over time. </p>
<p>We combed through <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/107042504/the-use-of-mori-language-accelerating-in-newspapers">newspaper articles</a> related to Māori Language Week over a period of 10 years and found the <a href="https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/education/research-shows-more-maori-loan-words-being-used">loanwords used are indeed more frequent today</a> than they have been in the past. </p>
<p>But will these Māori words stick? Linguists who study lexical change have noted that in certain languages, it is possible to measure the degree to which an incoming foreign word settles into its new linguistic home. This is called integration or <a href="https://books.google.co.nz/books?hl=en&lr=&id=32cbDgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA9&dq=entrenchment+of+loanwords&ots=A8XdpDKwH7&sig=oiQSdCTj9bvM0AHQPQll9xqoTWo&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=entrenchment%20of%20loanwords&f=false">entrenchment</a>. The idea is that the stronger the entrenchment of a loanword, the less likely it is for speakers of that language to be aware of the origin of the word. </p>
<p>Integration manifests itself in various linguistic ways, for example, by taking on grammatical or morphological clothing from the new language. An English word referring to an entity or object (a noun) may acquire a certain gender if it is entering French, because all French words have assigned genders (weekend became masculine that way; le weekend). A Māori noun may take a plural -s suffix because that is what English nouns do (book-books, pen-pens). </p>
<h2>How to spot entrenched loanwords</h2>
<p>When we checked our data for morphological integration of this type we found that only a handful of Māori loans take the plural suffix (Māori-Māoris, kiwi-kiwis, hui-huis). But this does not necessarily mean that other Māori words are not entrenched.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/research/projects/grinze-archived/publications/Maori_lexical_items_in_NZ_English.pdf">Previous work</a> by linguists Carolyn Davies and <a href="https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/nzilbb/contact-us/people/margaret-anne-maclagan.html">Margaret Maclagan</a> explains that the practice of using -s for pluralisation on Māori words was at some point deemed disrespectful to the Māori language (because it does not use English pluralisation) and therefore stopped. </p>
<p>Two other parameters can forecast entrenchment: ‘listedness’ of the loanwords in the minds of speakers (this is notoriously difficult to ascertain, but typically considers whether a loanword appears in a dictionary) and flagging (providing explanations or translations of the loanword). </p>
<p>Listedness is linked to entrenchment because it formally signals the status of a given word as belonging to the language in question. Flagging is similarly a predictor of entrenchment because a loanword that needs explaining or translating is deemed to be unfamiliar to speakers of the language. Thus, a loanword that is flagged is expected to be less well entrenched than one which is not.</p>
<h2>Flagging, entrenchment, and perception</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.nzlingsoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/LangSoc-2018-complete-abstract-booklet-final.pdf">data showed</a> some interesting results in relation to both of these parameters. On the one hand, we had plenty of listed words in the <a href="http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195584516.001.0001/acref-9780195584516">New Zealand English Dictionary</a> being flagged in newspaper articles, including kai (food), iwi (tribe), kawa (customs), mahi (work), puku (belly), taonga (treasure). On the other hand, we had a number of words which were not listed in the dictionary that were not flagged: tikanga Māori (Māori custom), waka ama (outrigger canoe), wānanga (learning institution). </p>
<p>Some of the authors of the articles themselves wrote quite explicitly of Māori words which they deemed everyone in New Zealand would know, yet these very words would later turn up flagged elsewhere.</p>
<p>So what is going on here? It is our view that increased Māori word use does not necessarily reflect increased entrenchment levels, but rather that they are still functioning as a tool of marking identity. Because Māori words themselves are being used to signal cultural, social and political identities in a deliberate manner, linguistic markers of entrenchment are not relevant predictors here. </p>
<p>The words are not so much used for their contribution to meaning but more for their social connotations.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was co-written by Jessie Burnette, a Masters Student in English at the University of Waikato.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111260/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andreea S. Calude receives funding from the NZ Royal Society Marsden Fast Start grant. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Levendis receives funding from the NZ Royal Society Marsden Fast Start grant. </span></em></p>Usually, a minor language will adopt words from a dominant language, but NZ English bucks this trend. It has been borrowing a growing number of Māori words, not always to add meaning but to mark identity.Andreea S. Calude, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, University of WaikatoKatie Levendis, Masters' graduate (Applied Linguistics), University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1097742019-01-21T22:15:27Z2019-01-21T22:15:27ZSign language needs policy protection in Ghana<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254161/original/file-20190116-163283-apf71i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Andrew Foster with students from the boarding school for deaf children at Mampong-Akwapim, Ghana, about 1961.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1957, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/6/newsid_2515000/2515459.stm">when Ghana gained independence from British colonial rule</a>, African-American educator <a href="https://www.gallaudet.edu/about/history-and-traditions/andrew-foster">Andrew Foster</a> established the first school for <a href="http://cad.ca/issues-positions/terminology/">the Deaf</a> in Ghana. </p>
<p>In so doing, Foster consolidated and echoed <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/african-history-biographies/kwame-nkrumah#C%20">Kwame’s Nkrumah’s</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOEdJDdz690">independence day declaration of freedom for Ghanaians</a>. While Nkrumah championed African independence movements across the continent, Foster, <a href="https://www.gallaudet.edu/academic-catalog/about-gallaudet/history-of-gallaudet">a graduate of Gallaudet University in Washington</a>, is the man who modelled equal education opportunities in Ghana. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253985/original/file-20190115-152977-j9kg8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253985/original/file-20190115-152977-j9kg8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253985/original/file-20190115-152977-j9kg8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253985/original/file-20190115-152977-j9kg8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253985/original/file-20190115-152977-j9kg8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253985/original/file-20190115-152977-j9kg8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253985/original/file-20190115-152977-j9kg8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Andrew Foster, centre, with his two most successful proteges: Seth Tetteh-Ocloo (left) from Ghana and Gabriel Adepoju (right), a Nigerian. Tetteh-Ocloo went on to lead the Ghana National Association for the Deaf.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, Ghana has about 16 schools for the Deaf. However, equal educational opportunities elude Deaf people in Ghana and students encounter <a href="http://gnadgh.org/">many challenges</a>. Chief among them is the fact that Ghana has no formalized sign language policy and therefore doesn’t systematically or adequately fund sign language services in schools for Deaf people. </p>
<p>Ghana urgently needs an official Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL) policy. Such a move has the potential to humanize Deaf education and alleviate the linguistic discrimination that Deaf students face. Furthermore, the work of GSL educators with Deaf students would finally find the support it needs and deserves.</p>
<h2>Multiple sign languages in Ghana</h2>
<p>People who take hearing for granted may not have considered the fact that sign languages <em>are languages</em> and require safeguards — just like spoken languages, for the sake of people and communities who rely on them.</p>
<p>As a doctoral researcher of language policy, I study how Ghana implements educational language policy for speakers of minority languages.</p>
<p>In my research with sign language professionals, I have discovered that just as a multitude of spoken languages exist in Ghana (<a href="https://www.ethnologue.com/country/GH">81 in total</a>), the Ghanaian Deaf community is also linguistically diverse. </p>
<p>Sign language researcher <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/sign-languages/sign-languages-in-west-africa/0A1F049657C4FD09671AB6A3F2014EBE">Victoria Nyst has identified four sign languages in Ghana</a>. Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL) is widely used in schools and is a spin-off from American Sign Language (ASL). But GSL incorporates some locally constructed signs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253970/original/file-20190115-152989-f0vxhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253970/original/file-20190115-152989-f0vxhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253970/original/file-20190115-152989-f0vxhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253970/original/file-20190115-152989-f0vxhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253970/original/file-20190115-152989-f0vxhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253970/original/file-20190115-152989-f0vxhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253970/original/file-20190115-152989-f0vxhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sign languages in Ghana.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>GSL is estimated to be used by the majority of Deaf people in Ghana. But statistics about the Deaf in Ghana are not well documented. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://gnadgh.org/about-us/">Ghana National Association for the Deaf (GNAD)</a> says approximately 0.4 per cent out of Ghana’s population of almost 29 million is deaf, or 110,625 people; by contrast, the Ghana Statistical Service, reports <a href="http://www.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/2010phc/Mono/Disability%20in%20Ghana.pdf">211,712</a> as deaf. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su4102765">Research shows that sign language is often viewed as an aberration in Ghana</a>. The Deaf are often derogatorily referred to as <em>mumu</em>, meaning dumb. </p>
<p>In this way, a mainstream Ghanaian way of seeing equates deafness and sign languages to a defective way of being and speaking.</p>
<h2>No official sign language policy</h2>
<p>In Ghana, the <a href="http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=86287&p_country=GHA&p_count=116">Persons with Disability Act, 2006 (Act 715)</a> enshrines the rights and treatment of Persons with Disability (PWDs). </p>
<p>Yet when compared with regional and global disability legislations, <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/201804120647.html">Act 715 is seriously deficient</a> for many reasons — among them, the fact that this act provides no policy pertaining to GSL. </p>
<p>Researchers <a href="https://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JLPG/article/view/21711/21903">have called for the Ghanaian government to strengthen local policy for PWDs</a> and to fully conform to provisions outlined in the <a href="http://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convoptprot-e.pdf">United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities</a> (UNCRPD). </p>
<p>Ghana ratified <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/08/22/ghana-disability-rights-convention-ratified">this convention in 2012</a>, but the country has yet to follow UNCRPD measures and protections to support sign language learning and promote the linguistic rights and identity of Deaf communities.</p>
<h2>Schooling challenges</h2>
<p>Due to inadequate interpretation and translation services in Ghanaian schools for the Deaf, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313539005_Access_to_English_Language_Acquisition_in_Ghana_Schools_for_the_Deaf_Are_the_Deaf_Students_Handicapped">Deaf students gradually forfeit schooling</a>.</p>
<p>Schools serving Deaf students in Ghana have developed in a provisional and stopgap fashion. Schools offer varied levels of academic instruction and vocational skills training, but Deaf students receive the same instruction and <a href="https://www.waecgh.org/EXAMS/BECE.aspx">national level assessments as their hearing counterparts</a> and it’s up to the teachers to make it work. </p>
<p>Thus educators in schools for students who are Deaf work in a context common for many minority languages — as language policy researcher Terrence Wiley names it, a <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781136697708/chapters/10.4324%2F9780203813119-11">“null policy” context, with language needs met with a significant absence of policy</a>. Educators develop de facto policies and strategies to address <a href="http://globaldisability.org/2016/04/28/ghana-disability-act">gaps</a> and promote their students’ academic, social and emotional welfare to lessen marginalization the students experience. </p>
<h2>Using GSL to resist ‘disciplinary power’</h2>
<p>Educators and the <a href="http://gnadgh.org/">Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD)</a> are challenging stereotypes and <a href="https://millneckinternational.org/our-work/ghana-national-association-of-the-deaf-youth-section/">empowering Deaf students to participate in policy surrounding their welfare</a>. </p>
<p>For example, GNAD created a drama using GSL before the 2016 Ghanaian elections to promote awareness of civic rights. In the drama, Deaf people both taught the public about signing as a valid mode of communication and about how to vote. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UPzY4MWKtdw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Drama created for 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections by Ghana National Association of the Deaf.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The creation of <a href="https://ourtalkinghands.com/wp-content/uploads/GSL-Dictionary-Second-Edition-Sample.pdf">GSL dictionaries</a> for use offline and <a href="http://www.ayelefoundation.org/dictionary/">online</a> is another instance of unofficial language policy and planning. </p>
<p>The recent <a href="http://gnadgh.org/hope-college-introduces-ghanaian-sign-language-into-school-curriculum/">introduction of sign language into a mainstream school curriculum</a> is an unprecedented attempt by sign language educators to break communication barriers between Deaf and hearing people in Ghana.</p>
<p>But the fact that instruction in Ghana’s specialized schools for the <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1126501">Deaf is still based on curriculum for hearing schools</a> illustrates that Ghana’s language policy is still being used as what language policy researcher James Tollefson calls “<a href="http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume1/ej01/ej01r2/">a form of disciplinary power</a>.” </p>
<p>This is to say the institutional neglect of a language policy supporting the needs of Deaf people continues to serve as a means of differentiating the Deaf from the hearing.</p>
<p>Much more can and must be done to recognize GSL. The Ghanaian government must <a href="https://www.independentliving.org/standardrules/WFD_Answers/WFD.pdf">implement accessibility standards</a> to counter <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/ghana-deaf-live-isolation-180617180707102.html">the alienation Deaf students face</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109774/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mama Adobea Nii Owoo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ghana urgently needs an official Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL) policy. Such a move has the potential to humanize education for people who are Deaf and alleviate the linguistic discrimination they face.Mama Adobea Nii Owoo, PhD Student, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1056752018-10-29T11:58:26Z2018-10-29T11:58:26ZHow to teach AI to speak Welsh (and other minority languages)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242712/original/file-20181029-76411-1xoy7k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ydych chi'n siarad Cymraeg? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/isometric-artificial-intelligence-concept-ai-business-1072669589">Golden Sikorka/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pioneering smart home technologies and voice assistants don’t, as a rule, speak Welsh – although the Welsh government now aims to change that through their <a href="https://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/181023-welsh-language-technology-action-plan.pdf">Welsh Language Technology Action Plan</a>. But is their aim feasible, is it necessary, and how can it be done?</p>
<p>AI speech tools (like <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-the-latest-earphones-translate-languages-87136">Google’s Pixelbuds</a>) are heavily reliant on the use of big data sets to learn a language, its pronunciation, grammar and semantics. The ability or quality of the resulting tools is mainly limited by how much data is available (and how “good” it is). This means that, in theory at least, tools for a minority language like Welsh cannot become as capable as those for a mainstream language. </p>
<p>Languages with limited amounts of good training data available are termed “low resource” languages. Compared to English, <a href="https://www.ethnologue.com/language/cym">Welsh</a> resources are sparse, but there are <a href="https://www.ethnologue.com/browse/names">several thousand languages</a> with <a href="https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size">fewer speakers</a>, and most likely much poorer resources, than <a href="https://www.ethnologue.com/language/cym">Welsh</a>. </p>
<p>Fortunately there is good research being done on a machine learning technique called “<a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5288526">transfer learning</a>”. This allows systems to learn using one set of data and to then apply this knowledge in another. In China it is being used for <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8282215">automatic speech recognition (ASR) of Tibetan</a>, which has virtually no data available for training. The ASR system learned Chinese – which is linguistically very different to Tibetan – and was then retrained or finetuned to “understand” Tibetan. There is actually a lot of commonality between many languages – shared or borrowed words and pronunciation patterns – that helps this kind of technique.</p>
<h2>Retraining AI in Welsh</h2>
<p>So there is no reason why AI systems cannot be produced to converse in Welsh or other minority languages. But is there any reason why it should? All of the speech technology, smart homes and voice interaction systems used today are the products of commercial research. To put it bluntly, they exist to either make money from your data, to sell you more goods and services, or to influence your thinking. None of this AI <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/22/home-battleground-amazon-google-voice-technology">exists for the public good</a>.</p>
<p>Making a system that works well with Welsh may not be as easy as engineering everything in English. With current technology, speech AI experts will be needed (and we are expensive). There will be a need for Welsh training and testing material, and Welsh speaking testers must be involved. The dangers of not having Welsh speakers involved in the translation process has been <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7702913.stm">amply demonstrated in the past</a>, when an out of office email reply ended up on a road sign</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242696/original/file-20181029-76408-11yxmov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242696/original/file-20181029-76408-11yxmov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242696/original/file-20181029-76408-11yxmov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242696/original/file-20181029-76408-11yxmov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242696/original/file-20181029-76408-11yxmov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242696/original/file-20181029-76408-11yxmov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242696/original/file-20181029-76408-11yxmov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Complete misunderstanding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/frustrated-woman-kitchen-asking-digital-assistant-1025299729?src=6CJvVzlw4-1ERWfZioKe0w-1-30">Daisy Daisy/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unless there is a strong enough economic argument, don’t expect big companies to rush into producing Welsh, Gaelic or Cornish speech systems. Even tech giant Samsung hasn’t yet managed to produce a UK-English speaking version of their Bixby assistant (international English speakers need to <a href="https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/Smartphones-Tablets-Wearables/Bixby-Voice-Command-UK-Music/td-p/252275">speak to it in fake American accents</a> to get it to work). Even the US-English version was <a href="https://www.phonearena.com/news/Samsungs-Bixby-Voice-delayed-due-to-lack-of-resources_id95414">delayed due to a lack of resources</a>.</p>
<p>And as long as Welsh speakers are happy to make use of English language AI systems, there may not be an economic argument – unless the Welsh government decides to pay to make it happen, which it has so far not done (the action plan is a “commitment” at this stage).</p>
<h2>AI to the rescue</h2>
<p>Technology marches on and techniques such as transfer learning are becoming more capable every day. This has allowed previous research on <a href="http://www.cs.cmu.edu/%7Etanja/Papers/SchultzSpecomOrigPublication.pdf">language adaptation</a> to be refreshed and extended into development of <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.368.5160&rep=rep1&type=pdf">multi-language deep learning techniques</a>. Meanwhile, growing use of other kinds of digital technology by Welsh speakers has improved the collection of resources in the language, as has Welsh TV and radio. These advances mean that the cost of localising systems for Welsh (and other minority languages) is reducing.</p>
<p>Research on brain-like learning algorithms may just hold the key here. This is technology that can continually learn during use, just like humans learn to speak a new language. It is unlike most current AI systems that are trained in the lab, before being let loose in the wild – apart from a few exceptions some, like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/24/tay-microsofts-ai-chatbot-gets-a-crash-course-in-racism-from-twitter">Microsoft’s Tay</a>, notable for their <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/03/25/learning-tays-introduction/">spectacular failures</a>. Future systems will be able to gradually acquire skills in a second language just by having users gradually introduce more and more of that language in their daily interactions. Rather than funding research into Welsh speech AI, the Welsh government may well do better by backing research into <a href="https://www.cs.uic.edu/%7Eliub/lifelong-machine-learning.html">this new kind of adaptive learning technology</a>.</p>
<p>Because all current speech AI systems handle the speech centrally (it’s not done in the device, but <a href="https://techxplore.com/news/2017-11-google-pixel-buds-earphones-languages.html">in a remote server farm</a>), these systems could gather data from hundreds of users worldwide (or all over Wales) to rapidly learn. So the message to Welsh speakers today may be to not buy that English-language Google Home or Amazon Alexa if you want Google or Amazon to produce a system that works in Welsh. But if you do have one, as its software develops over the next few years, try speaking Welsh to it as much as possible. It may just surprise you and <a href="https://translate.google.co.uk/#cy/en/Siaradwch%20%C3%A2%20chi%20yn%20Gymraeg">Siaradwch â chi yn Gymraeg</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105675/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian McLoughlin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s no reason why AI systems can’t speak any language – but is there a reason why it should?Ian McLoughlin, Professor of Computing, Head of School (Medway), University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1014932018-09-11T12:47:49Z2018-09-11T12:47:49ZRussia is cracking down on minority languages – but a resistance movement is growing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235625/original/file-20180910-123131-1r06wfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=146%2C38%2C3478%2C2195&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gadjievo-russia-september-19-2012-pupil-1016197765?src=Skaas7-xz0yp1BDTvehZMQ-1-3">VPales/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Russia has spent the last several years aggressively advocating for the rights of Russian minorities abroad, and in particular for the “protection” of the Russian language. Whenever a country takes any step that can be construed as suppressing or marginalising Russian speakers, the Kremlin is quick to respond in the most strident of tones.</p>
<p>In October 2017, when Latvia’s government made Latvian the default language of education, <a href="http://nrt24.ru/en/news/language-genocide-latvia">Sergey Zheleznyak</a>, the member of Russia’s State Duma Committee on International Affairs, did not hold back. “The decision to switch educational instruction in Latvian schools for national minorities to the Latvian language is in violation of the European Union’s legal framework and resembles linguistic genocide,” he said.</p>
<p>Yet just three months before Zheleznyak’s furious statement, Russia itself <a href="https://www.idelreal.org/a/28937644.html">abolished the compulsory teaching of minority languages</a> at schools in its own “ethnic republics” – part of a much larger project to remake the way Russia works, and to turn away from the relatively stable multiculturalism that Russia has maintained for decades. Considering its grandstanding about the rights of ethnic Russians abroad, the pressure the Kremlin is putting on ethnic minorities at home looks like pure hypocrisy.</p>
<p>Since he came to power 18 years ago, Vladimir Putin has overseen a sweeping transformation of Russia’s “ethnic federalism”, where a majority of ethnicities have their own territorial autonomy. That includes the effective abolition of one of the last elements of true federalism in Russia – namely, the status of minority languages in ethnic republics as second official languages with equal status to Russian. The Kremlin is increasingly pursuing a programme of cultural homogenisation, gradually removing support for education in minority languages, curriculums with ethno-regional components, and other cultural initiatives by Russian ethnic minorities. All political activities designed to shore up minority identities are under pressure as well.</p>
<p>And sure enough, the Russian government has now <a href="http://sozd.parliament.gov.ru/bill/438863-7">adopted new amendments to an education bill</a> that will make minority languages lessons in ethnic republics optional, and which limit their teaching to a maximum of two hours a week. These measures will only hasten the demise of these languages – and will ensure that the Russian language remains preeminent across the country.</p>
<h2>Under pressure</h2>
<p>Until the summer of 2017, minority languages were compulsory subjects in schools in most ethnic regions of the Russian Federation. Depending on the region, their prominence in the classroom varied from one hour per week in primary school to equal terms with the Russian language throughout the curriculum.</p>
<p>But last July, Putin <a href="http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/55109">gave a speech</a> at the meeting of the Council on Interethnic Relations in Mari El, one of Russia’s ethnic republics. He stressed that the Russian language “cannot be replaced with anything” and teaching ethnic-minority languages would become optional, to avoid any possibility of “forcing someone to learn a language that is not native to him”. In September that year, a presidential special order sent the General Prosecutor’s Office to audit schools in ethnic republics to verify whether minority language study was voluntary or compulsory.</p>
<p>The first checks took place in Bashkortostan and Tatarstan. Inspectors discovered that minority languages in both republics were being taught on a compulsory basis. As a result, teachers were fired en masse and ethnic minority language teaching became a highly sensitive political issue.</p>
<p>Protests started during the autumn in ethnic regions where the prosecutorial examination took place. Some of the first demonstrations sprung up in Bashkortostan, where more than 2,000 people came to protest in the main square of the city of Ufa even though local authorities had not granted them permission. When police tried to end the demonstration by taking the leading activists, the protesters actively defended them. Nonetheless, several people were detained by the police.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235769/original/file-20180911-144470-12z0rur.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235769/original/file-20180911-144470-12z0rur.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235769/original/file-20180911-144470-12z0rur.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235769/original/file-20180911-144470-12z0rur.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235769/original/file-20180911-144470-12z0rur.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235769/original/file-20180911-144470-12z0rur.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235769/original/file-20180911-144470-12z0rur.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A flashmob in front of the Tatarstan Republican Council in Kazan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.tatar-inform.ru/news/2017/10/26/579889/">Tatar Inform</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, Tatar activists have several times been refused permission for a proposed rally in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. Several activists have instead organised lonely one-person pickets, the only way to protest in Russia without prior permission from the authorities. Some of them were detained by police anyway. Others organised flashmobs; on one occasion, a group gathered in front of the Republican State Council in Kazan just before a special session on the language issue. They handed out Tatar alphabet textbooks to local MPs who were coming to this session. One was so touched by the gift that he started singing a song in Tatar; the crowd joined in.</p>
<p>After this event, participants received a warning from security services about impermissibility of extremist activities. All students who joined in the gathering were threatened with expulsion from their universities.</p>
<p>There were some other attempts in Tatarstan and in several other ethnic republics to resist the state’s moves against minority languages. But all these attempts faced preemptive actions by security services or local officials appointed by Moscow.</p>
<h2>Backfired</h2>
<p>The restrictions on public protest and the distance between the various ethnic regions have forced activists from across Russia to unite online, where they’re doing everything from writing <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSelopoXbZsFOYpLaTahohT5_Jpyl9TK7aR9WQAHK-IxsgeDTQ/viewform">joint electronic petitions</a> to Putin to consulting each other on ways to fight off legal pressure from the authorities. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235772/original/file-20180911-144476-7zixe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235772/original/file-20180911-144476-7zixe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235772/original/file-20180911-144476-7zixe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235772/original/file-20180911-144476-7zixe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235772/original/file-20180911-144476-7zixe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235772/original/file-20180911-144476-7zixe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235772/original/file-20180911-144476-7zixe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A call for a tally in defence of the Bashkir language, citing republics’ constitutional right to establish their own official languages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vkontakte</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This online activism quickly grew, with more and more ethnic minorities joining in. Finally, in June 2018 they created an official organisation to promote multiculturalism and federalism, the <a href="https://www.business-gazeta.ru/news/383021">Democratic Congress of the Peoples of Russia</a>.</p>
<p>Most importantly, online resistance has been spreading among ordinary people. Many have started to share various memes and opinions on minority language issues; some started to use their native languages more in online communication, both as a symbolic act and a means of evading the security services, whom they assume are working only in Russian.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ftimur.moukhtarov%2Fposts%2F1786128978077363&width=500" width="100%" height="593" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media"></iframe>
<p>One particularly influential campaign saw the above image, credited to Radik Musin and Ivan Pivovarov, widely shared along with the hashtag #StopLanguageGenocide, referring to all minority languages of the Russian Federation. It was followed by a clutch of other online campaigns in several republics, each defending their own language.</p>
<p>In a country as vast and diverse as Russia, top-down assimilation is a poor way to shore up a spirit of national unity. Assimilation policies will always meet with resistance, even entrench it; in this case, the result is a welter of grassroots initiatives against the goverment’s plans. It seems the government’s efforts to homogenise Russia from east to west are strengthening exactly the sort of identities they were supposed to marginalise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101493/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guzel Yusupova receives funding from Durham University, as COFUND Junior Research Fellow. </span></em></p>While the Kremlin rages at supposed crackdowns on Russian speakers abroad, it’s rolling out a programme of linguistic homogenisation at home.Guzel Yusupova, COFUND Junior Research Fellow, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/946752018-04-19T05:45:09Z2018-04-19T05:45:09ZGreece’s Macedonian Slavic heritage was wiped out by linguistic oppression – here’s how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215421/original/file-20180418-163966-z1yigh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Macedonian Slavic wedding in the Prespes region in the border between Greece and FYR Macedonia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Culture_of_Prespes#/media/File:Wedding_in_Papli,_Prespes.jpg">Unknown via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’ve ever been to a traditional Greek celebration, you will have seen people joining hands and dancing in a circle following the same steps to the accompaniment of live music. You will also have heard songs sung in Greek as most traditional tunes go hand in hand with lyrics talking about love, emigration and rural life.</p>
<p>In the northernmost parts of the Greek regions of <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/DZSkxBr5Qg12">Western</a> and <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/ah8REu7m7Dk">Central Macedonia</a>, however, all the folk dances are instrumental tunes. Lyrics have been replaced by loud, brass and woodwind instruments like the cornet, the trombone and the clarinet. This is not some peculiar aspect of the local musical heritage. Traditional tunes in these regions had their own words – but they were in a language that the Greek state has tried to wipe out for nearly a century: <a href="https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mkd">Macedonian Slavic</a>.</p>
<p>After emerging victorious from two <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Balkan-Wars-1912-1913-Prelude-to-the-First-World-War/Hall/p/book/9780415229470">Balkan Wars</a> in 1912 and 1913, Greece’s territory and population <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Balkan_Wars_Boundaries.jpg#/media/File:Balkan_Wars_Boundaries.jpg">expanded dramatically</a> by the addition of the lion’s share of the historic geographical region of Macedonia, the part found on the southern side of the Voras/Nidže and Belles/Belasica mountain ranges.</p>
<p>As is often the case in history, state borders did not coincide with linguistic ones. The so-called “New Lands” were a diverse mosaic of different linguistic groups, including <a href="https://search.proquest.com/docview/195175246/fulltextPDF/A1CAF7A739514F7BPQ/1?accountid=14987">260,000 people</a> who spoke varieties of a south Slavic language they called <em>tukasni</em> “local”, <a href="http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/vient-de-paraitre/adamou_nashta.htm"><em>nashta</em> “ours”</a> or <em>makedonski</em> “Macedonian”. </p>
<p>These varieties, including the standardised version that is today the official language of FYR Macedonia, have similarities with Bulgarian – and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1354-5078.1998.00389.x/full">many people in Bulgaria</a> view them as Bulgarian dialects. But sociolinguistics has shown that what counts as a language in its own right and what is seen as a dialect of a language are essentially decided by <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/01/difference-between-language-dialect/424704/">political rather than linguistic criteria</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215423/original/file-20180418-134691-1u4m8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215423/original/file-20180418-134691-1u4m8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215423/original/file-20180418-134691-1u4m8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215423/original/file-20180418-134691-1u4m8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215423/original/file-20180418-134691-1u4m8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215423/original/file-20180418-134691-1u4m8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215423/original/file-20180418-134691-1u4m8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215423/original/file-20180418-134691-1u4m8j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ethnographic map of Macedonia, 1914.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/balkan_serbs_1914.jpg">Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1914.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From an invisible language…</h2>
<p>For the Greek government, having people speaking Macedonian Slavic in its territory did not sit well with its national ideology. Signs of discomfort towards Greece’s new multilingual reality showed very early on. In 1920, the Greek statistical authority ran the first census after the country’s territorial expansion. A language question was asked but the data for the Macedonia division were never published. The <a href="http://dlib.statistics.gr/Book/GRESYE_02_0101_00011.pdf">language data for the Thessaly division</a>, however, record speakers of Macedonian Slavic, probably reported by seasonal workers from Macedonia who were in Thessaly at the time of the census. Greek authorities acknowledged the presence of Macedonian Slavic as a legitimate language but made a conscious effort to conceal the number of people who spoke it.</p>
<p>In the north of the country, authorities launched a massive Hellenising mission. Overnight, Madeconian Slavic names of people, <a href="http://pandektis.ekt.gr/pandektis/handle/10442/4968">places</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291318721_Singing_without_words_Language_and_identity_shift_among_Slavic_Macedonian_musicians_in_Greece">dances</a> were rendered into Greek by public servants. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iXCWKIubGcs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>My own paternal grandfather’s family name became Karatsareas from Karachorov. My maternal grandfather’s one became Kantzouris from Kanzurov. The area of Karadzova was renamed Almopia with its main town of Subotsko becoming Aridaia. The dance Puscheno was called Leventikos or Lytos. The aim was to leave no visible trace of Macedonian Slavic in public records.</p>
<h2>…to a forbidden one</h2>
<p>In the 1930s and in a climate of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Xoww453NVQMC&lpg=PR3&hl=de&pg=PR3#v=onepage&q&f=false">competing nationalisms in the southern Balkans</a>, the similarities between Macedonian Slavic and the languages of the then Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Kingdom of Bulgaria began to raise suspicions among Greek authorities about the national allegiance and “consciousness” of Macedonian Slavic speakers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-gets-to-use-the-name-macedonia-a-decades-old-row-still-to-be-resolved-90708">Who gets to use the name 'Macedonia'? A decades-old row still to be resolved</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In August 1931, Greek journalist and subsequent politician Periklis Iliadis called in his newspaper column for a ban on greeting in “Bulgarian” and publicly singing songs in languages other than Greek – two proposals that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/714005461">Ioannis Metaxas’s fascist regime</a> promptly adopted. </p>
<p>In 1936, the governor-general of Macedonia issued order of prohibition 122770: “On the restoration of the uniform language”, banning the use of Macedonian Slavic in both public and private. People caught speaking Macedonian Slavic – sometimes by police officers eavesdropping through people’s windows – were dragged to military police stations where they were beaten and sometimes tortured. Those who had the money were fined. Teachers beat pupils who spoke Macedonian Slavic in class or in the playground – even when that was the only language they were able to speak. This happened to my maternal grandmother.</p>
<h2>A muted heritage</h2>
<p>In 1994, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/1994/04/01/denying-ethnic-identity/macedonians-greece">Human Rights Watch</a> called for Greece to end harassment of Macedonian Slavic speakers. In 1998, the <a href="http://www.icnl.org/research/journal/vol1iss1/cn_1.htm">European Court of Human Rights</a> ruled that Greece violated the right of its citizens to form associations by refusing them permission to establish a Macedonian Slavic cultural association. But these calls came much too late.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214789/original/file-20180413-566-oe36es.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214789/original/file-20180413-566-oe36es.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214789/original/file-20180413-566-oe36es.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214789/original/file-20180413-566-oe36es.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214789/original/file-20180413-566-oe36es.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214789/original/file-20180413-566-oe36es.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214789/original/file-20180413-566-oe36es.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=667&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A guesthouse in Loutraki (Aridaia, northern Greece) bearing the Slavic name of the village, Pozhar. The letter Ž has been borrowed from the Latinic version of the Macedonian Slavic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the face of the aggressive and violent oppression they suffered in the 1930s, Macedonian Slavic speakers developed a deeply ingrained fear of speaking their language in front of people they did not know and trust. They stopped singing their songs, playing only the traditional tunes of their musical heritage. With time, they started using Greek more to refer to themselves and the places where they were born and live. </p>
<p>Today, only older people speak the language. For younger people, it is more of a passive knowledge – a kind of heritage that will die out with the older generation and the only thing that will remain to remind them of it will be a handful of words and tunes to which young musicians do not know the words.</p>
<h2>Banning minority languages</h2>
<p>This sort of linguistic oppression is far from unique. Similar stories have been reported by speakers of <a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/bliain-na-gaeilge-my-mother-made-a-choice-to-speak-to-us-in-her-mother-tongue-3951221-Apr2018/">Irish in Ireland</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-19076304">Scottish Gaelic in Scotland</a>, <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm100609/debtext/100609-0011.htm">Welsh in Wales</a> (read Susan Elan Jones’s comments in Column 377), <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/11893734/They-banned-us-speaking-Catalan.-Now-they-want-us-to-disappear.html">Catalan in Spain</a>, <a href="http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/marr.html">Native American languages in the US</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-19/raja-australia-is-the-place-of-vanishing-languages/5101822">Aboriginal languages in Australia</a>. </p>
<p>It is sad that the efforts of state authorities to make speakers of minority languages assimilate to the majority language were for the most part successful. And alongside the languages, other expressions of culture are being lost, including place names, family names, songs, dances, games and traditions. Linguistic oppression and the consequences it has on speakers of minority languages and their cultural heritage have no place in a modern world where the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/culturaldiversityday/index.shtml">value of cultural diversity</a> is recognised.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/multilingualism-must-be-celebrated-as-a-resource-not-a-problem-90397">Multilingualism must be celebrated as a resource, not a problem</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94675/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Petros Karatsareas receives funding from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>For the Greek government, having people speaking Macedonian Slavic in its territory did not sit well with its national ideology.Petros Karatsareas, Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/597562016-06-03T13:32:05Z2016-06-03T13:32:05ZLosing the Cornish language would kill off part of British culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125128/original/image-20160603-11581-1oby45j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Cornish language is part of the land.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jon Mills</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Cornish language “Kernewek” is <a href="http://www.cornish-language.org/history-of-the-Cornish-language.html">one of the oldest tongues</a> still spoken in Britain today. Like Welsh, Breton – its closest relatives – Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx Gaelic, Kernewek is a Celtic language. Yet it has not enjoyed the same protection that some of the former have. Now the British government is cutting the funding that supports the survival of this language. </p>
<p>The period following the Norman conquest was the era of Cornish classical literature, when the Cornish miracle plays – one of the <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/215/0112.html">earliest forms of theatre</a> – were written. This episode came to an abrupt halt, however, with the accession of the Tudor dynasty, when, following a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/cornish_nation_01.shtml#five">series of unsuccessful rebellions</a>, the Cornish-speaking population was brutally reduced and Kernewek went into rapid decline. </p>
<p>By the beginning of the 18th Century, Kernewek was confined to the far west of Cornwall. But, by the early 20th century, speaker numbers slowly grew once more. In 2010 the language was officially brought “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-11935464">back from the dead</a>”, as UNESCO changed its classification of Kernewek from extinct to critically endangered. Today it is guarded by the few hundred fluent speakers left.</p>
<p>Though fierce, this current local protection and celebration of the Cornish language is apparently not persuasive enough for it to be protected like other British languages. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p0iwUqQHeWE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The Department of Communities and Local Government recently wrote to Lys Kernow/Cornwall Council stating that the central UK government would <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-36104716">no longer provide funding</a> for the Cornish language. This announcement came as a shock to the Cornish language community as it was expected that the financial support would continue. Since 2003, the UK government had been providing between £120,000 and £150,000 a year to support the Cornish language, since it was recognised as a regional and minority language in 2003.</p>
<p>The money covered a range of <a href="https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/council-news-room/media-releases/news-from-2016/news-from-april-2016/council-condemns-government-decision-to-cut-funding-for-cornish-language/">educational activities and resources</a>, essential for revitalising Cornwall’s language. Over the past five years, this investment has resulted in increased use of the Cornish language.</p>
<p>The use of the Cornish language also supports both the local and visitor economy in Cornwall, as demonstrated by the increase in the use of the language in <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/update/2016-04-21/anger-as-government-cuts-all-funding-for-cornish-language/">marketing and tourism</a> materials.</p>
<p>Now, not only have new Cornish street names and signage been granted, the language has cropped up more and more in mainstream and social media. In fact, the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/20/first-cornish-tv-ad-to-air-weeks-after-language-funding-is-axed">first television advert</a> spoken in nearly fluent Kernewek appeared in a prime-time spot just weeks after the funding cut announcement. </p>
<h2>Destroying Cornish rights</h2>
<p>The government’s decision to axe funding is not simply a matter of internal politics: it flouts numerous international agreements which the UK government has signed.</p>
<p>The first of these is <a href="http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/minlang/aboutcharter/default_en.asp">Part II</a> of the Council of Europe’s European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, under which the Cornish language was recognised in 2003. As a signatory to the charter, the UK government commits to recognise Cornish as an expression of cultural wealth; recognise the need for resolute action to promote Cornish; facilitate and encourage of the use of Cornish; and prohibit all forms of unjustified distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference relating to the use of Cornish – amongst other things. </p>
<p>In addition, since April 2014, the Cornish people have been recognised as a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-27132035">national minority</a> within the scope of the <a href="http://www.coe.int/en/web/minorities/home">European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities</a>, giving them the same status as the UK’s other Celtic people: the Scots, Welsh and Irish. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9UaAyI-uI30?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>When a language like Cornish dies, the world loses four important things: linguistic, intellectual, and cultural diversity, and cultural identity. Linguistic diversity is an enshrined right under the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/charter/index_en.htm">European Charter of Fundamental Rights</a>and the <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:12008M003">Treaty on European Union</a>, under which signatories agree to respect the rich cultural and linguistic diversity of Europe, and ensure that cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced. </p>
<p>Elsewhere in Europe, there has been great success in supporting minority languages. Frisian, for example, is a minority language spoken in Frislân in the Netherlands. The Dutch government has <a href="https://www.government.nl/documents/regulations/2013/04/16/administrative-agreement-frisian-language-and-culture-2013-2018">signed an agreement</a> with the Frisian-speaking community to safeguard the language. Importantly this includes substantial support for Frisian language education at preschool, primary and secondary levels, and in higher education. The same could and should be done for Cornish.</p>
<p>When a language is lost, its intellectual assets are lost. Languages encode culture, the different aspects of our beliefs, habits, history and our humour. The extinction of a language leads to loss of the knowledge embedded in that language, along with value systems, philosophy and spiritual knowledge. </p>
<p>Certain aspects of Cornish literature cannot be translated into English. The <a href="http://www.the-camerino-players.com/medievaldrama/Bibliography_of_Cornish_Medieval_Drama.html">medieval Cornish miracle plays</a>, on the surface, seem to be concerned with the stories of the bible and the lives of saints. And in English translation that is all that is conveyed. However, the subtle introduction of English phrases and loanwords into the Cornish language text is used to portray the tyrannical oppression that Cornwall was experiencing under the English during this period. This is something that is totally lost in translation.</p>
<p>From a perspective of good governance, protecting minority languages like Cornish is a human rights obligation. It helps to construct an equal, and politically and socially stable society, averting tension and conflict in society. The Cornish language community merely <a href="https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/128474/">wants what is theirs by right</a>: support for their linguistic heritage and to be able to access this through the education system, which they pay for out of taxation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jon Mills does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Funding cuts could finally decimate one of Britain’s oldest surviving languages.Jon Mills, Cornish language scholar and lecturer, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/484222015-11-18T05:29:25Z2015-11-18T05:29:25ZTeenage apathy for speaking Welsh reveals struggle to keep it as a living language<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102066/original/image-20151116-4961-1hwxook.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What do young people think about speaking Welsh?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vepar5/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Teenagers in Wales believe it is important that Welsh remains a living language, but fewer than half believe they will go on to speak it as adults. This is what we found when we surveyed over 800 young people from across Wales about their attitudes to the language. </p>
<p>Our <a href="http://www.wiserd.ac.uk/files/1014/4000/4282/Conf2015D2S3Devo_FutureWelshLanguageWales.pdf">initial results</a> show that despite the Welsh government’s efforts to create an “infrastructure” for the language so that Welsh speakers can use it on a daily basis, there is still a lot of work to be done. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/devolution/wales/live/index.shtmlv">narrow vote</a> in favour of Welsh devolution in 1997 was seen as a defining moment in the history of the Welsh language. The Welsh Assembly was heralded as the ultimate tool to safeguard the language, which had consistently been declining throughout <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/themes/language.shtml">the 20th century</a>. </p>
<p>Initially, things looked very promising. The 2001 census results seemed to mark a historic turnaround in fortunes for the language, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2755217.stm">showing a 13% increase</a> in the number of Welsh speakers since 1991. </p>
<p>Yet this proved to be a <a href="http://www.cambriamagazine.co.uk/the-welsh-language-a-false-dawn/">false dawn</a>. In 2011, the numbers of Welsh speakers had again declined, with 19% of the population “able to speak Welsh” compared with 20.8% in 2001. Disappointingly, this decline also included the younger age groups, aged between five and 15, which had shown slight increases in ability in previous years. </p>
<p>To address this decline, in 2011 the Welsh government published the policy document <a href="http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/122902wls201217en.pdf">Living language: a language for living</a>. Its aim was to ensure that Welsh remains a living language used in everyday life – as opposed to a language merely associated with school or “high culture”. </p>
<p>Over the past few years my colleagues and I at <a href="http://www.wiserd.ac.uk/wiserd-education/en/">WISERD Education</a> have been visiting schools (both primary and secondary, Welsh and English medium) across Wales <a href="http://www.wiserd.ac.uk/files/7513/9212/7455/Inhouse_WISERDEducation_Flyer_for_SCHOOLS_ENGLISH_FINAL_REVISED.pdf">surveying</a> different groups of children as they pass through key phases in their education. In one survey done between April and July 2013, we asked 849 students, drawn from Years 8 and 10 (aged 12-13 and 14-15), their views on the Welsh language. </p>
<h2>Attitudes v practice</h2>
<p>The students were generally positive towards the language, with 75% feeling that it is important that Welsh “remains a living language”. Of those we surveyed, 65% of students claimed it was important for them to learn Welsh – a positive sign for the Welsh government’s strategy – although only 59% stated it was important to “actually speak Welsh”. This also raises the spectre of a disjuncture between attitudes and practice. </p>
<p>Welsh became a compulsory subject up to GCSE level in English medium schools in Wales in 1999. This is still a <a href="http://www.clickonwales.org/2013/10/teaching-welsh-for-the-sake-of-our-children/">controversial issue</a> and our findings provide some food for thought. When asked how much they liked Welsh as a “subject”, only 28% of children said “a lot”, while a significant minority – 32.5% – said they did not like it at all. </p>
<p>An interesting link also emerged between attitudes towards the language “in general” and attitudes towards Welsh as a subject. Students who disliked Welsh as a subject were also more likely to think that it is not important to speak Welsh. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, when we broke these figures down further, children in bilingual or Welsh medium schools had a more positive attitude towards Welsh as a subject. Where children live was also key: students from the Welsh-speaking heartlands were far more likely to enjoy Welsh as a subject. This may well be down to how relevant the language seems to children in their daily life, and how frequently they hear it spoken in their community. </p>
<p>The significant amount of negative attitudes towards Welsh as a “subject” should be of interest to the Welsh Government, in particular when it comes to sustaining the widespread goodwill towards the language.</p>
<h2>Use of Welsh in everyday life</h2>
<p>We also collected data about language use outside the school gate. When asked “how likely is it that you will speak Welsh as an adult?”, only 45% of fluent Welsh speaking students stated “definitely”. </p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/vq1vw/1/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>When even fluent speakers feel that they will not use Welsh in everyday life, this suggests that the language infrastructure remains weak, and that Welsh remains far from a “living language”.</p>
<p>In a follow-up “snapshot” survey of 366 of the same Year 8 pupils, only a small minority reported using Welsh “infrastructure” in everyday life: only 5% visited Welsh websites, only 9% read Welsh books or magazines, and only 17% watched Welsh television or listened to Welsh language radio. </p>
<p>So positive attitudes towards the language are widespread, but ultimately, goodwill is not enough to sustain a language. For Welsh to remain a “living” language, <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/policy-and-planning-endangered-languages">infrastructure is central</a>. This means that Welsh speakers should have easy access to Welsh language services – transport, customer services, paying bills – so that they can use the language in everyday life. </p>
<p>The Welsh government recognises that this infrastructure needs to be creative and modern, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/minority-languages-fight-for-survival-in-the-digital-age-22571">a vibrant media landscape</a> (including social media) being of critical importance. But there is clearly a lot of work to be done to establish this, as English remains the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcc4.12010/pdf">language of the internet</a> and media, and ultimately of everyday life, with children very rarely using the Welsh language outside school.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48422/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Less than half of teenagers fluent in Welsh think they’ll go on to speak it as adults.Daniel Evans, Researcher, WISERD, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/416422015-05-13T12:46:04Z2015-05-13T12:46:04ZFight on to preserve Elfdalian, Sweden’s lost forest language<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81556/original/image-20150513-2491-13a9xch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elfdalian country. </span> </figcaption></figure><p>When I visited the remote Swedish town of Älvdalen, I was immediately struck by the tranquil splendour of the undulating, forest-covered valley in which it is situated. The river Österdalälv, which runs to the valley and has given it its name, was still partly frozen, and the gleaming ice resonated with the last patches of snow that were strewn across the landscape. Here, in this Swedish Shangri-La, I was set to meet the last speakers of Elfdalian, a tiny and well-hidden linguistic gem that only very few know about. </p>
<p>Elfdalian (<em>älvdalska</em> in Swedish and <em>övdalsk</em> in the language itself) sounds like something you would more likely encounter in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings rather than in a remote Swedish forest. But the small town of Älvdalen, which gives the language its name, is not an Elven outpost. It is one of the last strongholds of an ancient tongue that preserves much of Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. And it is now to be taught in the town’s preschools <a href="http://www.thelocal.se/20150504/viking-forest-language-set-for-nordic-preschool">for the first time in September</a>, marking a small victory for a group campaigning for its preservation. </p>
<p>Elfdalian is currently used only by about 2,500 people, but is a treasure trove for linguists. Hidden between the trees and hills, it has preserved linguistic features that are to be found nowhere else in Scandinavia, and that had already disappeared from Old Norse by 1200AD. </p>
<h2>Unique among Nordic languages</h2>
<p>Elfdalian has, for instance, preserved nasal vowels that disappeared elsewhere. Nasal vowels are well-known from French, as in <em>un bon vin blanc</em> (“a good white wine”), but not from the modern Nordic languages. In Old Norse, nasal vowels are only found in a single manuscript from 12th-century Iceland, but linguists never thought much of it – until it was discovered that modern day Elfdalian has nasal vowels in the exact same words.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/49wyVPt7L-U?wmode=transparent&start=31" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Nativity of Jesus in Elfdalian, by Lena Willemark, a famous Swedish musician from Älvdalen.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because of its relative isolation, Elfdalian evolved in an entirely different direction than the modern Scandinavian languages. Its sounds, grammar and vocabulary differ radically from Swedish. So, while speakers of Swedish, Danish and Norwegian can easily understand each other in simple conversations, Elfdalian is completely unintelligible to Swedes who are not from the area. </p>
<p>For centuries, it was unnecessary for the majority of the native Elfdalian-speaking population to learn standard Swedish, as the economic networks were locally-oriented and there was no compulsory schooling in Swedish until the mid-1800s. As a result, Elfdalian remained a vigorous language until well into the 20th century. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4nrbebx-pUU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Elfdalian Lesson 1, from Gunnar Nyström’s and Yair Sapir’s Textbook for Elfdalian/Introduktion till älvdalska 2005.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The situation changed dramatically in the past century, however. With increased mobility and the arrival of mass media, Elfdalian came under threat from Swedish, which steadily encroached upon more and more aspects of daily life. Speakers of the language were stigmatised, and children were actively discouraged to use it at school. As a result, speakers of Elfdalian shifted to Swedish in droves, especially in the past couple of decades. At present, only half of the inhabitants of Älvdalen speak it, and of the youngest generation, only about 60 children under the age of 15 are fluent.</p>
<h2>Moving into preschool</h2>
<p>During my visit in Älvdalen, I was very lucky to be introduced to a group of language activists united under the name <em><a href="http://www.ulumdalska.se/">Ulum Dalska</a></em> (“We need to speak Elfdalian”). Attempts are being made by these local enthusiasts to revitalise the language that means so much to them. An orthography, detailing how to speak the language, was devised in 2004, consisting of 35 letters, including nasalised vowels. It was used to publish several children’s books, such as a translation of “Le Petit Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The association also annually awards language stipends to pupils who are particularly fluent in Elfdalian. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81476/original/image-20150512-25032-84j654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81476/original/image-20150512-25032-84j654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81476/original/image-20150512-25032-84j654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81476/original/image-20150512-25032-84j654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81476/original/image-20150512-25032-84j654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81476/original/image-20150512-25032-84j654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81476/original/image-20150512-25032-84j654.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lisslprinsn, The Little Prince in Elfdalian. Translated by Bo Westling.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After many years of action, <em>Ulum Dalska</em> has also recently been successful at convincing the local authorities to start up an Elfdalian-speaking group at the local preschool. This means that, for the first time in history, Elfdalian has made its official entry into the Swedish schooling system.</p>
<p>Though nothing short of a break-through, more radical measures are likely to be required to permanently secure the future of Elfdalian. Researchers have, for instance, <a href="https://www.repozytorium.amu.edu.pl/jspui/bitstream/10593/1054/2/Dorota_Melerska_rozprawa%20doktorska.pdf">suggested</a> introducing bilingual programmes to primary schools, by which pupils are immersed in Elfdalian, and Swedish is only taught as a separate subject. </p>
<h2>Fight for minority language status</h2>
<p>The funding required for such programmes is too considerable to be realized by the small community of Älvdalen. A permanent solution would be to grant Elfdalian the status of a <a href="http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/minlang/default_en.asp">regional or minority language</a> as defined by the Council of Europe. Despite <a href="http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/minlang/report/EvaluationReports/SwedenECRML4_en.pdf">repeated requests</a> by <em>Ulum Dalska</em>, the Swedish government has so far been reluctant to do so, however. It maintains that Elfdalian is a dialect, despite a growing consensus among linguists that it has all characteristics of a separate language.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81551/original/image-20150513-2479-ix8iyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81551/original/image-20150513-2479-ix8iyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81551/original/image-20150513-2479-ix8iyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81551/original/image-20150513-2479-ix8iyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81551/original/image-20150513-2479-ix8iyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81551/original/image-20150513-2479-ix8iyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81551/original/image-20150513-2479-ix8iyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Älvdalen, home of Elfdalian.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Guus Kroonen</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nevertheless, language awareness is on the rise, both in Älvdalen and in the outside world. There is a very active <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/dalskum/">Facebook group</a>, where many speakers are starting to write in Elfdalian for the first time in their lives. Earlier this month, I co-organised an <a href="http://elvdalsk.inss.ku.dk/">international conference</a> on Elfdalian, which sparked worldwide media attention. The annual summer school is expected to attract a record number of participants consisting of both native speakers and linguists. </p>
<p>On the whole, more and more people seem to be convinced of the preciousness of Elfdalian and the need to preserve it for future generations. And in a globalising world, the right attitude is perhaps the most important step towards a full language revival.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41642/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guus Kroonen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A unique language spoken by 2,500 people in central Sweden will start being taught in preschool.Guus Kroonen, Postdoc Researcher, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics , University of CopenhagenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.