Minority Language

Tamazight – Language, power, and identity in North Africa

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This is a translation and updated version by Mena B. Lafkioui of her original article in Dutch, which can be read here. A Danish translation is available here.

Language is central to the Amazigh claim. Through language, the Imazighen are able to understand and fully appreciate their millennia-old and richly layered linguistic and cultural heritage. At the same time, language functions as a crucial symbol and instrument of power. If the Imazighen wish to preserve and further develop their Amazighness or Tamuzgha – that is, their transnational collective Amazigh identity – then speaking and writing in Tamazight is indispensable.

The vast majority of today’s North African population descends from the Imazighen, the original inhabitants of the region. Tamazgha, … ↪

A curious case of language death: How one man killed off Amager Dutch

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For a Danish translation of this article, click here. Updated Oct. 14.      

As Lingoblog celebrates UN German Language Day, Joost Robbe examines the unique history of Amager Dutch (a Dutch-Low German dialect), used on the Danish island of Amager, near Copenhagen, between the early sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. He explains how, having survived for centuries, the fate of this minority language rested on the choices — and linguistic inadequacies — of a single person.

How often can the death of a language be traced back to a single person? Almost never. But the case of Amager Dutch – once spoken in Store Magleby outside Copenhagen – is different. For centuries, the community combined Dutch speech with a strong Low … ↪

On linguistic inequality and means to fight it

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(Danish version)

(Spanish version)

On March 1st, Donald Trump signed an executive order “Designating English as the Official Language of The United States.”[1] This is a symbolic gesture, for sure, to fuel the nationalist discourse that helped Trump reach the White House again. A confirmation, also, of the hostile history of the country toward multilingualism. A recent post on Lingoblog explained that American settlers’ annexation of native peoples’ land resulted in the loss of 90% of the languages once spoken in the territory.[2] The fate of immigrant languages has not been much better. Assimilation to English by the third generation has been the norm in the country. It is not by chance that the … ↪

Call for applications: take part in the 14th edition of Liet International, the competition for songs in minority languages ​​in Bastia, Corsica!

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Liet

You can read a Danish version of the article here, a French version here and a Corsican version here.

On Friday 22nd of November 2024, Bastia will host the 14th edition of Liet International, the European minority language song contest for singers and bands who sing in a European regional or minority language, created in 2002. After thirteen previous editions in Friesland (The Netherlands), Sápmi (Sweden), Brittany/Breizh (France), Udin/Udine (Italy), Xixón/Gijón (Spain), Oldenburg (northern part of Germany), Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino (Norway), Ljouwert/Leeuwarden (Friesland, the Netherlands) and Tønder/Tondern (Denmark), Liet International will visit Corsica for the first time. 

ViaStella, the local TV network, branch of France Télévisions, in charge of the live broadcast of the show in Centru Culturale Alb’Oru. For … ↪

The Language Song/Oqaatsigut

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Language is something all humans share, and perhaps, since we all have it, we sometimes take it for granted. During my years as a researcher I have spoken with many people who themselves, their parents, or grandparents have lost their language. A language loss is often experienced as a trauma and simultaneously as a loss of one’s culture, identity, and roots. A language is but one attribute of a person’s individual identity and group identity. This attribute very often coincides with other attributes – traditions, heritage, clothing, food and more. When a language disappears, due to colonisation or other types of power manifestations, many other of the groups’ attributes disappear.

About half of today’s languages are at risk of dying … ↪

World Endangered Writing Day: January 23rd, 2024

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World Endangered Writing Day was born out of a suggestion by David Crystal, the author of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, and many other books on language topics.

He was reading through the manuscript of my new book Writing Beyond Writing: Lessons from Endangered Alphabets, and came to the passage where I say that in traditional Balinese culture one day a year, the day consecrated to Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom, Balinese revere their books, and writing itself.

Nothing written may be destroyed, or even a letter crossed out. Each household takes out its books (which in Balinese tradition are oblong pages of palm leaf, written on with a stylus and then bound between wooden slats), dusts them off, … ↪

PRESS RELEASE: Liet International 2022 definitely in Nordschleswig/Denmark

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From 1st February 2022 there are no longer COVID-19 restrictions in Denmark. Therefore the host of Liet International 2022, the umbrella organisation of the German minority, Bund Deutscher Nordschleswiger (BDN) in cooperation with the foundation of Liet International have decided to definitely organise Liet International 2022 on 13 May 2022 in Tondern/Tønder, in the south of Denmark. Local host Uffe Iwersen says “We as German minority in Denmark are very proud to host LIET International 2022 in Tønder/Tondern. The German-Danish border region is one of the most diverse regions in Europe in terms of language and culture. It’s the perfect place to celebrate European diversity.”

28 songs were submitted for Liet International 2022. A selection jury consisting of Nick Veenstra … ↪