Minority Language

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

by
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

by
TheLanguageSong

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

by
WEWD poster2

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

by
Skaermbillede 2022 03 30 kl. 09.19.22 1

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 … ↪