The Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean organised the ‘International Seminar on Experiences in the Revitalisation of Indigenous Languages’ on 21 November in Santiago de Chile.

The event focused on experiences of language acquisition and strengthening through language immersion, as well as the political and institutional challenges for language revitalisation. Among the participants was his fellow professor, Ane Ortega, to talk about the experience of revitalising the Basque language.

You can watch the full recording of the seminar at the following YouTube link.

Once again this year, Garabide has organised the Language Revitalisation Training Programme. 18 activists from all over the world will stay in the Basque Country to take part in courses for the revitalisation of minority languages. The activists have come from South America, Central America, Asia and Africa to receive theoretical and didactic training.

They arrived on 20 September and will stay for 6 weeks, sharing experiences with associations and institutions working to promote the Basque language. They will visit euskaltegis (basque language teaching centre), media, institutions, etc.

The members of the Chair Ane Ortega, Andoni Barreña and Itziar Idiazabal will participate as teachers. More information on the website of Garabide.

Issue 131 of the BAT Journal of Sociolinguistics is now available. The theme of this latest publication is sociolinguistic awareness in Education. 

In July 2024 the UEU (Udako Euskal Unibertsitatea - Basque Summer University) held the course ‘Sociolinguistic Education: sharing experiences for the future’ in Eibar. Based on that conference, the theme of the last issue of the journal was proposed. Among others, Chair member Ane Ortega also participated in the courses, and she is the author of the introduction to this issue.

REDS (Spanish Network for Sustainable Development) published a call last spring for information on inspiring projects linking culture and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Among the projects submitted, they have selected 10 to be published in a report. The rest have been collected in a digital repository and, among others, proposed by the Chair, they have added information on the Goal 18 for Linguistic and Cultural Diversity. In the following link you can see the rest of the initiatives.

The Ibero-American Institute of Indigenous Languages (IIALI) has published an atlas of indigenous languages in danger of extinction.

In this atlas, data on the indigenous languages of Latin America and the Caribbean have been updated. Of the 556 languages in the region, 38% are reported to be endangered. Compared to 2009 data, this percentage has risen by 18 points. The atlas aims to encourage governments and indigenous associations to take decisions on the future of languages, which hold so much knowledge about indigenous peoples. 

Faced with the critical situation of indigenous languages in Latin America and the Caribbean, IIALI has launched a proposal to create laboratories to work on their revitalisation. 

Click on the following link to read the full document.

Cornish (Kernowek in Cornish) is the language of Cornwall. Although it was considered by Unesco to have disappeared from the World Atlas of Languages a few decades ago, it has been making a comeback in recent years. One of the reasons for its success is the commitment of celebrities such as the singer Gwenno and the comedian Kornow King to the use of the language. Thanks to this momentum, young people in the area have started to show interest in the language. In addition, the Memrise app also offers the opportunity to learn the language.

On the other hand, they have launched the ‘Go Cornish’ programme, whereby a number of sessions are held in schools to teach Cornish. The programme is proving to be very successful, and several primary schools have joined the initiative.

According to Cornwall Council, between 2,000 and 5,000 Cornish people are able to speak a basic level of Cornish.

Source: Language magazine

The Yuchi indigenous people have no federal recognition in the United States. Despite the fact that the language has been disappearing over the past decades, the members of the community have just opened a Yuchi language immersion school. From now on, children will have the opportunity to learn, play and interact in the indigenous language. The school currently has more than 20 students. 

Reed the report here.

Source: Naiz.

Carolina Gandulfo, an Argentinean doctor and Guarani researcher, tells of her experience in a school during a literacy pilot project. 

She was working in a school in the province of Corrientes when she noticed that several pupils were speaking Guarani among themselves when the teachers did not listen to them. Based on this situation, the school has started to change its language policy little by little.

The whole interview is available here.

Source: Argia.

Issue 129 of the sociolinguistic journal Bat focuses on experiences in the revitalisation of indigenous languages. In the articles created in collaboration with the Garabide association, they have explored the processes of linguistic revitalisation carried out by indigenous communities.

More information in this link.

On 21 February, International Mother Language Day, the UNESCO Chair of World Language Heritage and the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals made an official presentation of the animations created jointly. The presentation was at 12:30 in the University Pavilion of the Alava Campus, as part of the Spring Welcome Days.

The product presented was a series of five animations based on folk tales from around the world, in both Catalan and Basque. The animations are available from 21 February on the Chair's website.

Yesterday, September 3rd, linguist Carme Junyent passed away. She was a tireless activist for linguistic plurality and Catalan.

In addition to researching on the world's languages and linguistic diversity, he was director of the Threatened Languages Study Group (GELA) and was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi in 2019.

In 2017 the UNESCO Chair of World Linguistic Heritage of the UPV/EHU (MHOUK) named Carme Junyent Honorary Member, as this Chair owes her a great deal for her work in the knowledge of linguistic diversity and the problems and challenges of minority languages in general.

As we can see from this news item, almost half of the Maori population has some ability to speak Maori. Although the figures are not as positive among the adult population, one third can understand the language. 

The news item also shows the data broken down by age, and notes that the age groups in which Maori te reo is most widely used are 15-22 year olds and the over 55s.

More information on Maori can be found at this Wikipedia link.