Perspektiv på revitalisering av minoritetsspråk

Södertörns högskola och Institutet för språk och folkminnen (Isof) bjuder tillsammans in till en konferens om perspektiv på revitalisering av minoritetsspråk. Språkrevitalisering är en allt mer angelägen fråga i vår tid såväl i Norden och Europa som i världen över.

Konferensen vill synliggöra både erfarenheter och forskning för att möjliggöra problematisering av revitalisering som begrepp, idé och praktik. Konferensens tre dagar har olika mål. Den första dagen ägnas åt presentationer av erfarenheter av aktuella projekt för revitalisering av de nationella minoritetsspråken. Den andra och tredje dagen fokuserar aktuell internationell forskning om språkrevitalisering.

Både Södertörns högskola och Isof har under 2022–2024 särskilda regeringsuppdrag om revitalisering av de nationella minoritetsspråken.

Konferensen delar ut ett antal stipendier för deltagande avsedda för studenter vid universitet och högskolor. Skicka ansökan till romskt.regeringsuppdrag@sh.se. När du fått bekräftelse på beviljat stipendium, kan du anmäla dig via formuläret.

Sista ansökningsdag: 20 augusti.

Leena Huss & Sari Pesonen

”Revitalisering i praktiken – samlad kunskap för den som vill återta sitt språk”

Språkgemenskapernas och individernas eget engagemang är avgörande för lyckad revitalisering. Arbetet inom språkgemenskaperna stärker enskildas förutsättningar att bruka och återta språken samtidigt som det uppmuntrar och inspirerar allt fler att engagera sig. Men det finns ett uppenbart behov av samlad kunskap om revitalisering, olika metoder att revitalisera ett språk och ”best practices” för att stödja engagemanget och det språkrevitaliserande arbetet inom språkgemenskaperna. I detta föredrag presenteras en ny publikation som diskuterar språkrevitalisering och dess olika former men också insatser som kan göras för att vända på språkbytesprocessen. Publikationen baserar sig dels på allmän kunskap, forskning och beprövad erfarenhet, dels på olika typer av revitaliseringsinsatser som genomförts och olika typer av metoder som använts i revitaliseringsarbete i Sverige och utomlands.

Carola Kleemann & Kristin Nicolaysen

“Kven Language Between Generations”

Within families of Kven descent, efforts are made to pass on the Kven language and other cultural heritage, along with connections to places and practices that represent a Kven past, present, and future for them. Language transmission between generations is often overshadowed by institutional language practices and strict ideals of strong language models. Within the framework of everyday life, where the majority language is very dominant, a more sustainable practice may be to consider the multilingual reality of the generations.

We have based this presentation on two short films from the video material "Isä and Aftenstjernen," which shows how isä, the grandfather Egil Sundelin, in various situations works to pass on his Kven mother tongue to his grandson, Iver Isak, or Iiveripoika. The film and language vitalisation project started when Iver Isak was four years old, and his grandfather was 72. Today, they are 11 and 79, respectively, and they are still in the midst of their story about the transmission of cultural heritage.

Filmmaker, and mother to Iver Isak, Kristin Nicolaysen, films and facilitates the meetings/episodes, where the relationship between the generations, the use of Kven words and concepts, and the different material conditions of the places become visible. The meetings between isä and his grandson provide insights into a type of encounters that are both sociocultural and sociomaterial. Based on analyses of the film recordings, language researcher Carola Kleemann examined how the Kven words and concepts are transmitted as a sustainable translingual pedagogy, anchored in Kven places and the practices of these places.
As the borders between researchers and participants are blurred, dialogues between the participants about the language project and the film recordings are a central part of the method and material. Our presentation is a narrative about language learning and cultural learning where the relationship between the generations and the place are central.

Gerd Carling

“Grammatical gender in Romani chib as part of a revitalization process”

Romani varieties have a system of two genders, masculine and feminine (Matras 2002). This is different from the system found in Old and Middle Indo-Aryan, which has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter (Masica 1991). The two-gender system (masculine – feminine) is something that Romani shares with some New Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, whereas other New Indo-Aryan languages, such as Gujerati, Konkani, and Marathi, have preserved the three-gender system of Old Indo-Aryan (masculine – feminine – neuter) (Carling 2019). However, an interesting aspect of Romani is that some varieties are mixed with their matrix varieties, forming so-called mixed or intertwined languages (Matras 2003). An example of a variety like this is Scandoromani, the indigenous Romani dialect spoken in Sweden and Norway (Carling, Lindell, and Ambrazaitis 2014). In this variety, the Romani two-gender system of masculine and feminine has adapted to the Swedish and Norwegian system of common and neuter, but in which dialects have preserved a three-gender system of masculine, feminine, and neuter. The lecture will start by looking at the evolution of gender, from Old and Middle Aryan via New Indo-Aryan and Romani to mixed varieties, with a specific focus on the vocabulary, demonstrating how words change and adapt their gender due to various causes. Focus of the lecture will be on aspects of how the gender system, involving the entire vocabulary, is of relevant to the revitalization process of Romani varieties. By changing the gender system, Romani varieties adapt to their matrix languages, a process that may play a role in the revitalization.

Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi

“Linguistic variation and language revitalization”

The purpose of this talk is to explore linguistic variation in the context of language revitalisation. Many endangered and minoritised languages are characterized by regional, intergenerational, situational, and free grammatical variation. They are often not fully standardised and may contain loanwords from a majority language or be subject to code-switching (e.g., Lainio & Wande, 2015; Paunonen, 2018). Furthermore, new speakers (for example, young people reclaiming and learning the language of their ancestors) use language differently from older generations (cf. Sallabank, 2018). Variation poses a challenge to language revitalisation: How do we approach variation when producing materials for language learning and revitalisation? What kind of language should grammars and textbooks contain? Should we perhaps allow or encourage variation in published documents and media? I will discuss these questions from a wider global and theoretical perspective, and illustrate different types of variation using Meänkieli, a minoritised Finno-Ugric language spoken in Sweden, as a case study.

Programmet uppdateras fortlöpande

Perspectives on the Revitalization of Minority Languages

Date: November 20–22, 2024
Location: Södertörn University, Lecture Hall MA 624
Organizers: Södertörn University and the Institute for Language and Folklore

Onsdag den 20 november (på svenska, tolkning till engelska)

Wednesday 20 November (in Swedish, English interpretation)

Metoder för språkrevitalisering, lokala initiativ och erfarenheter (Methods for language revitalization, local initiatives and experiences)

9:45–10:00 – Välkommen (Welcome) Martin Sundin, generaldirektör, Institutet för språk och folkminnen (Isof) & Harriet Kowalski, Avdelningschef för avdelningen för nationella minoriteter och svenskt teckenspråk, Isof.

10:00–11:00 – Keynote speakers: Leena Huss, Professor Emerita, Uppsala Universitet, & Sari Pesonen, revitaliseringsexpert, Isof, Revitalisering i praktiken – samlad kunskap för den som vill återta sitt språk (Revitalization in practice – combined knowledge for reclaiming one’s language)

11:00-11:15 – Fikapaus (Coffee break)

11:15-12.15 Presentationer av olika former av språkrevitalisering (Presentations of various forms of language revitalization)

• Revitalisering av jiddisch från år 2000 (Revitalization of Yiddish since 2000), Paula Grossman, Språkpedagog, lärare i svenska som andraspråk och jiddisch, läromedelsförfattare och producent
• Finska för unga på Kulturlabbet i Skövde (Finnish for young people at Kulturlabbet in Skövde), Anoo Niskanen, Skövde kommun

12:15-13:30 – Lunch

13:30-15.00 Presentationer av olika former av språkrevitalisering (Presentations of various forms of language revitalization)

• Språkkaféer och språkkurser – revitalisering av de samiska språken i praktiken (Language cafés and language courses – revitalization of the Sámi languages in practice), Sebastian Björkman, Sameföreningen i Stockholm
• 14.00-14.30 – Att främja finska genom skrivarstugor och skrivartävling (Promoting Finnish through writing workshops and a writing contest), Maarit Turtiainen, Sverigefinska kulturens vänner
• 14.30-15.00 – Att arbeta med meänkieli i verksamheten (Working with Meänkieli in theatre production), Mia Fors, Tornedalsteatern

15:00-15:30 – Fikapaus (Coffee break)

15:30-17:00 Presentationer av olika former av språkrevitalisering / Presentations of various forms of language revitalization

• Lära sig romani chib via podcast – Roma Language Learning Podcast (Learning Romani Chib through podcast – Roma Language Learning Podcast), Viktoria Redjepagic, Promoting youth inclusion
• Lärarperspektiv på revitalisering av nationella minoritetsspråk i den svenska skolan (A teacher’s perspective on the revitalization of national minority languages in the Swedish school system), Kaarina Krohn, modersmålslärare i finska, Trelleborgs och Ystads kommuner
• FILM Språkens pionjärer – Meänkieli. Intervju med systrarna Märta, Karin och Linnéa Nylund (FILM Language pioneers – Meänkieli. Interview with Sisters Märta, Karin and Linnéa Nylund), Charlotte Hyltén-Cavallius, Institutet för språk och folkminnen
• Avslutande kommentarer (Concluding remarks)

17.30 Mottagning (Reception)

Thursday 21 November (in English)

Current international research on language revitalization

08.45–09:00 – Welcome Address: Nils Ekedahl, Deputy Chancellor, Södertörn University and Anders J. Persson, Academic Leader, Södertörn University

9:00–10:00 – Keynote speakers: Carola Kleemann, Associate Professor, UiT Arctic University of Norway, Campus Alta, & Kristin Nicolaysen, Alta museum, Kven Language Between Generations

10:00–10:30 – Coffee break

10:30–12:00 – Children and Youth in focus

• Local pedagogy development for Sámi language revitalization. Hanna-Máret Outakoski, Umeå University (Will not be streamed)
• Indigenous and national minority languages in Norway and possible implications for youth mental health. Verena Schall, University of Stavanger & Soile Päivikki Hämäläinen, University of Tromsø
• Invisibility and revitalization of meänkieli: analyzing young tornedalians experiences of being a minority. Constanze Ackermann-Boström, Uppsala University, Pär Poromaa Isling, Umeå University, & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi, Uppsala University and University College London

12:00–13:30 – Lunch

13.30–14:30 – Keynote speaker: Gerd Carling, Professor, Goethe University, Frankfurt-am-Main, Grammatical gender in Romani chib as part of a revitalization process

14:30–15:00 – Coffee break

15:00–17:00 – Learning resources

• The Use and Revitalization of the Karelian Language in Finland. Lotta Jalava, Institute for the languages of Finland, & Outi Tánczos, University of Helsinki
• Conceptualizing learning resources in the context of the national minority language Finnish. Maarit Jaakkola, University of Gothenburg
• Romani publishing: patterns, accomplishments and (missed) opportunities in a Nordic context. Sofiya Zahova, University of Iceland
• Literary Translation and the ‘Revitalization’ of Yiddish. Matthew Johnson, Lund University

17.00–17:15 – Break

17.15–17.45

• FILM: Språkbevararen/The Language Preserver - Johan Dimitri Taikon, Charlotte Hyltén-Cavallius, Institute for Language and Folklore
• FILM: Personal Narratives of Young and Adult Roma, Domino Kai, Institute for Language and Folklore /Södertörn University

18:00 Dinner for presenters and keynote speakers

Friday 22 November

Current international research on language revitalization

9:00-10:00 – Keynote speaker: Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi, Uppsala University and University College London, Linguistic variation and language revitalisation

10:00–10:30 – Coffee break

10:30–12:30 – Challenges and possibilities in educational contexts

• Romani chib in Finland: Current Perspectives. Miranda Vuolasranta mother-tongue teacher
  
• A Dynamic Model for Romani Revitalisation. Anna Lovas & Márton A. Baló, HUN-REN Research Centre for Linguistics / Eötvös Loránd University
• Discourses on language revitalisation in curricula for Sami language education in Sweden and Norway. Paulette van der Voet, Ubmejen universitiähta/Umeå University
• Teacher and student perspectives on the revitalisation of Sephardic Spanish. Kent Fredholm, Karlstad University

12:30–13:30 – Lunch

13:30–14:30 – Discussants: Leena Huss, Professor Emerita, Uppsala University, & Gerd Carling, Professor and Director, Institute for Empirical Linguistics, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main

PDF Guide for incoming guests Pdf, 1.3 MB.

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