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EN
The Catalan language is a language of romance group, closely related to Occitan. It is the only official language in Andorra, but it shares the status of official with Spanish in the Spanish Autonomous Communities of Catalonia, Valencia and Balearic Islands. It is not recognized as official in the Autonomous Community of Aragon in Spain, the Northern Catalonia in France and the Italian city of Alguer. However it is partially used in the latter as it remains the traditional language of the territory of the Catalan Countries. Depending on the formal status and history the situation of the language differs in many aspects including education, the possibility to use in the public situations and the knowledge. The article deals briefly with these questions on the basis of official statistics as well as the research of the author of the article.
EN
Linguists who collaborate with communities of speakers of endangered languages emphasize that it is often very practical matters such as the availability of resources or the political conditions in which they conduct fieldwork that influence their work the most. This article shows that linguists acting for the sake of endangered languages in a totally different environment, i.e. at European schools with students and teachers who usually are not familiar with the topic of language endangerment, may face similar challenges. I report on the results of a public outreach project aimed at raising awareness of language endangerment among secondary school communities in four European countries, and focus on Poland in particular. Three parallels with linguistic fieldwork are drawn in this article which are to illustrate that similarly to language documentation and revitalization projects, in public outreach enterprises the goals and views of external linguists may be radically different from those of the non-linguist parties involved. Mundane as they may seem, issues such as teachers’ working conditions need to be understood and properly addressed by linguists who wish to effectively bring their message about endangered languages across to the general public.
EN
Increasingly, there have been proposals for grammar writers to take into account the realities and needs of the community in order to produce grammars that can serve the interests of the native speakers (e.g. Kadanya 2006, Rehg 2014). Obviously, a grammar of an endangered language should, among other things, lead to the maintenance and/or revitalization of the language. However, grammars that are comprehensive and clear (Noonan 2007, Payne 2014, Rice 2006), and yet focus on and meet the needs of the target community, are still rare. This paper provides a reflection, from a community linguist’s perspective, on how a community-based grammar could be conceived and written in the African context. It is based on an exploration of grammars written by native and non-native speakers, as well as on the feedback from native speakers. The paper points out some practical challenges involved (e.g. with data collection, and actual use of the grammars), and upholds that a grammar that is based on community mobilization, sensitization, and training requires a greater involvement and follow-up by the grammar writer, especially after publication.
EN
The aim of the article is to present the efforts made over the last hundred years to maintain the knowledge of the native tongue among Karaims in Poland and Lithuania. After World War I, the awareness of the importance of the vernacular language for the preservation of cultural heritage increased, but the knowledge of the Karaim has been systematically declining. In the last 30 years, attempts to revitalize the mother tongue have intensified. Nevertheless, with the rapidly declining Karaim populations in Poland and Lithuania, the level of language proficiency is dropping even faster. The North-Western dialect is the only one still spoken today. In recent years, field recordings are being made to preserve the sound of the Karaim, which is listed on the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. Currently, out of about 300 people living in Poland and Lithuania, only ten percent can speak their ancestors’ tongue.
EN
The main goal of the paper is to answer the questions whether Frisian can be referred to as an endangered language and if it managed to survive the constant influence of the surrounding larger cultures and languages. The first point to be analyzed is the geographic distribution of Frisian. The second issue to be considered is the historical and present cultural and social status of the Frisian language. The third matter to be analysed is the lexical variety of Frisian language and its complexity, which made its survival possible. The article takes the diachronic perspective and expounds upon all the mentioned factors and their role in the preservation of Frisian until today. The paper presents an analysis of Frisian along Fishman’s Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS), its extended and modified version offered by Lewis and Simons (EGIDS) and the UNESCO’s ‘Language Vitality and Endangerment framework’ (LVE) guidelines (2003).
EN
For endangered indigenous languages in Mexico, new forms of symbolic representation have been generated by linguistic landscapes. These forms involve the written use of these languages in public spaces, which in turn (re)incorporates the languages into traditional and new contexts. In addition, linguistic landscape production aids indigenous language literacy. Yet the notion of linguistic landscape seems limited to alphabetic writing and grammar standardization through the production of signage, outdoor advertising, and signs. Usually the social actors involved in linguistic landscape production, such as researchers, activists, and public officials, do not recognize the linguistic landscape as inseparable from the concepts of indigenous people. This article argues that the relationship between linguistic landscape and indigenous concepts cannot be mediated only through the linguistic landscape itself, but also through the interconnection of language and remembering as well as the retrieval of the endangered language through strategies of recalling experiences mediated through that particular language. These additional dimensions involving remembering and retrieval become what we refer to as the semiotic landscape. This landscape, including multimodal and multiliteracy methodologies (Kress, 2009), can be considered a channel of language revitalization, as it serves as a space for the interconnection between language and remembering. In this manner, the semiotic landscape allows written language (discourse) to interact with other discourses (visual images, spatial practices, and cultural dimensions), thereby aiding the emergence of indigenous self-representation and cultural values and hence working toward language revitalization. In particular, this pathway to language revitalization can be seen when considering the Ixcatec language in southern Mexico.
EN
The dilemmas of a gardener: discussing the arguments against language revitalisationThe article restates and comments on the most common arguments against language maintenance and revitalisation found in popular texts and discussion articles from academic journals. By grouping them and assessing their validity we may better see which objections must be faced and which are based on easily disproven misconceptions. The described counterarguments are divided into four groups and based on the ideas of linguistic natural selection, peaceful death of a language, reductionist approach to the language, and sociopolitical factors. Most of them seem to use overgeneralisations and fail to recognise the deeper causes behind language obsolescence. The most valid, depending on the individual situation, are the arguments based on socio-political reasons. Generalisations and essentialising discourse, however, are also found in the opinions of the proponents of language maintenance. The author claims that the truly universal arguments in favour of language maintenance are in fact only those based on the subjective convictions of the people involved, as all rational arguments can be undermined in certain contexts. Dylematy ogrodnika: dyskusja z argumentami przeciwko rewitalizacji językowejW artykule streszczone i skomentowane zostały najczęstsze argumenty przeciwko rewitalizacji języków zagrożonych obecne w mediach niespecjalistycznych i czasopismach naukowych. Usystematyzowanie i analiza tych opinii pozwala stwierdzić, które zastrzeżenia oparte są na błędnych założeniach i łatwe do zakwestionowania, a które należy traktować jako rzeczywiste wyzwanie. Kontrargumenty, podzielone na cztery główne grupy, opierają się na redukcjonistycznym stosunku do języka, koncepcjach językowego doboru naturalnego i spokojnej śmierci, oraz czynnikach społeczno-politycznych. Większość z nich posługuje się daleko idącą generalizacją i nie bierze pod uwagę głębszych przyczyn wymierania języków. Najbardziej zasadne w konkretnych sytuacjach okazują się zazwyczaj argumenty odwołujące się do kwestii społeczno-politycznych. Ponieważ łatwe do zanegowania tezy, bazujące na uproszczeniach i dyskursie esencjalistycznym, są obecne również w opiniach zwolenników rewitalizacji, jedynymi prawdziwie uniwersalnymi argumentami na rzecz lingwistyki zaangażowanej wydają się być argumenty idealistyczne, oparte na subiektywnych przekonaniach konkretnych osób.
EN
Lusatia from the inside – a society through the eyes of Sorbian teachers, artists and politicians. A short survey based on research conducted in Bautzen and the surrounding area in November 2011Lusatia is a region in the heart of Europe. The Sorbs – a West Slavic nation, people who have lived in Lusatia for more than 1000 years, is not one homogeneous nation, but is divided into Upper and Lower Sorbs, with two dissimilar languages, two religions and two mentalities. I decided to rediscover Lusatia and talk with the people who are Sorbs. A one month stay in Bautzen was possible thanks to financial and scientific support from the Sorbian Institute (Serbski institut / Sorbisches Institut). Examining the past and current situation of the people in Lower and Upper Lusatia, I focused on their language, history and culture. In my studies I did not want to show the external image of the Sorbs, I did not try to create it either. All I wanted was to find out from the Sorbs themselves from which ‘elements’ does their individual identity originate. I was also interested to discover if Sorbs, as the smallest Slavic nation without their own country, feel more connected to a Sorbian origin, or perhaps to German citizenship.
PL
Lower- and Upper-Sorbian of the protestant Upper Lusatia are extincting languages. Upper Sorbian in catholic Upper Lusatia is an endangered language. The Lusatians will eventually loose the fight for their national and linguistic survival because the majority of them care mainly for the material comfort and the national aims are of secondary importance. The author finds the Lusatians themselves responsible for the current linguistic situation in Lusatia.
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Na ratunek ginącym językom

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PL
Justyna Olko, koordynatorka dwóch dużych projektów badawczych związanych z ginącymi językami mniejszościowymi, opowiada o tym, w jaki sposób przeszła od badań archeologicznych nad kulturami prekolumbijskimi do pracy z dzisiejszymi potomkami Azteków i działań na rzecz ochrony ich języka, nahuatl. Rozmówczynie zastanawiają się nad problemami prowadzącymi do porzucania mniejszościowych języków i trudnościami wiążącymi się z rewitalizacją, zarówno na meksykańskim, jak i na polskim gruncie, jako że doświadczenia z Nowego Świata są tu zestawione z polskimi działaniami na rzecz języka wilamowskiego i łemkowskiego. W ten sposób wyłania się nowy model humanistyki, stawiającej sobie już nie tylko cele poznawcze, lecz nastawionej także na bezpośrednią współpracę ze społecznościami lokalnymi.
EN
Justyna Olko, a leader of two important projects that deal with endangered languages, relates the path that has led her from archeology of pre-Columbian cultures to direct collaboration with the descendants of the Aztecs and the preservation of their language, the Nahuatl. The interviewer and the interviewee discuss the reasons why minor languages are spoken less and less often and the difficulties of revitalization, both in Mexico and in Poland. The experiences in the New World are juxtaposed with the Polish actions in favor of the Vilamovian and the Lemkovian. As a consequence, a new paradigm of humanities emerges, one understood not only as a research, but also as a direct collaboration with local communities.
PL
Określenie dokładnej liczby języków rdzennych funkcjonujących obecnie w Ameryce Łacińskiej jest niezmiernie trudne. Jakakolwiek nie byłaby ich liczba i charakterystyka, nie ulega wątpliwości, że języki indiańskie stanowią cenne dziedzictwo prekolumbijskiej przeszłości i odzwierciedlają wielkie bogactwo kulturowe regionu. Celem artykułu jest zarysowanie problematyki języków indiańskich w Ameryce Łacińskiej w ujęciu społeczno-kulturowym. Punktem wyjścia jest przedstawienie w zarysie różnorodności języków rdzennych w regionie oraz ich rozmieszczenia geograficznego. Następnie pokrótce omówiono wybrane problemy związane zarówno z miejscem języka w kulturze każdej grupy, jak również z prawami kulturowymi ludności rdzennej.
EN
Determining the exact number of indigenous languages currently in use in Latin America is extremely difficult. Whatever their number and characteristics, there is no doubt that Indian languages constitute valuable pre-Columbian heritage of the past and reflect the great cultural diversity of the region. The purpose of this article is to outline the situation of Indian languages in Latin America from a socio-cultural perspective. The starting point is to present an overview of the diversity of indigenous languages in the region and their geographical distribution. Then the article briefly discusses selected issues associated with both the place of language in the culture of each group, as well as the cultural rights of indigenous peoples in Latin America.
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This paper introduces the reader to the results of the lexicographic project entitled Dictionary of the Vilamovicean Language, carried out by Alexander Andrason and Tymoteusz Król from 2008 to 2011. The project aimed at providing the Polish and international public with a trustful comprehensive description of the lexical potential of the Vilamovicean idiom in its contemporaneous state. The authors first explain the sources of the collected evidence as well as the methodology of the research that underlay the composition of the glossary. Next, the organization of entries is explained in detail. After that, an exemplary portion of the dictionary dedicated to words beginning with the letter z is presented.
PL
Artykuł przedstawia wyniki leksykograficznego projektu badawczego pt. Słownik języka wilamowskiego, prowadzonego przez Alexandra Andrasona i Tymoteusza Króla od roku 2008 do 2011. Projekt ów miał za zadanie opracowanie dogłębnego opisu współczesnego słownictwa języka wilamowskiego, który byłby dostępny zarówno dla czytelnika polskiego jak i angielskiego. Autorzy rozpoczynają swą pracę od wyjaśnienia zródeł zebranych słów, metodologicznych zasad badań nad słownikiem oraz sposobu jego organizcji, przestawiając następnie przykładowy fragment leksykonu, mianowicie część zawierającą słowa zaczynające się od litery Z.
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