Davyth Hicks, January 2000

The Seventh International Conference on Minority Languages was hosted by the government of Euskadi in Bilbao from the 1st to 3rd of December, its theme being ‘Reversing Language Shift’.  Held in the imposing new Euskalduna Conference Centre delegates were treated to several upbeat keynote speeches from an array of international experts.

One of the key talks came from the doyen of socio-linguistics - Joshua Fishman.  Unfortunately he was unable to deliver his lecture in person but was instead ably delivered by Richard Bourhuis, an expert from Quebec, who spoke later on measuring linguistic vitality.  Fishman re-iterated his Reversing Language Shift theory with an emphasis on the importance of teaching young adults in the minority language ie those who will soon be prospective parents.

Keynote speeches came from Professor Colin Williams of the University of Wales, Cardiff, who discussed language planning and revitalisation in Wales.  He outlined the need for professional language planners, for ‘language animateurs’ and emphasised the role of the Mentrau Iaith organisation.  He reinforced the idea of language as social capital and how Welsh increased the quality of life and turned around the concept of languages being subsidised to one where language planning and policies are an investment in ‘social capital’.  Remarkable results were delivered by OFERCAT (Pilar Lopez, Noemi Ubach and Albert Faba) who gave a fascinating and detailed survey of Catalan usage in Santa Coloma de Gramenet - a large town just outside Barcelona.   The project evaluated the presence of Catalan in Santa Coloma and detects areas where the language is deficient.  One conclusion was how this kind of work would be of tremendous use to all regional and minority languages.

Francois Grin (with Francois Vaillancourt) from the European Centre for Minority Issues provided an interesting use of economic models being applied to language planning and illustrated the cost effectiveness of language policies

Basque experts provided welcome news of the continuing growth of Euskara.  Also welcome news came from Lluis Jou of the Generalitat de Catalunya who concluded that the growth of Catalan had possibly been successful enough for it not to have to be included as a minority language anymore with some 94% of the Catalan population able to speak it.  He also mentioned how American films are being dubbed into Catalan.

Of the various superb posters presented several delegates agreed that the one from the Elhuyar organisation (delivered by Biki Belategi and Tere Barrenetxea), on Basque language management in private companies and microplanning, provided a stimulating contribution.  Not only did it illustrate remarkable results in increasing the use of Euskara in the private sector but also showed the way forward for minority languages that do not have language policies as progressive as those in Euskadi and Catlunya.  For example, within one company, among one of the targets was sign posting. In 1991 this was at a tokenistic 10% in Euskara but by 1998 it was at 100%.  Furthermore in 1991 65% of the workforce used Euskara yet by 1998 this had increased to 90%.  This poster showed that even after the minority language has been re-established in education and the public sector it still has some way to go to make inroads into the private sector.  However this can be achieved if a sufficient level of tailor-made micro-planning is provided and can result in great success (click here for Elhuyar’s website).

A rather more critical view came from Scotland where Dr. Wilson MacLeóid of Sabhal Mór Ostaig, Isle of Skye, fiercely criticised the lack of planning in the so-called Gaelic ‘Renaissance’.  He indicated that this lack of planning threatened the survival of the language.  Lack of infrastructure was one of the main culprits, an example being provision of some Gaelic medium primary education but a amazingly no provision of Gaelic medium secondary education, thus making it impossible to plan ahead even in the education sector.  Coupled with the former is the lack of political will to reverse the decline in Gaelic.  The conference was an outstanding success and very well attended.  This success was reflected in the decision to make the conference once every two years instead of four, the next one being held in Brittany.

Furthermore it illustrated all too clearly that the languages having success in Reversing Language Shift were those languages which could rely on political support (and mostly in regions which have achieved some measures of political autonomy).

Enquiries to obtain the Proceedings should contact: M. Meaurio