EuroDigitalLang
@EuroDigitalLang
Followers
2,874
Following
739
Media
595
Statuses
2,213
Rotating account where a different European regional/minority language activists shares w/language revitalization & tech. This week: @EuroDigitalLang
Europe
Joined December 2020
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
Messi
• 480999 Tweets
JUMP
• 185381 Tweets
Tuchel
• 133973 Tweets
カレンダー
• 48322 Tweets
शरद पूर्णिमा
• 39310 Tweets
#WorldFoodDay
• 37408 Tweets
金木犀の香り
• 36136 Tweets
バーニス
• 34869 Tweets
The Next Prince Q10
• 29609 Tweets
期日前投票
• 26380 Tweets
#deprem
• 21901 Tweets
El Supremo
• 21180 Tweets
Mr Wang
• 19059 Tweets
#malatya
• 16486 Tweets
メカジンベエザメ
• 14995 Tweets
Fiscal General del Estado
• 11887 Tweets
उमर अब्दुल्ला
• 10258 Tweets
My language is Udmurt. It is an Indigenous language of the Russian Federation and the official regional level of Udmurt Republic, a national autonomy within the Russian Federation. Udmurts are Uralic people, they share the common origin with other Uralic nations like Finns,
63
549
4K
Estonians, Hungarians and ethnic groups like Mari, Moksha, Erzya, Komi, Nenets, Saami, Karelians and other peoples. There are approx 25 ethnic groups scattered in the vast area from Sayan mountains in the Eastern Siberia to Norway in the north and Hungary in the south.
3
86
979
The Uralic family is divided into 2 major branches: Finno-Ugric and Samoyed. FU has Finno-Permic and Ugric branches. Udmurt is a Finno-Permic language. Its closest kin is Komi with its local idioms. The languages are very close to each other in vocabulary and share similar morpho
4
68
835
The journey through the vast and colourful world of the Uralic peoples was filmed by the great Estonian, first president of the regained Estonian independence, Lennart Meri.
6
59
721
inventory of cases: e.g., Udmurt has 15 cases, while Hungarian - 28, but it's easy and very logical.
sentences tend to have SOV order. So, Udmurt grammar likens the Japanese one with this feature.
20
27
590
*⃣ LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT 🧵*⃣
🔸 Languages do not "die" or magically disappear.
🔹 All languages change over time, but language shift & loss is not "natural".
🔸Gàidhlig & its speakers have been subjected to discriminatory legislation, destructive policies, & classroom violence.
3
270
574
Three key morphological features of Uralic languages are:
agglutination - i.e. words build phrases as a LEGO, word doesn't change, but the added suffixes show everything what is needed - number, tense, aspect.
big number of grammatical cases: Uralic languages usually have a huge
2
27
563
Sooo, let's begin! (1/6)
Basque is spoken in the north of the Iberian Peninsula and the southwest of the Hexagone, in both sides of the Pyrenees.
Basque Country (Euskal Herria, Pays Basque, País Vasco...) consists of 3 separate administrative entities and 7 total territories 👇
8
160
524
This graph shows the growth in the number of tweets in Irish per month over the last 10 years. We were down a bit in 2021, but overall there's more Irish being written today than at any other time in the history of the language!
4
68
303
I wanted to share some thoughts today on the Irish Wikipedia (Vicipéid na Gaeilge): There are some really exciting things happening that most Irish speakers are unaware of!
7
58
215
Some traditional placenames, officially replaced by names in Spanish, are being recovered and visibilized
2
13
166
From previous threads you saw
1 N° of Breton speakers is declining (5% of speakers are under 40)
2 Centralisation + monolingual state ideology = lack of revitalisation policy
Breton is barely institutionalised and is therefore dependent on vibrant language activism
Thread⤵️
1
69
145
More and more local and international businesses and companies are using Asturian in their advertising.
#asturianu
1
24
139
What is Romance Lothringian ? What are the Lothringian languages ? What's the difference between Romance Lothringian and Lothringerdeitsch ?
Let's answer all these questions together !
[🧵]
4
28
134
I work with a group of volunteer translators (
@riomhacadamh
) to translate software, websites, apps, etc. into Irish, with the aim of establishing a fully-immersive experience in the language online
3
20
131
*⃣ LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION AND MULTILINGUALISM 🧵*⃣
❌Language revitalization is not a "zero-sum game".
❌A language "gain" is not another language's "loss".
✅Alba (Scotland) has always been a multilingual country.
⚠️Imperialism, colonialism, capitalism 🟰 language inequities.
1
38
127
After one week tweeting about the process of revitalization of the Basque language, I'd like to finish doing a list of 50+ steps or milestones in our success story.
As some authors said (e.g. Erize and Sallabank), we should focus more showing revitalization is possible too ✌️🗒️
3
49
113
#Sardinian
is a *non-uniform* continuum of dialects.
#Dialectometry
says the dialects are clustered into two sets that we call
#macrovarieties
: the southern
#Campidanese
and the northern
#LogudoreseNugorese
. Let's look at their features.
📚📸 Goebl & Hajek
3
25
106
I'm interested in “linguistic landscape” — the idea that street signs, ads, shop signs, etc. help establish a community as Irish- (or Welsh-, or Breton-, or...) speaking. I believe the same is true in online spaces!
5
7
106
Some things about me:
I am 30 years old and I was born in Lleida, Catalonia. I am a native Catalan speaker.
How did I get to know Occitan? It was one of the subjects in my degree in Catalan Language and Literature. I chose it, it FASCINATED me, and I decided to specialise in it.
4
14
99
😃Here we go for Breton language week!
Good to know before we start:
Brittany has 2 minority languages:
Breton (Celtic) is traditionally spoken in the west
Gallo (Romance) is spoken in the east.
12% of western Brittany (5% of Brittany) speaks Breton (200K speakers)
⤵️
1
30
99
Let's look at Udmurt language's use in critical domains.
1. EDUCATION
3
17
92
Aragonese is currently fragmented into several closely related local varieties (grouped in 2, 3 or 4 dialects according to different authors). The most common formal name for the language, as it is locally, historically and internationally known, is aragonés (Aragonese).
2
11
89
We're getting ready to launch this new rotating Twitter account (
@EuroDigitalLang
) in mid-April 2022. If you are working with your regional or minority European language & tech/digital media/internet, we'd love to hear from you about hosting this account for a week. Let us know!
6
43
81
All languages are variants, evolutions or agglomerations of those around them. No language exists in isolation if its geography doesn't naturally isolate its speakers. (1/12)
2
36
82
👋Salud d’an holl re o heuliañ
@EuroDigitalLang
!
Hi all, I'm Talwyn
@talbzh
, a Breton language speaker from Brittany (in the far west of France), and I'll be taking over the account for the next few days 😀
This week, I want to discuss with you the Breton language context!
⤵️
1
17
82
An important milestone for Aragonese visibility occurred in 2019, when Aragon's public television (
@aragontv
) broadcasted, for the first time, a TV show entirely in Aragonese.
Its name was "Charrín Charrán"
@CharrinCharran
and it was conducted by
@silviacebolla
⬇️
2
14
82
Goeie allegear! A short thread about the Frisian language today. Fryslân is a province situated in the north of the Netherlands
#Frysk
#Frisian
@Afuk_
@Afuk_English
2
21
81
(3/6)
Some find our history very interesting, but I'd rather focus on our present and future.
As Koldo Mitxelena (a real OG in Basque linguistics) said: "Euskararen misterioa ez da jatorria, iraupena baizik". Our mistery is not our origin, but our survival.
We're still here!
2
16
82
Historically French was the only official language in Jersey; English became an official language in 1900;
#J
èrriais became an official language in Jersey in 2019. All 3 official languages are represented on our banknotes
2
15
80
Hi! I'm
@silviacebolla
I'm the presenter of the TV program
@CharrinCharran
in Aragonese language on the regional TV
@aragontv
I'm from Zaragoza and one of my me passions is to divulge the Aragonese language. This week I will be with you sharing information.
1
20
80
Why is it crucial for language revitalisation projects to bridge the digital divide ?
[🧵] A short story and thread on an aspect of language revitalisation that often isn't given enough thought, from a Lothringian perspective.
1
27
76
A first question some of you might be asking is : what is Lothringia ? Where is it ?
So let's start with that, before diving into its languages tomorrow !
[🧵]
3
12
72
The first project I worked on for Irish was a spellchecker (first version was released in the year 2000). I didn't know much about language technology back then, but I had the good idea to take a data-driven approach, and I began crawling the web for every Irish text I could find
1
7
73
Occitania is the name given to the countries that speak
#Occitan
. The language is also known as ‘lenga d’òc’ (as first used by Dante Alighieri), ÒC meaning ‘yes’ (Latin ‘hoc’) in the midi area as opposed to the ‘langues d’oïl’ (Latin ‘hoc ille’) in the North of France; [more👇]
2
16
71
*⃣ LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION CHALLENGES 🧵*⃣
🔸Language attitudes & ideologies go deep.
🔹Destructive policies, discriminatory laws, and violence affect the way we think about, "value", & "use" languages.
🔸Addressing internalized trauma & deficit ideologies is not a "quick-fix".
2
32
72
Halò! 👋
My name is Paul Meighan-Chiblow. I'm a Scottish Gael, critical sociolinguist, and PhD candidate at McGill University. Find me
@PaulJMeighan
.
I'm excited to host
@EuroDigitalLang
this week!
I'll be talking about Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic) ❤️
Deiseil? (Ready?) 😊
3
12
70
*⃣GÀIDHLIG, DÙTHCHAS, & CLIMATE CRISIS🧵*⃣
❤️The Outer Hebrides are heartlands of the now endangered Gàidhlig.
⚠️Uibhist is ⬆️ vulnerable to sea level rise.
🚨Gàidhlig, unique Machair coastal habitat, & ecosystems all threatened.
⚠️Indigenous languages vital to address threats.
1
22
67
1794: The Abbe Henri Grégoire proposes the "Rapport sur la nécessité et les moyens d'anéantir les patois et d'universaliser la langue française" in France.
All other languages are degraded to status of patois. This is the dominant ideology today, this is the elephant in the room
0
29
61
Where is Occitan spoken? 4 countries:
the vast majority of the territory is in the South of France, the Midi area. Occitan is also spoken in Aran Valley in Catalonia, Spain; in the Occitan valleys in Piedmont, Italy (14 mountain valleys + some villages in Liguria); and in Monaco
1
13
66
Udmurts have a population of 552 299 people, according to the 2010 census. Udmurts live in Udmurt Republic and in neighboring regions of Tatarstan, Bashkortstan, Perm kray, Kirov oblast, Mari El and Sverdlovsk oblast in compact groups.
1
11
64
Almost every municipality in
#Sardinia
has a
#SardinianLanguageDesk
. Often, these are serviced by young but skilled language experts who have to cover multiple municipalities on their (sadly) low-pay contract jobs. These officers translate municipal meetings into Sardinian...
1
12
61
I like this map because it gives you a notion of what countries and
#languages
are
#neighbours
of
#Occitania
: Spain, with Catalan, Spanish & Euskera in the South; the Oïl languages of France in the North; Arpitan/Francoprovençal in the North-East; and Italy & its languages, East
9
18
58
👋 In the previous thread we saw that the Breton language was exponentially declining
Today’s thread will discuss the historical context
By looking at the history, you'll hopefully better understand why revitalisation is difficult in Brittany and France
😃Here we go for Breton language week!
Good to know before we start:
Brittany has 2 minority languages:
Breton (Celtic) is traditionally spoken in the west
Gallo (Romance) is spoken in the east.
12% of western Brittany (5% of Brittany) speaks Breton (200K speakers)
⤵️
1
30
99
1
24
53
*⃣ LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION IS MORE THAN WORDS 🧵*⃣
🔸Language revitalization is not just about learning isolated words or phrases.
🔹 Root causes of language oppression and endangerment must be addressed, such as discriminatory policies, land dispossession, destructive policies.
1
22
60
Aragonese language Wikipedia (a.k.a.
@biquipedia
, ) was created in 2004. The first article was "Antares" created on 2/8/2004. Now it has 45,968 articles, representing the largest text corpus for Aragonese, and one of the largest editions per # of speakers.
1
13
60
The tulum (or guda in Laz) is a musical instrument, a form of bagpipe from the Laz region of Turkey. It is droneless with two parallel chanters.
4
2
57
First, there is now an active community of editors with excellent Irish who are creating new content and translating articles from other languages (
@TGcoa
,
@panuhoglund
,
@o_gribin
, and many others). Things are in a much better state than 5-10 years ago.
2
1
56
A few people have asked me about contributing to the Irish Wikipedia but don't feel like their Irish is up to it. That's fine! It's possible to make valuable contributions that don't necessarily involve writing or translating articles.
4
16
56
Occitan has 6 important
#dialects
:
#Gascon
(spoken in Gasconha and Val d'Aran),
#Lengadocian
(in Lengadòc),
#Lemosin
(in Lemosin) ,
#Auvernhat
(in Auvèrnha),
#Proven
çal (in Provença), and
#Vivaroalpenc
/Provençal alpin (in Vivarés, Delfinat and Valadas occitanas).
#Occitan
1
10
58
A special shoutout to Marcas Ó Duinn (
@amharcais
) who has spent the last several years creating a *breathtaking* number of new articles covering the ancient history and mythology of the Irish people... more than 2500 in all, and no signs of slowing:
1
5
55
(6/6)
Enough explanations for today, tho🙏Check out these videos to know more about the language...
and these ones to learn some words and phrases:
(
@hellabasque
)
(
@EuskaraSatorra
)
2
11
55
Hi ! My name is Cllare Adelheid Chevry, and I'll be hosting the
@EuroDigitalLang
account this week !
Each of my tweets here will be written in three versions : an English version, a Lothringian version, and a French version.
1
10
56
If you read the previous thread on the history of France's attitude towards Breton (and other languages) you now have a good grasp of why France is quite sceptical towards regional languages 👍
🤔But, how does this impact Breton language policies today?
A new thread 🧵⤵️
3
22
54
The Laz and Mingrelians (Tzans) are the descendants of the ancient Colchis Kingdom (1350 BC - 164 BC). Colchis is known as the "Land of Golden Fleece".
1
7
55
Фи махуэ ф1ыуэ (Good day)!
In today’s thread, I’d like to talk about the Eastern and Western dialects of Circassian language, its alphabet journey, and its endangerment status. 🧵
1
11
53
As the first host of the account from Russia, I am obliged to speak on behalf of different people from my country, especially indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities. We condemn the invasion of Ukraine and started a campaign of anti-war artworks in the indigenous languages of RF
4
8
54
Hi everyone! My name is Mariona Miret, I am a language revitaliser and a language activist.
I strive to make the Occitan language thrive♥️
I'll be hosting
@EuroDigitalLang
this week, until Sept. 20th. You can find me at
@lamarionamiret
.
So... what do you know about
#Occitan
? :)
3
13
52
🔸Land dispossession, such as forced eviction of Gàidheil (Gaels) from their homes and lands during the Highland Clearances in the mid-18th to -19th centuries.
🔹Destruction of centuries-old Gaelic clan-based society by British government forces after Battle of Culloden (1746).
1
8
53
At Quairìlhaons, we openly reject language standardisation, and will always be against any attempt at standardising our language.
Some of you may be asking : why is that ?
Let's talk about it !
[🧵]
2
7
54
(5/6)
Nowadays, Basque has around 700K speakers and things are improving in different ways (e.g. amount of speakers).
It is official in the Basque Autonomous Community, has varying recognition in Navarre and lacks any sort of overt legal support in the Northern Basque Country.
2
7
54
It's hard to overstate the importance of this work. Surely an Irish-speaking student in an Irish-medium school looking for information on ancient Irish language texts should not need to rely on the English Wikipedia!
1
1
54
I'm probably getting to far into the weeds now. I'll close the thread by encouraging everyone to consider contributing to your language's Wikipedia. I know the admins of the Celtic language Wikipedias are planning a joint “editathon” some time in the fall — stay tuned for that!
4
3
51
🗣 For almost 50 years the Asturian people have been demanding the official status of their language.
#oficialid
á
0
20
52
The Kingdom of LAZIKA/LAZICA (Latin: The land of the Laz) existed between AD 2 and AD 7. The Tzans were referred to as Laz and Mingrelians.
2
6
48
🔸Education Act (1872) made school attendance compulsory with zero (0%) provision for Gàidhlig. Education and English became synonymous.
🔹Living memory: classroom violence, such as the maide crochaidh (“hanging”/“punishment” stick) for speaking Gàidhlig.
We were talking about the 'maide-crochaidh' in college yesterday and I found this quote about it. One for anyone who thinks Gaelic 'died out naturally'.
6
39
80
1
9
50
Some examples:
🔸The Statutes of Iona (1609), forcing Highland clan chiefs to send their heirs to Lowland schools to speak English:
🔹Gàidhlig and its speakers being categorized and dismissed as "barbaric", "uncivilized" (e.g. excerpt ⬇️ John of Fordun).
1
13
50
The Glosas Emilianenses (glosses written at the margin of a Latin codex in the 11th century) are considered to be the first texts in Aragonese (or in a language sharing traits with Aragonese). Ironically, they were also considered for a long time as the first texts in Spanish.
4
13
50
(4/6)
As most of the languages all over the world, last centuries have been tough for us: low prestige, loss of sovereignty, wars, language repression by Spain and France, dictatorships, aggressive monolingual policies/legislation...
We're not unique in that sense, but anyway👇
2
7
50
🔸Multi-generational & psychological impacts of trauma associated with repression of Gàidhlig & Gaelic culture continue to today.
🔹Examples 🟰 language shift/“loss”, socioeconomic & sociopolitical inequities, & near destruction of intergenerational language transmission in Alba.
0
7
50
Udmurts are historically divided in 2 geographical and cultural subgroups: northern and southern. Northern Udmurts had more influence from Russians whilst southern U. were under the influence of Turkic peoples, especially Tatars, and their dialect and dress inherited the impact
0
7
48
Let's talk about family, shall we?👨👩👦👦👨👧👦🫂
#Occitan
is a
#Romance
language, in other words, it's one of the Latin or
#Neo
-Latin languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin.
Up in the classification, Romance languages come from the Italic branch in the Indo-European
#languagefamily
3
20
47
Kaixo!
Maybe I should've tweeted this the very first day, but I think it's important to share it with you🤭
Did you know that, apart from Basque, there are more
autochthonous languages in the Basque Country? If I tell you a number, will you be able to guess those languages? 4⃣
2
16
48
Aragonese entered officialy the educational system in 1997, but it is still an optional course. You can find an overview on the status and use of Aragonese language in education in the mid 2010s in this regional dossier:
3
6
48
*⃣ INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES AND LAND 🧵*⃣
🌍~75% of the world's ~7000 languages are Indigenous languages (ILs).
🌼ILs are inseparable from the local land, community, culture, & worldview.
✅ILs transmit highly specialized place-based knowledges about the local land & ecosystem.
1
16
47
During this week, I've been talking about Aragonese, a very endangered language, sharing facts, iniatives and projects, with emphasis on those I've been more involved in. I hope you found it interesting. Find me at
@JPMartinez_
to know more.
Muitas gracias per estar astí!
1
5
48
Numerous international landmark books have been translated into Asturian. 📚📚
0
11
46
I was dreaming of Udmurt being widely used in any sphere of modern life, including science, technology, politics, and hence became interested in the ways languages were creating new terms reflecting new reality.
1
7
46
*⃣LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION & RECLAMATION🧵*⃣
❌Languages do not exist in a vacuum.
✅Language revitalization AND reclamation stresses importance of two distinct, yet important processes.
✅Language reclamation goes beyond language revitalization to centre community-led practices.
1
13
45
Are you a speaker of a European regional or minoritized language? Are you willing to share five minutes of your time to share your perspective on media literacy? Please DM us and we’ll send you a link to a short survey. We appreciate your input.
1
57
43
🏴 ALBA and Gàidhlig 🏴
🔹Scotland is known as Alba in Gàidhlig.
🔸Gàidhlig is an Indigenous language in Alba.
🔹According to the 2011 Census, ▶️57,375◀️ people reported being able to speak Gàidhlig, only 1.1 % of the Scottish population aged over 3 years old.
2
13
43
Starting this week, we welcome
@lamarionamiret
to share about the Occitan language on
@EuroDigitalLang
0
12
44
Continuing with Aragonese in the media, I want to highlight the important role of several local magazines with Aragonese as the main vehicular language. It's the case of Bisas de lo Subordán or El Alcaugüet.
1
4
44
The same should be true for information on towns and villages in Ireland, especially those in the Gaeltacht. The Irish Wikipedia could serve as a rich storehouse of local tradition, history, stories, songs, etc.
1
2
43
(2/6)
Basque is an isolate language...
...meaning it doesn't have a related language in the world
and it is also a pre-Indoeuropean language...
... i.e. it was already spoken in prehistoric times, time before the arrival of the current day world-dominant Indoeuropean languages.
1
8
43
I’d like to start off my hosting week by sharing a bit of background information on the history of
#Circassians
and how they ended up in Turkey (a thread) 🧵
3
17
43
Умоесь! It's time to talk about my projects. In 2008, we established free Udmurt courses in Moscow, the Russian capital. Courses worked in different forms till May 2021. In total, 70 students went through the courses.
4
3
42
Starting tomorrow (April 20), Mirjam Vellinga from
@Afuk_English
will be managing this account to share her work with the
#Frisian
language. Check out this interview recently published on
@globalvoices
1
17
41
"Gallo? What's that language? I thought they spoke French in France!?!?"
Well, yes, we do... but not only. Let's be upfront:
#RegionalLanguages
of France are a divisive topic, a hot, political one.
1
4
38
"Why do you think your family didn't teach you
#Sardinian
?"
"I don't know!", for a moment she looks somewhat startled by the question, "I guess they didn't know how to. They speak Sardinian quite fluently with their own parents, but sometimes they can't understand each other..."
1
1
39
If anyone is curious about Jersey's constitutional situation as a self-governing small island nation, here's a diagram, which also schematically shows some geographical groupings
3
8
39
Fáilte romhaibh a chairde! Welcome to Irish language week on
@EuroDigitalLang
! Kevin Scannell (
@kscanne
) here — I'm a professor of Computer Science at
@SLU_Official
working on language technology, mostly for the Irish language. More about me here:
1
5
40
Aragonese language is a Romace language. It's mainly spoken in the north of Aragón. It has about 12.000 speakers. The origin of this language is in the VII and VIII centuries around the Pyrenees.
0
5
38
Myttin da! (Good morning), I'm
@kensabroadhurst
and this week I'll be posting info about
#Cornish
#Kernewek
my
#minoritylanguage
What would you like to know?
7
5
39
Although Aragonese remained almost hidden from written records from the 17th to the 19th centuries, there are exceptions, such as Ana Abarca de Bolea (1692-1685), who used Aragonese in some of her poetry works, and others: Matías Pradas, José Tafalla Negrete, Francisco Solana...
1
4
38
Laz soldiers with their traditional clothes on, at the beginning of 1900's.
0
5
40