Problems and Prospects for Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Carpathian Basin

               The Cultural Committee of the Hungarian National Commission for UNESCO, in cooperation with the Research Centre for Multilingualism of the Research Institute for Linguistics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the Hungarian representative of the British Council, is pleased to announce its conference: Problems and Prospects for Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Carpathian Basin – The situation of minority mother tongues in light of the Barcelona objectives (mother tongue +2 languages), which will be held on International Mother Language Day. Keynote presentations and roundtable discussions will mainly focus on the characteristics of socio-historical heritage as well as common and different features of minority language arrangements in the region. From a hitherto lesser-discussed perspective, these discussions intend to draw attention to the problems and possibilities of the maintenance and development of mother tongues of nationalities/minorities living in Hungary as well as the language of Hungarian communities living in minority regions of the Carpathian Basin, taking into account practices of other regions as well.

Supporting linguistic diversity and apparently beneficial legal instruments cannot automatically guarantee, even for the users of recognized minority languages, the maintenance of minority mother tongues in a new, expected multilingual setting. Participants of the event seek to answer the question what kind of problems and opportunities may occur in a minority situation due to the trilingual formula including the preservation of mother tongue, and what additional costs and efforts it takes for these language users in the domains of education, law enforcement, culture, science, religion and business. At the same time, we wish to make visible the international practice used in the areas concerned in light of an international research project called Language Rich Europe. The project, revealing the multilingual situation of 24 countries and regions of Europe in a consistent and comparable way, is just about to be completed.

The findings of the conference may contribute to the maintenance and development of non-official mother tongues (languages of national and ethnic minorities, regional languages​​, immigrant languages) which become increasingly endangered with the global expansion of English. Furthermore, the results may help to develop thoughtful language strategies as well as research and educational guidelines promoting intercultural dialogue and functional multilingualism in the Carpathian Basin.

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After the introductory presentations, the most important issues will be discussed in four panels. Each panel comprises two 15-minute keynote presentations followed by 30 minutes for remarks by the invited speakers and closed by a 15-minute discussion.

Panel 1 – Possibilities and limitations of language policy, language planning and strategies for multilingualism in the Carpathian Basin

Panel 2 – Mother tongue, multilingualism, minority education

Panel 3 – Minority mother tongues and cultures in the light of research

Panel 4 – Factors of maintenance and development of minority languages and cultures (identities, religion, media, business and economy)