Indigenous, Minority and Lesser-Used Languages

Lead Administration – Wales

The British-Irish Council area has a rich linguistic inheritance. All members are keen to reap the potential advantages of linguistic diversity by collaborating, sharing best practices, disseminating information and material and learning from each other’s experiences in a number of different areas.
Indigenous, Minority and Lesser-Used Languages became a work area of the British-Irish Council at the summit in Jersey in 2002.

Ministers met in Galway in October 2006 to discuss progress in three areas: language transmission within the family, adult education provision, and ICT for Indigenous, Minority and Lesser-Used Languages. Communiqué

Language transmission in the family is recognised as a vital building block in the process of maintaining a language. A workshop for practitioners working in the field of language transmission within the family was held in October 2006.

Work is continuing in this field to explore a number of areas: models of what works to support language transmission in the family; how models could be transferred to other language situations; and identify gaps in knowledge; and how BIC administrations could work together to fill those gaps.

Recent developments in ICT facilitate the use of minority languages and raise their status. A sub-group of experts to further advance work in this area has been established. A seminar for experts working in ICT and lesser-used languages will be held in Cardiff in November 2007.

A practitioners workshop was held in Cardiff in January 2008 to explore opportunities for cooperation between member administrations in the area of adult education.

Administration will focus on new areas as part of the current programme of work: planning and linguistic considerations and research; legislation; and data and language use surveys.

Indigenous, Minority and Lesser-Used Languages was the focus of the Fifth British-Irish Council Summit, held in Cardiff in November 2003. Communiqué

This page is also available in the following languages:

Cymraeg/The Welsh Language
Gaelg / The Manx Language
Gaidhlig / Gaelic in Scotland
An Ghaeilge/ The Irish Language
Guernesiais/Guernsey-French
Jèrriais / The Jersey Language
Ulstèr-Scotch / The Ulster Scots Language