"Mums of Looe"

….de la Western Morning News:

A campaign to make all signs at National Trust sites in Cornwall bilingual has received fresh backing.

The Kernow branch of the Celtic League has asked the trust to follow in the footsteps of Cornwall Council and English Heritage and display signs in both English and Cornish.

But the National Trust (NT) argues that the signs would have to be bigger to accommodate both languages, making them more unsightly and more expensive to manufacture.

Now a family group has backed the Celtic League's campaign, saying "the Cornish language is part of the history of Cornwall and should be preserved just like any other part of history".

The Mums of Looe group wrote to the League following an appeal for support from the branch to introduce a resolution at the NT's annual general assembly this year.

Mums of Looe founder Katrina Ring, highlighted in a letter to the group the benefits of learning an additional language while still at school. Children at a primary school in the East Cornwall town have recently started learning the language...

An Muileann gCearr

…de la Westmeath Examiner:

Irish language signs could be the key to improving tourism and business across the Mullingar area councillors agreed at a meeting of Mullingar Town Council.

It was Cllr. Pat Collins who raised the need to upgrade signage on Mullingar streets and housing estates, suggesting that outdated signs could be replaced with bi-lingual ones.

Signs which were erected nearly twenty years ago have greatly deteriorated he said, pointing out the Mullingar Business Park as one of the more obvious areas for an overhaul, which is much needed for business generation.

Some of the housing states have no signage what-so-ever, he added.

While Cllr. Collins said he knew finance was a main factor in considering such a facelift, he asked that money be found from somewhere:

"There might even be a few bob if we went down the bilingual route," said Cllr. Collins.

Cllrs. Ken Glynn, Mick Dollard and Aidan Davitt all agreed with Collin's motion, with Cllr. Glynn saying the Council owed it to the buisness community of Mullingar to have better signage...

Ai'ta!

…de Ouest-France:

Le collectif Ai'ta a mené une action au siège de Vannes Agglomération. pour que les promesses soient tenues.

11 h 15, samedi. Une poignée de bretonnants se sont donné rendez-vous au siège de Vannes agglomération. Revêtus de t-shirts orange, ces membres du collectif Ai'ta ont apposé des autocollants E Brezhoneg ! En breton ! sur les voitures et panneaux d'affichages qui jouxtent le bâtiment de la collectivité.

Le but de la manoeuvre : faire valoir leur revendication, visant à rendre bilingue les signalisations dépendant de l'agglomération vannetaise. « Ce sont les panneaux à vocation touristique, explique un membre du collectif. Notre action vise aussi le nouveau logo de Vannes agglomération, qui n'est qu'en français. Leur site internet non plus, n'est pas traduit ! Alors qu'une des compétences de l'agglomération est l'identité du territoire, on a l'impression que la langue bretonne n'a pas sa place. »...

“Cén Teanga?”

…de la Irish Independent:

A television series for parents who want to raise their children on the Irish language was launched yesterday.

It will be a four-part series created by Comhluadar Teoranta -- a support group for parents raising children through Irish -- and Dublin Community Television which will air the series to about 200,000 viewers in the next couple of weeks on Chorus/NTL channel 802.

'Cen Teanga?' will also be distributed in DVD-form to schools and libraries around the country, but won't be available to buy in shops.

"The idea behind it was to make a programme and show people the Irish-speaking community," said director Feargal O Cuilinn.

"There are interviews with families talking about their experiences raising their children through Irish in an Ireland where English is the first language," he said...

Siop y Morfa

…de la Rhyl Journal:

A Welsh-language bookshop which has been a fixture on Rhyl's high street for nearly 30 years has shut.

The closure of Siop y Morfa on Saturday marks the end of an era with owner Dafydd Timothy's family running businesses in Rhyl for four generations.

The decline of town centres, the rise of internet shopping and out of town developments along with tighter parking restrictions in Rhyl have been blamed.

Mr Timothy said: "It's very sad. It is the end of an era. I'm born and brought up on the High Street, the family has been in business in Rhyl for at least four generations...

Glaschu

...de la Evening Telegraph:

Scotland's biggest city is launching its "vision" to boost the use of Gaelic in the community.

The three-year action plan for Glasgow includes the opening of a second Gaelic school in the city.

Wider use of Gaelic on council signs and in relevant council communications including forms, press releases and letters is also planned.

Local authorities now have a statutory obligation to prepare a Gaelic Language Plan under the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005.

Glasgow City Councillor Aileen Colleran said: "We have a vision for Gaelic in our city and this plan sets it out.

"By 2020, the place of Gaelic will be obvious to all. We'll see it around us - in our buildings, on our streets and in our shops - we'll hear it in conversations, in our schools and in the media.

Our young people will be speaking it in Buchanan Street without feeling self conscious about it and people will recognise the language as Gaelic."...

DUP: “TUV Antaŭenigas la Irlandalingvon”

...de le Demokrata Unuecisma Partio:

DUP MP for East Londonderry Gregory Campbell has expressed his disgust at the inaction of the TUV’s sole representative on Limavady Borough Council Boyd Douglas.

At the 16th March 2010 council meeting a proposal was brought forward by the SDLP and Sinn Fein that the Roe Valley Cultural and Historical Centre should adopt a bi-lingual – English and Irish policy.

The DUP moved an amendment that any such change should be subject to a full Equality Impact Assessment and depending on the outcome of that assessment, full public consultation.

The vote on the DUP amendment was defeated 6-5 with the TUV refusing to back it. As a consequence of that vote a bi-lingual policy will be initiated at the centre without any equality assessment or public consultation...

Scoill Phurt le Moirrey kaj Bunscoill Ghaelgagh

…de isleofman.com:

Two primary schools on the Island are sharing the results of an external review with parents.

Scoill Phurt le Moirrey and Bunscoill Ghaelgagh, plus the Manx Language Unit, will share the comments of an external validation of their School Self Review and Evaluation (SSRE).

The process of SSRE is continuous and entails schools reviewing all aspects of their work and making judgments about what they are doing well and where they need to take action to secure improvement, explained Deputy Director of Education Stuart Dobson.

"This process supports schools in having a clear view of how to build on their current strengths to ensure they continue to offer the best possible learning opportunities to pupils," Mr Dobson said.

Sian Llyod

...de Wales Online:

Fascinated since childhood with its remoteness and Welsh heritage, Sian Lloyd had always dreamed of visiting Patagonia. Here, the presenter realises a lifelong ambition and finds waiting lists for Welsh schools and a people looking to the future of the language:

I have always had a sentimental attachment to Patagonia.

True, as a child attending Neath Welsh School and Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera, I had an awareness of the existence of a Welsh-speaking community in far-off South America, but it was nothing more than that....

Unuo Esperanto-Libro en Kimra

...de la BBC:

Harry Barron has published the first Esperanto text book in the Welsh language. In March 2010 he told us more about his labour of love.

Ever tried to learn a foreign language and got your head in a mess over conjugations, declensions and idioms?

Or even tried to learn Welsh but almost mutated working out those soft, nasal and aspirant mutations?

Gone abroad, spoke loudly and slowly at waiters and got just what you didn't ask for?

Frustrating, isn't it?

Well it was until now, at least for Welsh speakers! It has been demonstrated in various studies that learning Esperanto can improve your language learning abilities!

The first ever text book in Welsh designed to teach the international language Esperanto has just been published....

* Informoj pri la okazonta Esperanto Kongreso en Llandudno (14-17 Majo) estas havebla ĉi tie. La tagordo inkluzivas enkondukon la kimran lingvon.

Séamus de Blaca

...de Irish Central:

Séamus Blake's Míle Fáilte is New York City's only bi-lingual Irish Gaelic radio program, broadcast from his native Bronx across the tri-state region and across the world. An archive of his broadcast is available on-line--here.

.

His program is chock full of media from the world of Irish language music and literature, while connecting up the Gaeilgeoirí and their friends to what's the latest from Ireland's most interesting cultural movement--the re-popularization of our heritage's language.

I sat down with Séamus in Manhattan to learn about his life, his family from Clare and to pick his brain for better insight into the Irish language movement. I've broken the interview, which was four hours of enlightening conversation, into morsels that you can play and listen-in on yourself….

Yn y Ddinas

…de la Western Mail:

A Welsh indie rock band is hoping to become one of only a handful of acts to get a non-English language song into the UK top 40.

Welsh-language single Yn y Ddinas (In the City) by Masters in France went on sale on Monday and the band will discover tomorrow whether they have broken into the charts.

Only a select few have scored hits in the UK charts with non-English tracks.

Luciano Pavarotti’s classical aria Nessun Dorma (None Shall Sleep) made it to No 2 in 1990 and three years earlier Los Lobos topped the chart with La Bamba.

A Facebook page encouraging members to get Yn y Ddinas into the top 40 has almost 10,000 members...

Eastáit na Sí

...de la Irish Times:

Ghost Estates are a recent phenomenon. Housing developments lie empty throughout the country, thanks to the magical disappearing act of the Celtic Tiger. Being a recent Irish phenomenon, it has taken a little time for Irish language wordsmiths to come up with a translation.

“Eastáit na Si” or “Fairy Estates” is, of course, open to misinterpretation in today’s sexually-oriented parlance, but is an elegant Gaelicisation of this modern landmark feature and can be linked to the longstanding regard in which the Irish have held the “little people” or those from an “domhan eile”…

...My proposal is to designate a number of these estates as new Gaeltachtaí. There hasn’t been a new Gaeltacht, officially, since 1956, when the current boundaries for the Irish- speaking areas were set in legislation by Patrick Lindsay, the then Minister for the Gaeltacht.

There have been other attempts to establish Gaeltachtaí by dedicated communities in Cork and Belfast and these have had spectacular success with a significant benefit to society as a whole – though they haven’t received official recognition…

Jill Evans

…de la Western Telegraph:

The Welsh language takes another step to becoming an official language of the EU today (Thursday) with Welsh translation being used for the first time at the European Parliament.

Plaid MEP, Jill Evans will be speaking in Welsh, with translation, in a seminar on language policy.

The event, called Language diversity: A Challenge for Europe, is organised by the European Free Alliance Group in the European Parliament, of which Jill Evans MEP is President.

Mrs Evans believes that this historic step for the Welsh language could be a springboard for Welsh to be recognised as an official EU language...