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Leeuwarden’s
Language lab
The programme plan
Leeuwarden Cultural Capital 2018
Dr. Nanna Haug Hilton – [email protected]
Prof. dr. Goffe Jensma – [email protected]
© Nanna Haug Hilton/Goffe Jensma
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Contents 1. Introduction: not a project but a programme ......................................................................... 3
2. Organisation and working methods ........................................................................................ 5
3. The First Layer of Programme Criteria: .................................................................................. 8
Awareness 7; Technology 7; Knowledge 8
4. The Second Layer of Project Criteria:...................................................................................... 9
LWD2018’s five E’s: Europe 9; Experience 10; Entrepreneurship 10; Empowerment 10;
Ecology 10
5. The third layer of project criteria: .......................................................................................... 10
Pragmatics and methods of Language Lab 10
6. Current State of Affairs (as of September 2014) ...................................................................... 11
6.1 Stimmen fan Fryslân 11;
6.2 Imagineering; Lân fan Talen; Museum of language in 2018; From content to pavilion
13; Project plan 13
6.3 Liet International ............................................................................................................ 13
6.4 Existing projects that can become part of Language Lab 14
Multilingual Melodies 14; SFBO 14; Cognitive Effects of Lifelong Bilingualism 14;
Thesis and internship projects MA Multilingualism 14
6.5 Project Ideas submitted to the Programme Management thus far 14
Latin Fountain 14; Rie fan de Fryske Beweging 14; Biblioteeksintrale Fryslân 14
7. Personnel ................................................................................................................................. 15
8. Finances and funding .............................................................................................................. 15
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Language Lab’s encompassing aim is to raise awareness
but also knowledge and technology, concerning language.
Its legacy to Europe will be transferable knowledge and
technology. Its legacy to Fryslân is a greater awareness of
the region’s multilingual character, awareness that in
turn replaces growing indifference towards language with
enthusiasm and positive appreciation of multilingualism.
This awareness strengthens the self-confidence of the
local Frisian communities who, by then, have redefined
their identity from a more European point of view.
1. Introduction: not a project but a programme
The Leeuwarden bid book (2013) presented Language Lab as the Leeuwarden Cultural Capital
(CC) 2018 flagship project which deals with language, and especially multilingualism, within
Frisian society. Language Lab was initiated by the Department of Frisian Language and Culture
at the University of Groningen, represented by the authors of this present document, Prof. dr.
Goffe Jensma and dr. Nanna Haug Hilton. It presented the programme as an umbrella for all
language-related projects.
Since Leeuwarden’s election as the 2018 European Capital of Culture in September 2013,
various projects on language and multilingualism have been initiated. Some of them have
already taken a firm shape (like the project ‘Fan ûnderen op’ by the Ried fan de Fryske
Beweging), whereas others are still in the first phase of development (for instance the
Latijnfontein-project by the Franeker Kunstroute). Some of the Frisian cultural institutes have
either written a report on their own plans (Fryske Akademy), or have sought external advice
(Tresoar/Afûk). The good will and energy shown should be appreciated as assets to the
programme as a whole. However, the great amount of projects and the often overlapping (and
therefore competing) aims of these initiatives might not help us to attain the eventual goal: the
positive appreciation of language and multilingualism in, as well as outside of, Fryslân. The
field of language and linguistics in our province is currently too disjointed to reach this target.
We therefore propose to have the Language Lab programme coordinated by the Centre
of Expertise on Multilingualism, an initiative by the University Campus Fryslân. We do so in
the belief that, as the umbrella language project per se, Language Lab should not be organised
from within one institution: it serves a supra-institutional agenda. The University Campus
Fryslân is the only non-institutional organisation in the province and is therefore the most
suitable for taking on this task, as a network organisation functioning directly under the
provincial government.
A more substantial argument for choosing the UCF as the coordinating organisation for
Language Lab is that UCF is specifically assigned by the Province of Fryslân to facilitate
academic education and research and to connect academic and non-academic partners.
Furthermore, the current Deputy of Culture, Jannewietske de Vries, assigned UCF’s Director-
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Professor Frans Zwarts to set up the Centre of Expertise for Multilingualism with the clear
intention of promoting collaboration between the various institutions working in the field of
language studies. The coordination of the Language Lab project will be the first common
endeavour hosted by the UCF/Centre of Expertise on Multilingualism.
In the UCF/Centre of Expertise on Multilingualism the Frisian Academy, the Mercator
European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning, the ‘lectoraat’
Multilingualism of NHL/Stenden University and the Department of Frisian Language and
Culture are collaborating. We propose to expand this collaboration, at least for the time of this
project, to personnel from other Frisian institutions like Afûk, Tresoar, Cedin and Omrop
Fryslân that could play an important role particularly in the valorisation of Language Lab.
Obviously, the Centre of Expertise on Multilingualism will host more projects than just this
one, but it is to be expected that the dynamics caused by the Cultural Capital-project might be
beneficial to the centre itself as to this form of much desired for supra-institutional innovative
collaboration.
Language Lab explicitly opts for a ‘work in progress’-method. Rather than working in a
top-down manner, the programme takes an open-minded and bottom-up approach with the
aim of changing community attitudes. To keep the community-based character intact
Language Lab will be open for project contributions from every individual and institution
especially in the Frisian speech community until 1 September 2016 or until funds run out. A
day-by-day-programme concerning language will be developed throughout 2016 and 2017, and
executed in 2018.
In this document we propose the supra-institutional structure and proposed project
management of Language Lab. To perform a bottom-up approach one requires a well-defined
set of criteria that projects must comply with to be admitted into the Language Lab. In this
document we present three different sets of criteria) that every Language Lab project must
abide by. We first give a short outline of the core Language Lab –specific criteria: Knowledge,
Technology and Awareness. Secondly, we show how the Language Lab programme complies
with the five generic CC-criteria, as formulated in the Leeuwarden Cultural Capital-project
form. These are followed by a set of practical criteria for eligible sub-projects that all candidate
sub-projects must meet to be considered for a place in the programme.
These various sets of criteria will not only be functional for admittance assessment of
submitted projects, but, more importantly, also to enrich the quality of the projects once they
are admitted. As such, Language Lab also wants to be an environment of learning and
innovation. Individuals and institutions with good projects will be challenged to take their
thinking and practices to a higher level, for example by linking them to international partners
or by scaling up local projects though the implementation of innovative technology. One of the
main tasks of the Language Lab management is the creation of the various participating
projects into a coherent program of community sourced surveying practices. In 2018 the result
will be a day-by-day program of which all the different elements are immediately recognised as
parts of ‘Language Lab’.
The financial incentive that Language Lab has to offer to participating parties is the
most important recipe for success. By doubling every euro that participants are willing to
invest, the program will attract and engage many language and linguistics-related players in
the cultural field. The intensive collaboration between cultural and academic institutions, on
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the one hand, and the community on the other, will contribute to the reinforcement of Frisian
multilingualism as well as to the process of cultural renewal that Cultural Capital aspires to
embody.
Following the criteria below is a description of the organisational structure and the
working method of the programme as well as of the existing projects in the Language Lab
programme. This last section includes the three large projects ‘Stimmen fan Fryslân’, ‘Lân fan
Talen’ and ‘Liet International’, but also a number of smaller scale projects. We give an outline
of project ideas that have been submitted to the programme coordinators thus far (as of 1
October 2014).
2. Organisation and working methods
Language Lab is a complicated programme: first and foremost because of its open character.
New projects will be included at least until 1 September 2016 and within the Language Lab
most of these projects will be enhanced (by linking them to other projects, to partners from
the cultural industry, to international partners, by digitally enriching them etc.). The large
amount and great variety of partners within the project makes it complex too. The programme
hosts large projects with an emphasis on valorisation like Lân fan Taal, alongside research-
driven projects like Stimmen fan Fryslân. The implementation of technology and the
partnership with innovative research institutes and corporate industry contribute just as much
to the value as to the complexity of the programme. In our view this intricacy has to be
counter-balanced by an efficient, highly expert, but small, management team. This team
should source advice from a large body of well organised expertise. In the organogram below
this is visualised.
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The three members of the programme management will be recruited from the main partners
within the project: Lân fan taal, Stimmen fan Fryslân and the UCF. The representative from the
UCF will also be the coordinator of the programme as a whole. The right side of the Figure
shows the tasks of this management team. The Advisory Board (regieraad) consists of experts
from the different fields of knowledge and practitioners that are covered in the program. They
are to be recruited, on a personal basis, from corporate businesses, the education sector
including universities and research institutes, the museal and touristic field, as well as from
within Frisian society.
In the figure entitled ‘Language Lab: Methods’ the dynamic process behind the
program is envisioned. On the three corners of the triangle, Mienskip/Community,
Exhibition/Exposure and Research are the main agents which will generate technology,
knowledge and, most importantly, (language) awareness and (cultural) confidence. Also the
expected input and output of technology and knowledge are displayed.
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The main task of the program management and the advisory board is to create and maintain
the coherence and consistency of the programme as a whole and to facilitate a day-by-day-
programme on language in 2018 in which at least 300.000 people will participate. The main
instrument to get this done is the implementation of the three sets of criteria which we discuss
in the next three paragraphs of this document.
To illustrate our working method we now sketch a scenario of an imaginary example: a project
aiming to promote Frisian language through its minority literature. The first step would be that
the project is provisionally admitted to the program. This admittance assessment is done by the
programme management, in consultation with a selection (relevant to the project) of advisory
board members. The criteria for this assessment are those elaborated under sections 3, 4 and 5
below. Before the project can be executed the programme management can, for instance, ask that
the project is given more of an international dimension by linking it to (networks of) other
minority literatures. Another improvement might concern the implementation of smart, digital,
web-based technologies which make it possible to translate literary texts to and from other
minority literatures. Such proposals for enrichment of the project are part of consultations
between the program management and (possibly) the advisory board, as well as participants
from other CC-projects. After the project has been enriched and definitively admitted to the
programme the programme management can offer up to 50% of the needed costs for the project.
In addition, the inclusion of the project guarantees continuous interaction within national end
international networks.
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3. The First Layer of Programme Criteria:
Awareness, knowledge, technology
The first set of criteria to go by concerns the contents of the programme of Language Lab as a
whole. As mentioned above, the main goal of the programme is to raise awareness of language
throughout the community in Fryslân. However, to attain this prime goal, the production of
new knowledge and technology are indispensable – obviously as instruments, but also as
valuable and transferable deliverables in their own right.
Awareness
In linguistics the concept of awareness is generally used to describe how a child becomes
aware of the fact that they are speaking a ‘language’, say Frisian (and not Dutch). In our project
we would like to extend this concept to apply to the whole of Frisian society. Awareness in our
project thus incorporates all conscious emotions and ideas concerning language and
multilingualism. Being conscious of one’s unique language situation will lead to a more
positive language attitude and a growing enthusiasm for language within Frisian society. The
prime goal of Language Lab is to raise this awareness on a massive scale, and to use it as a
building stone for a transformed Frisian speech community. Past community-driven projects
that have aimed to create such language awareness have been successful. The BBC Voices
project in the early 2000s, for example, raised the public’s awareness of the uniqueness of
regional languages in the UK. Anecdotal evidence indicates that the project helped raising the
status of local dialects throughout the British Isles.
In the Language Lab programme the project Lân fan Talen can prove to be an
important instrument to engage the Frisian and Leeuwarden speech communities and make
them aware of the uniqueness of their own multilingual society.
Technology
To engage as many people as possible in the process of raising awareness we need new
technology. The creation of technology that raises language awareness is done in close
collaboration with cutting-edge industries. These develop web applications, games, sensor
technologies, geographic information systems (GIS), and household appliances. However,
technology is not only an instrument to collect data, to engage people, and to create awareness
in the Language Lab programme - it is also a deliverable. Unless we make sure that the Frisian
language is ready for the digital age, it is almost certainly bound to die. The creation of
language technology and innovations that can help maintain the Frisian multilingual situation
are important outcomes that the Language Lab programme will foster.
An existing sub-project that will fit under the Language Lab umbrella is Multilingual
Melodies – a project that aims to test the feasibility of a sensor that recognizes Frisian speech
patterns. Practical applications of such a sensor can be in population statistics, marketing or in
the forensic sciences.
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Knowledge
Both science and society need a deeper understanding of how human language is acquired,
goes through changes, and works as a communication tool. We also need more information
specifically about multilingualism - how different languages coexist within an individual or
society, but also what multilingualism means to the identity that people and societies hold.
The knowledge we can build in the process of the Language Lab programme will entail greater
knowledge about Frisian, but also about processes of linguistic variation and change, in
general. The transferability of such knowledge to other multilingual minority societies will be a
core legacy of the project.
Within the planned project Stimmen fan Fryslân the aim is to map out detailed
linguistic knowledge to explore the many features of Frisian multilingual speech. Which
unique features does the Frisian language hold, and how can we use this knowledge to create
technology? Deliverables from this project will be linguistic knowledge that again can be used
for e.g. Frisian speech synthesis, automatic text translation, solutions for the hearing-impaired,
people with speech deficits, stroke patients, children who suffer from dyslexia, and children
who develop learning deficits because they speak another language than a school language.
4. The Second Layer of Project Criteria:
LWD2018’s five E’s
In this section we discuss a set of criteria which are more generic to the Leeuwarden Capital of
Culture 2018 event as a whole. These requirements are for the greater part directly derived
from the LWD2018 project form. In that particular document five concepts are introduced as
event-broad project criteria: (1) Europe, (2) Experience, (3) Entrepreneurship, (4)
Empowerment, and (5) Ecology. Because of the specific, linguistic, character of Language Lab,
not all of these criteria are equally applicable.
Through its many officially recognised languages and through its political will to
preserve the cultural and linguistic riches that multilingualism brings with it, language can be
considered Europe’s foremost cultural capital. Fryslân offers a fine reflection of this: The
province is officially bilingual but also hosts a great many migrant languages, as well as a
handful of spoken Frisian dialects. Language Lab seeks to give a believable impulse to the
Frisian community through its many sub-projects that display the challenges, solutions and
creativity that exist in a multilingual society. These will be recognisable on a European scale.
1. Europe
An international, European, approach is represented in all sub-projects belonging to Language
Lab (as described in section 4 below). Furthermore, the Language Lab programme will receive
support from the University Campus Fryslân-led project ‘Centre for Expertise on
Multilingualism’ as well as from the Bachelor and Master programmes in (Minorities and)
Multilingualism that host at least 20 international students every year in Leeuwarden.
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2. Experience
Projects in Language Lab will be exhibited both virtually and physically throughout the year of
2018. The project Lân fan Taal plays a particularly large role in this endeavour as the project
that aims to deliver exhibitions both of intermediate and final results that come out of the
different undertakings of the Language Lab programme.
3. Entrepreneurship
The Centre of Expertise of Multilingualism creates a link between linguistic research and
technology, in collaboration with the innovation platform Fryslân. Applications to come out of
a collaboration between linguistic researchers and technology industry are things such as
household appliances, aids for the hearing or speech impaired, or technology with sensor
systems. Language Lab partners in the technological sector can include INCAS3 in Assen, or
Philips in Drachten. Some of the Language Lab projects will also develop technological aids
(games, applications, web sites, etc.) to collect data concerning language. This further
contributes to the entrepreneurial character of the programme and its long-term legacy. The
type of linguistic research proposed in Language Lab automatically creates links between
digital technology and the (speech) community. The digital parts of the projects are expected
to have a real social effect.
4. Empowerment
By creating smart technologies we enable the whole of the speech community in Fryslân to
participate in what is the largest crowd-sourced language research ever held. The community
involvement will increase linguistic confidence and tackle the problem of growing indifference,
not only towards many of the languages themselves, but also towards the communities that
preserve them. In order to strengthen and repair the ties between the community and its
languages, and to promote cultural diversity, we plan to include a coherent set of research,
education, culture and participation actions. By digitally engaging all of these language
communities in Fryslân we bring forth knowledge and awareness of linguistic diversity.
5. Ecology
Language Lab does obviously contribute to the sustainability of the Frisian speech community
through its positive appreciation of the Frisian language and the community multilingualism.
5. The third layer of project criteria:
Pragmatics and methods of Language Lab
In order to come to a day-by-day Language Lab-program for the year 2018 several steps must
be taken. First we want to create a large inventory of potential projects. To really make the
programme carried by the whole of the Frisian community we want to invite as many
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candidate projects as possible. The method to do so is by word of mouth, by advertising on
relevant media platforms, and by inviting and letting in interesting partners from the
provincial Frisian, the national, and the international scene. This part of the process has
already started (for the first results see par. § 6 below) and will continue until September 1 of
2016.
Besides the more substantial and/or generic criteria described above, a set of more practical
criteria has been formulated to assess the quality, the potential and the aptness of such
projects for Language Lab at large. Projects in Language Lab should meet the following criteria:
Every project must deliver at least two of the three main content criteria: awareness,
knowledge or technology;
Every project must have at least one international partner;
Every project must seek collaboration with at least two other institutes within
Fryslân/the North of the Netherlands;
Every project must have formulated a protocol for the outreach activities to come out
of the project;
Every project will be rated on its artistic value. We strive towards artistic excellency.
From 2015 onwards international artists are continually involved. Their exhibition of
the programme results will keep the flywheel of awareness turning.
Therefore, one of the standard procedures that will be implemented in the further
development of Language Lab is the involvement of an artistic supervisor and the
cultural director. The project management makes efforts to add excellent artistic value
to every submitted project and with it to the program as a whole. The function of an
artistic approach here will be to invite and maybe to provoke the community to
participate in the project and share experiences and data within Language Lab.
Every project must offer at least 50% of the funding themselves - be it funding "in kind"
or in cash.
In case a candidate project does not comply with criteria 1-4 above, the language lab
management team may offer an (internationally based) assistant (MA-students) that will work
with the candidate to meet the criteria.
6. Current State of Affairs (as of September 2014) As of September 2014 three projects have been pin pointed as main projects in Language Lab.
These three are Stimmen fan Fryslân, Lân fan Talen and Liet. In addition to these three
developed project ideas, a large number of other project proposals exist that would enrich the
Language Lab programme as a whole. Below a description of these projects is given.
6.1 Stimmen fan Fryslân
One of the most successful community-driven projects concerning language conducted in the
last decades is the BBC Voices project. BBC Voices was a year-long project that featured radio
and television programmes about language as well as a web-application where people around
the UK could upload samples of their own speech. The project put the spotlight on regional
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language variation in the UK and was able to get hundreds of thousands of people to work
together in furthering our knowledge and appreciation of dialects. The scientific as well as
societal outcomes of the BBC Voices project are impressive, and Stimmen fan Fryslân was born
out of an idea not only to replicate such a project in Fryslân, but to improve it in such a way
that it can bring new knowledge, technology and awareness of language in the region.
The core of Stimmen fan Fryslân is a crowd-sourced language project in which people
throughout Fryslân can record themselves, and others, speaking whichever language they
wish. The recordings are used by scientists that are interested in the current state of affairs of
the languages spoken in the region, by industries that need language data to further
technological innovations (i.e. speech technology and cognitive sensor systems), by
broadcasting companies that are interested in language-related news items, by artists who are
inspired by the spoken word, and, most importantly, by the Frisian people themselves - who
will be able to compare their own language against that of others, and to gain information
about the peculiarities and treasures that lie within human language.
Stimmen fan Fryslân will be led by Nanna Haug Hilton and Goffe Jensma at the
University of Groningen. The project leaders will collaborate with other partners in the region
such as INCAS3, Omrop Fryslân, CEDIN and SFBO, to complete the project.
The project management of BBC Voices has indicated that they would like to
collaborate to make Stimmen fan Fryslân as successful as possible. A contact person within the
BBC, as well as the scientific director of the project, Dr. Clive Upton, are likely to be full project
advisors throughout the period up until 2019.
In addition, 12 international partners have agreed to collaborate in the project by acting
as external advisors. These are universities in Canada, the US, the UK, Denmark, Norway and
Spain.
6.2 Imagineering Lân fan Talen
Museum of language in 2018
Together with the province of Fryslân, Tresoar and Afûk plan to establish a museum of
language. They do so in relation to Leeuwarden Cultural Capital of Europe in 2018. Visitors of
this museum of language experience four dimensions of language. The concept is named ‘Lân
fan Talen’. Through four domains – described below – the complete phenomena of language
will be presented, in an interactive way. Lân fan Talen will not be a museum, aimed at
preserving and describing the history of language, but much more a stage, a platform through
which language is brought to life. The visitor or participant will experience what language
means to him or her. Visitors discover which role language plays in their identity. Next to this
Lân fan Talen becomes a stage for artistic events, educational activities, cultural events,
congresses and debates around language-related subjects. In short: an experience of living
language, focused on multilingualism.
The outlines of the project Lân fan Talen have been described by Sonax in the document:
‘Place of Awareness, ecosysteem en biotoop’. In this report it is clearly stated that Lân fan
Talen can become a place of meaning in 2018 that, uninterchangeable, belongs in Leeuwarden.
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Lân fan Talen can offer different spaces. Spaces that allow people to meet one another, spaces
encouraging people to be creative, spaces that make visitors experience language, spaces that
encourage people to be active with language, spaces that tell stories.
From content to pavilion
Which form suits a place like this, capable of adapting to the dynamics and flexibility which
comes with the activities around Leeuwarden Cultural Capital of Europe in 2018?
One of the possibilities might be to build a temporary pavilion housing an exposition and all
kinds of activities, combined with small catering facilities. A semi permanent, iconic building.
In a provocative environment which is very attractive to visit and enter. It should be
‘happening’, it is the center of the expedition through Lân fan Talen.
Project plan
To reify this idea it is important to move on from the plans that have been written up to now.
We will do so by reforming the previous plans into a visual, expressive project plan. Tinker
Imagineers – a creative consulting firm – helps us in this process. In this plan the principles of
the museum of language and those of Leeuwarden Culturale Capital will be combined. It
shows what the pavilion might look like and how the different domains and themes will be
shaped and placed in this pavilion. The four domains that form the core of the content are 1)
multilingualism, 2) the phenomena language, 3) the artistic expression of language and 4) the
Frisian language.
By means of already existing parameters Tinker Imagineers prepares an estimate of the costs
that can be expected in development, design, realisation, exploitation and the possible
dismantling of the pavilion. These parameters are based upon the experience of Tinker
Imagineers in expositions on semi permanent bases, supplemented with knowledge and
experience of suppliers and parties that execute such concepts. Next to this, a perspective will
be offered in achievable and realistic numbers of visitors, included – based upon this
perspective – the expected flow of visitors per hour and per day. Finally, a description is made
of the steps that need to be taken in the process of development, design, realisation and
exploitation of a pavilion, provided with a planning.
This project plan will be presented in the last week of October.
6.3 Liet International
Liet International is the third confirmed project that makes up the Language Lab programme.
The project consists of the organisation of the music competition Liet in Fryslân in 2018. The
aim of the project is to gather delegates from as many as 22 different European minorities for
this event.
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6.4 Existing projects that can become part of Language Lab
Multilingual Melodies
This project investigates intonation of Frisian and Dutch as spoken in Fryslân, and the findings
that come out of the project can be used towards developing tools and applications for Frisian
speakers world-wide. The project is currently conducted at the University of Groningen by
Amber Nota in collaboration with the sensor technology company INCAS3.
SFBO
Frisian toddlers often choose to speak Dutch even though their parents are Frisian speakers.
The SFBO aims to investigate why these choices are made by following children in Fryslân
throughout their language development, in collaboration with partners such as the University
of Groningen and a number of international partners.
Cognitive Effects of Lifelong Bilingualism
A smaller project takes place in Groningen where Tekabe Feleke measures the cognitive effects
of bilingualism in Frisian and Dutch. The project is particularly interested in the effects of
frequencies of use of the two languages on the cognitive effects of bilingualism later on in life.
Thesis and internship projects MA Multilingualism
Every spring a number of smaller research projects are conducted in the province of Fryslân
with the aim of furthering our knowledge about Frisian language or multilingualism. Some of
these projects can be eligible for inclusion in the Language Lab programme, such as projects
concerned with developing awareness or technology, in addition to the knowledge, about
language.
6.5 Project Ideas submitted to the Programme Management thus far
Latin Fountain
With the Franeker Kunstroute a plan came up to ask the responsible artist who is designing
the intended Franeker fountain (from the Eleven Fountains project) to include Latin in his
concept.
Rie fan de Fryske Beweging
The Rie fan de Fryske Beweging has come up with ‘Fan ûnderen op’, a project which aims to promote the use of good Frisian among the inhabitants of 4 Frisian villages.
Biblioteeksintrale Fryslân
Meetings have been held with representatives from the Bibliotheekservice Fryslân amongst others on involving Frysklab within the Stimmen fan Fryslân-project.