Virtual exhibition about Latgalian and Nynorsk as a means of documenting lesser-used languages

The international seminar “Documentation of lesser-used languages for educational purposes” organized by the Latgalian cultural movement Volūda was held in Rēzekne, Latvia, on 1-4 May this year. The researchers and interested parties from Latvia, Germany, Poland and other European countries who presented reports on various issues related to language teaching, research, preservation and presentation, participated in the seminar.

Among them linguist and translator Snorre Karkkonen-Svensson told about the virtual exhibition created as part of the project “Exhibition on Latgalian and Nynorsk: cooperation and experience creating modern digital solutions” implemented by the Language Museum Association and how the museum can become a tool of empowerment for lesser-used languages. Analysing the new definition of a museum adopted in 2022, S. Karkkonen-Svensson evaluated the role of the museum in the context of empowerment and also pointed out the potentiality of the Language Museum as a platform for getting to know and represent lesser-used languages. The report also included the comparative study of Latgalian and Nynorsk and the concept of the exhibition held out during the implementation of the project in 2021 and 2022.

During the seminar, the researchers met with the journalists of the Latvian Radio 1 program Kolnasāta and shared their impressions and opinions about the lesser-used languages, including Latgalian. The discussions revealed that all lesser-used languages in Europe face almost the same problems, but the researchers also emphasize that the lesser-used languages are very valuable and enrich the range of European languages and culture in general. The main thing is to change the attitude towards languages so that people are not afraid or ashamed to speak their mother tongue daily. This is also the main reason for the development of the virtual exhibition “Linguapolis”: we want to encourage speakers of lesser-used languages and to show how much and in different ways they can stand up for their languages. The entire recording of the conversation is available in LSM website.

Context: In 2021, in cooperation with the Latgalian cultural movement Volūda and the Nynorsk kultursentrum (Norway) the Language Museum Association started to implement the project “Exhibition on Latgalian and Nynorsk: cooperation and experience creating modern digital solutions”, which will result in the virtual exhibition Linguapolis about the Latgalian and Nynorsk in 2023. The implementation of the project is financed by the Fund for Bilateral Relations of the EEA and Norway grants 2014-2021.

More about the project and involved organizations: Exhibition on Latgalian and Nynorsk: cooperation and experience creating modern digital solutions.