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SUMMARY:The Kvens and planning of a minority language - Eira Söderholm\, 
 University of Tromsø
DTSTART:20160504T161500Z
DTEND:20160504T180000Z
UID:TALK65903@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Hanna Danbolt Ajer
DESCRIPTION:Kvens have lived in northern Fennoscandia for more than a thou
 sand years. Their language belongs to the Uralic languages and closely res
 embles northern Finnish dialects and Meänkieli in Sweden.\n\nNowadays onl
 y people living in Norway are called Kvens\, and my paper will focus on th
 em.\n\nIn Norway\, the Kvens have been subjected to extensive assimilation
 \, their language was long forbidden\, and there are now few people who ha
 ve Kven as their mother tongue\, mostly elderly people.\n\nAfter 1980\, th
 e Norwegian politics against the Kvens changed. They now had the possibili
 ty of learning their language at school – at least in theory. But then t
 he question arose: What is the language of the Kvens? Is it a Finnish dial
 ect\, or is it a language in its own right? Both scientists and language u
 sers have had problems agreeing on the issue. However\, language planning 
 is underway\, and the Kven language now has its own normative grammar.\n\n
 In my paper\, I will handle the question of whether the language of the Kv
 ens is a language in its own right or not\, and what the criteria for that
  are. I will also describe the work on standardization of the language\, h
 ow it has been organized\, and which strategies have been used in the conc
 rete planning of Kven.\n\nEira Söderholm is Associate Professor of Finnis
 h and Kven at the University of Tromsø in Northern Norway\, and has publi
 shed extensively on these languages. A true pioneer in the teaching of the
  Kven language\, she has been an advocate for establishing more Kven cours
 es. She also undertook the impressive task of writing the first grammar of
  the language\, and has been central to the Kven language planning.
LOCATION:Faculty of English\, Room GR-04
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