Me, You and Cultural Heritage

On Saturday the 17th of March, the ‘Huis van de Groninger Cultuur’ the ‘RHC Groninger Archieven’ and the ‘Bureau Groninger Taal en Cultuur’ (RUG) (amongst others), organised ‘de Dag van de Grunneger Toal’ (the day of the Groninger language). The special celebration of this minority language was hosted inside the building(s) of the Groninger archives. When entering the building you were met with an introduction committee with stickers, leaflets and bags of the day on the right, and a stage on the left. During the day a variety of Groninger artists would make their way to that stage to perform their Groninger music, varying from lighthearted melodic songs to more energetic and powerful ones. In addition to that, there were presentations and workshops on a wide range of topics such as the Groninger language, literature and the future of Gronings, given by Goffe Jensma, Jan Glas, Louis Stiller and more. It was also possible to stroll around the fair of books, CDs and films. As second (...

The use of visual bilingualism through the autochthonous linguistics naming of places in the province of Frisia. It is a well-known sight for everyone who has ever travelled through the province of Frisia: the ravel of place name signs. Some of the villages in the province of Frisia are indicated in Dutch, others in Frisian, others in both Dutch and Frisian and hamlets are almost always indicated in only Frisian, even if the place names in the hamlet are formally indicated in only Dutch. If the town is officially indicated in Dutch but the place names also are indicated in Frisian, the Dutch name will be above the Frisian name on the sign. If the town if officially indicated in Frisian, then the Frisian name will be above the Dutch name. To make it all even more confusing, different villages use different spellings of Frisian, depending on the area they are in, and therefore there is a big variety in Frisian place name signs.¹ Bilingual signs are not only used by the Frisian minori...