MLIS Home Multilingual Information Society Language Industries Atlas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Downloading the ATLASOrder a hardcopy fromWord file, (217 Kbytes) Postscript (248 kbytes) Rich Text Format (197 kbytes)To order the Language Industries Atlas in hardcopy, please contact IOS Press Van Diemenstraat 94 1013 CN Amsterdam Netherlands ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Introduction Organisation of the Atlas Style Conventions Languages of the European Union Organisations Index by country ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Introduction This is the second edition of the Language Industries Atlas, the first edition of which was produced by Paul Hearn and Diane Button, of Ink-Belgium NV, in 1994. This second edition has been produced by Josephine Edwards and Geoffrey Kingscott of Praetorius Limited, a UK language consultancy company, for DG XIII of the European Commission. The work and experience of the producers of the first edition, which broke new ground in trying to map the various language activities of Europe and, to a lesser extent, the world, have been fully utilised in preparing this second edition, and the compilers are grateful to their predecessors for their pioneering work. Feedback received from users of the first edition has been taken into account, and the whole work restructured in an endeavour to make it more reader-friendly. The first edition was separated into numerous categories and sub-categories, which led to over- reliance on indexes to locate entries (there were over 80 pages of indexes). Most of the entries in this edition, therefore, have been put into a single directory, with ample cross-referencing. The aim of this issue is to identify the many activities which combine to make up the language industries. It is Euro-centred, in the sense that it tries to provide a comprehensive guide to organisations on the European scene, but some of the more important organisations outside Europe are also included for convenience. The Language Industries Atlas is not a guide to products and systems of language engineering, as this information is available in the Language Engineering Directory, which is also published with the assistance of DG XIII of the European Commission. Because information in the language industries area dates very quickly, every entry in this edition of the Language Industries Atlas has been completely revised from the first edition, and a completely fresh survey by questionnaire, facsimile and telephone has been carried out. Where no direct response has been obtained, recourse has been made to reference materials. The views of users of this Language Industries Atlas are eagerly sought, so that improvements can be incorporated in any future edition. Comments may be sent to either Mr Karsten Strørup, DG XIII/E, Commission of the European Communities, Bâtiment Jean Monnet, Plateau du Kirchberg, L-2920 Luxembourg, or to Josephine Edwards, Consultancy Projects Manager, Praetorius Limited, 128 Derby Road, Long Eaton, Nottingham, GB-NG10 4ER. Acknowledgements The compilers have benefited greatly from the patience and assistance of Mr Jan Roukens and Mr Karsten Strørup of DG XIII-E of the European Commission. We acknowledge also with gratitude the many people in the language industries organisations of Europe who have given freely of their time to provide advice and information. Josephine Edwards Geoffrey Kingscott December 1995 The compilers JOSEPHINE A. EDWARDS took a BA Honours degree in German language, literature and contemporary studies at the Oxford Brookes University, which included a year at the University of Tübingen in Germany, and then took an MA in Modern German Literature at the University of Nottingham. After a period of lecturing at Wilmorton College, Derby, and Broxtowe College, Nottingham, she joined Praetorius Limited in 1995 as Consultancy Projects Manager. A. GEOFFREY KINGSCOTT took a BA Honours degree in French at University College London and after a career of 20 years as a translator and translation administrator formed his present company, Praetorius Limited, in 1983. Praetorius's activities include language consultancy, publications and translation. Since 1983 he has been General Editor of Language Monthly and its successor publication Language International. He has spoken at numerous conferences on language topics. He is currently secretary of the European Translation Platform. ORGANISATION OF THE ATLAS Most of the information is now contained in a single General Directory where everything is listed in alphabetical order. The main entry for an organisation will usually be found under the name in its original language, but occasionally may appear under its acronym, or under its name in English, or under the name of a publication or project for which it is responsible. Each case has been judged on its merits, according to whatever is judged to be best-known. Where the organisation has responded to our request for information, the decision as to where the main entry appears is made by that organisation. In any case there will be cross- referencing in every appropriate instance. Domains of activity, such as Applied linguistics or Machine translation, are also included in the normal alphabetical sequence, and cross-referencing is provided to organisations active in those domains. While for convenience information is provided in separate sections on the Languages of the European Union and on the status of languages in the countries of Europe generally, information about individual languages and major dialects can be found in the appropriate alphabetical place in the General Directory. Abbreviations for languages The following are the international standard two-letter abbreviations for the languages of the world. Afar aa Afrikaans af Albanian sq Amharic am Arabic ar Aymara ay Azerbaijani az Bashkir ba Basque eu Bengali bn Breton br Bulgarian bg Catalan ca Chinese zh Croatian hr Czech cs Danish da Dogri dg Dutch nl English en Esperanto eo Finnish fi French fr Georgian ge German de Greek el Guarani gn Hebrew iw Hindi hi Hungarian hu Icelandic is Igbo ig Irish ga IsiNdebele ii Isixhosa ix Isizulu iz Italian it Japanese ja Karinia ka Kisiei ki Kiswahili kw Korean ko Latin la Lithuanian lt Macedonian mk Malay ms Malayalam ml Mandarin ma Mapuche mp Namibian nm Nepali ne Nigerian ng Norwegian no Occitan oc Oriya or Panare pr Persian fa Polish po Portuguese pt Punjabi pa Quechua qu Rapa Nui rn Rhaeto-Romance rm Romanian ro Russian ru Sanskrit sa Scots Gaelic gd Sepedi sp Serbo-Croatian sh Sesotho st Setswana tn Siswati ss Slovak sk Spanish es Swahili sw Swedish sv Tagalog ti Tamil ta Thai th Tonga to Tshivenda tv Turkish tr Twi tw Ukranian uk Urdu ur Uzbek uz Vietnamese vi Welsh cy Wolof wo Xhosa xh Xitsonga xs Yekwana ye Yiddish ji Yoruba yo Zarma za Zulu zu STYLE CONVENTIONS The spelling used is that of British English. Alphabetical order is also as in English, i.e. there is no separate alphabetical listing for the Spanish 'll' or the Scandinavian characters å, æ, ø, ä, ö. _ indicates a cross-reference. An overview of the language industries Language is such a universal phenomenon, underlying all human communication, that it is simply not possible to separate it off into a tidy compartment with equally tidy sub-compartments. In past centuries the vast majority of humankind lived lives which, by our standards, were highly circumscribed. They rarely moved from one location to another, and the amount of information communicated to and received by each individual was a tiny fraction of what it is today, when mass media is delivered to, or beamed into, practically every home on the planet. The elite in each country, who did travel or communicate more widely, felt at home everywhere where there was what was called polite society. Even language was not a problem. In the Middle Ages Latin, and in later centuries French, could be used anywhere. Frederick the Great of Prussia, we recall, not only called his palace Sans Souci, but corresponded in French with some of the leading writers of his time, while before Napoleon's invasion it was said that the Russian nobility spoke French better than they did Russian. To use a trite and overworked metaphor, today, by contrast, we live in a global village. Only a small minority of humankind today, at least in the Western world, fails to travel. Many people know the layouts of Heathrow or Schiphol airports better than they do the streets of their home town. And there are many people who spend more time speaking foreign languages than they do speaking their own tongue. At the same time there is taking place an exponential growth in information and communication. We live in the Information Society, the implications of which are only now becoming clear. Information, documentation and communication are the growth areas of our modern world. And underlying these is language. Language services have to be organised on an industrial basis if they are to cope with the huge demands that are now being made on them. This is why in recent years people active in this area have begun to talk about the language industries. Language activity can be monolingual, bilingual, translingual or multilingual. We all operate monolingually, speaking to people who share our language. In past ages nearly all monolingual communication was oral communication, person-to-person, face-to-face. In the present age there has been a silent revolution. It has come with the universal shift from manual labour to office work which has been one of the features of this century, and which is still accelerating. Now we are actively using language as a business tool, telephoning, faxing, using e-mail and the Internet, reading incoming documents, writing reports. The first edition of this Language Industries Atlas described some of the research carried out in this domain. As so much labour goes into office work, ways are continually being sought to make office communication more efficient. Some of the language industries are concerned with activities, such as controlled language or speech processing, which can make office work more effective and more productive. There is nothing simple about monolingual activity, since language is a multi-faceted instrument of communication. We use, often unconsciously, different modes of language, what linguists call register, when we are speaking to different types of people. Those who try to record dialect speakers quickly become aware of the phenomenon that the dialect speaker, in the presence of someone from outside his or her community, automatically switches to a standard language form. But the most important aspect of monolingual use of language, from the language industries point of view, is that of specialised language, or language for special purposes (LSP), as it is known. LSP is necessary to cope with the mushrooming complexity of modern products and services. It is also important for companies manufacturing a range of products, with their related spare parts, to maintain a structured terminology so that supplier and customers alike know exactly what is being referred to at all times. But products and services must always be explained to the user, and to the workshop operator who may be called on to maintain or repair the product or system. The provision of accompanying documentation is now a major element in the production process. The profession of technical writing is growing fast in all industrialised countries. Now that so much is dependent on language, there is growing interest in the interaction between language and society, and this has led to the emergence of the discipline of sociolinguistics. Some countries or groups of countries sharing a common language have set up authoritative bodies in an effort to regulate and standardise that language. Some of these bodies are venerable institutions, such as the Académie Française, founded by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635, while others are more recent, such as the Nederlandse Taalunie. Smaller languages, officially referred to these days as lesser-used languages, have a more urgent need to maintain and promote themselves, and there are many organisations devoted to these purposes in Europe (as a glance at the listings in the General Directory will show). Their work is coordinated by the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages. Bilingual activities, where people switch between two languages, occurs first - in most people's experience - at school, when they are first brought into contact with a language other than their mother tongue. In a multilingual Europe language teaching is of course one of the most important and most widespread of language activities. These days it is not just at school that one learns languages: adult learning is often necessary, because of job requirements, movement to an area with a different language, or even marriage! With more and more marriages between people of different languages, children of those marriages are often brought up in a bilingualism situation. Language teaching these days is big business, as is demonstrated by a visit to any of the language exhibitions which are now found in a number of European capitals. Language teaching these days can be specially targeted, and there is considerable interest in language for business. It can also use sophisticated modern methods of teaching, such as computer-assisted language learning or distance learning. Larger nations have discovered that there are economic and social advantages in promoting their own languages and cultures, and a number of them have set up organisations to do just that: thus France has the Alliance Française, Germany the Goethe Institut, Italy the Istituto Dante Alighieri, Portugal the Instituto Camões, Spain the Instituto Cervantes, and the United Kingdom the British Council. Translingual activities are those activities which transfer a message in one language into an equivalent message in another language. Chief among these activities are translation and interpreting. The European Commission has recognised that the professional exercise of the activities of translation and interpreting has a crucial part to play in the Information Society, and has initiated the creation of the European Translation Platform to coordinate the work of the many associations active in this field. The software industry has coined the term localisation for translingual work, because in this particular area it is felt that something more than translation is required. Another term which is creeping in, for similar reasons, is language mediation, a direct translation of the German term Sprachvermittlung. The media is another area where something more than just translation is required (the term 'versioning' is increasingly used), and the techniques of dubbing and sub-titling require specialist skills and a particular aptitude. With such a growing demand for translators and interpreters of all kinds universities throughout Europe, and indeed throughout the world, have been creating translation courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, and this has given rise to the comparatively new discipline of translation studies. Meanwhile practically every commercial undertaking in Europe, even the SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), which has more than a purely local clientele, is finding it necessary to plan its information, documentation and language policy. The term internationalisation is increasingly used for general preparation of documentation for use by an international readership, and globalisation for planning a documentation and language strategy which will enable the to penetrate markets anywhere in the world. For 50 years scientists and researchers have dreamed of automating the labour-intensive task of translation between languages. In many languages this goal is referred to as 'automatic translation' (la traduction automatique) but in English the preferred term is machine translation. The layman, particularly one ignorant of any language other than his own, often assumes that computers are so sophisticated these days that translating from one language to another should be easily accomplished. That is because such a person thinks that languages have one-for-one correspondences, and that translation is a matter of substituting the words of one language by the words of another. In fact mastering natural language is one of the most difficult tasks a computer can be asked to undertake; playing chess to grand master level is comparatively simple in comparison. Human language is often allusive, and often ambiguous. Allusive, because words can incorporate references and allusions at many different levels. Human readers and hearers have become adept at detecting signals and picking up clues. Computers have no such sixth sense. When one language has to be rendered into another the problem is compounded. Different languages incorporate different ways of looking at the world; it is difficult, for example, to be imprecise in French, because of the logical word relationships and the dearth of the waffle (meaning-diluting) words which abound in English, the quites and somewhats, not to speak of the tendency to use might or would somewhat more than one should; in English it is all too easy to be imprecise. And this precision/imprecision is between two languages with a close relationship. The different ways of looking at the world encapsulated in language become more pronounced the further removed language communities are from one another. Cultural allusion is also something which the computer finds difficult. We are often unconscious of the power of allusion. Take two simple words which are apparent equivalents, the English word miser and the French word avare. Such is the power of popular literature that in the English-speaking world the word miser usually conjures up the figure of Scrooge, who, however unpleasant, is at least nobody's fool, while l'avare usually makes a Frenchman think of Harpagon, a man who is easily duped. Such differences may not usually matter, but if they did a human translator would reword his text accordingly. Human translators, using what the theorists call 'knowledge of the world', are making such decisions, based on inferences and references, all the time. Even in technical translation there may be a lack of direct equivalents, as many technical terms have their origin in metaphor: bug, puce, rondelle éventail, bootstrapping, etc., or an apparent equivalent may emphasise different features: fork-lift truck/chariot élévateur. Ambiguity is perhaps a greater problem. Many human sentences, up to 40% in certain types of text, can be ambiguous to a computer, even though they make perfect and immediate sense to the human translator, because he brings his extra-textual knowledge to bear. If a human sees the sentences "The rabbit ate the carrots in the old man's garden" or "No electric passenger carrying vehicles past this point" (both quoted as problems in machine translation conferences) he makes the correct inference straightaway; only a dumb computer would deduce a meaning based on old gardens owned by some adult male, or vehicle-laden electric passengers. The difficulties of machine translation have been dealt with here at some length because it is important to point out why progress, to the utopians, has appeared so slow. Many linguists still dismiss out of hand the possibility, even in the remote future, of obtaining human quality translation from a computer. In fact, in view of the difficulties inherent in attempting to process human language, it is remarkable just what progress has been made. Machine translation can work, in the sense that it can produce real gains in translation productivity, in carefully controlled situations. There are many organisations listed in the General Directory which are active in this field or in the related fields of computational linguistics, applied linguistics or cognitive linguistics. There are many ways in which computers can be used to help in natural language processing which fall short of full-scale machine translation, and these are these days included under the general title of language engineering. The most sophisticated area of language engineering is that of speech processing, which is now at last beginning to make rapid advances, and may prove to be the language technology which has the most influence on our lives in the 21st century. All of these activities make up the language industries, which is the subject of this Language Industries Atlas. It is no accident that this publication owes its appearance to the European Commission, since no organisation is more aware of the importance of the language industries if Europe, which is the home of many of the world's most influential languages, is to realise its full potential in the Information Society. The future of Europe must be a multilingual future, and the organisations listed in this publication are those working to make that future happen. So, what is the likely future for the language industries? Their role is going to be increasingly important, but there is no room for complacency. All of the language industries of Europe must become much more efficient - to an extent they have not yet contemplated - if they are going to be able to cope with the demands made upon them. And they must become much more cost-effective. The problems are not going to be solved merely by throwing money at them. We live in a post-recession period, where financial stringency rules in both public and commercial organisations. The language industries must give value for money. But if the language industries can cope, and can adapt, then the opportunities open to them are immense. The prosperity of a united Europe will come from the removal of barriers to the movement of goods and peoples. But the greatest barrier of all is still language. If this barrier can be removed, not by forcing a single language on to those who are not speakers of that language, but by facilitating language transfer, then everyone will benefit. The European Commission has done much to stimulate the language industries in Europe with its framework programmes. We are now into the Fourth Framework Programme which has a considerable language engineering element. The emphasis now is on practical applications. The Fourth Framework Programme, which has emerged since the first edition of this Language Industries Atlas, will have a major impact on the development of language engineering in Europe. In its overview of the language industries the first edition of the Atlas was mainly concerned with the continuing effect of the Third Framework Programme, in its time a major milestone on the way to creating a future-oriented European society. In the Third Framework Programme the European Commission sponsored research projects, concerted actions, networks of excellence and working groups covering Natural Language Processing and Speech Processing, language components and applications. The languages world was chiefly concerned with the Linguistic Research and Engineering (LRE) area of the Telematics programme. Within LRE two major calls for project proposals were made, LRE-1 (1991) and LRE-2 (1992). There was also a Multilingual Action Plan (MLAP), within which one call for proposals was made, MLAP-93 (1993). The idea behind the Fourth Framework Programme is to concentrate efforts on key application areas, to achieve some practical applications largely based upon existing technologies, and from the success of these to create the critical mass necessary to stimulate further development and widespread use, which in turn would attract the investment needed for further work. In the language industries, the domains of document creation and management, information and communication services, translation, and foreign language acquisition, were seen as offering scope for innovative applications based on well- established components, and for leading-edge applications bringing together existing and innovative technologies. The aim is to increase the possibilities for communication in and between European languages by integrating new spoken and written methods of language processing. It is suggested that developers might consider focusing on pilot projects which integrate language technologies into information and communications systems and services. In the commercial world the major development since the first edition of the Language Industries Atlas was published is a growing diversification of the language engineering products on offer. At one time language engineering was being carried out in clearly defined sectors, machine translation, electronic dictionaries, computer-assisted language learning. Today such distinct classifications are no longer possible. In translation the talk now is of 'translation suites', 'bundled systems', 'translation management' using a variety of techniques and processes. The field of computer-assisted language learning has been complicated by the increased use of multi-media and by new facilities, particularly distance learning and the information superhighway. At the machine translation end of the market, research continues to explore the potential of statistical methods in language. The idea here is that if huge corpora of bilingual texts can be read into the computer, with the much enhanced computer power available in modern systems it should be possible to apply discourse analysis techniques to achieve high 'hit rates' in matching. This has not yet fed through into commercial systems, and the MT vendor market still shows the clear distinction between 'high-end' systems such as Systran, Logos, Transcend, Metal and 'low-end' systems such as Globalink's Power Translator or Translation Assistant, PC-Translator, or, a newcomer, IBM's Personal Translator. The 'high-end' systems are based on computational linguistics and embark on a grammatical and/or morphological analysis of the source text, with various techniques for generating target text. There has been little change here in recent years; the systems have held their own in the market, but have not made any significant advance. One major breakthrough has been the announcement of an automatic translation service available worldwide through the CompuServe network (basically using the Intergraph Transcend system). There have been considerable sales at the 'low-end' area of the market, though these have been mostly to persons who have occasion to handle foreign language texts from time to time, rather than professional translators. These systems continue to improve their dictionaries while holding their prices down to a universally affordable level. The biggest development in the 1990s, however, has been the take-up of translation memory systems, such as the Trados, the IBM Translation Manager/2, the Eurolang Optimiser and Star Transit. Translation memory is the main advantage offered by these systems, but they also provide facilities for text formatting and terminology handling. Any material which has previously been translated (and many technical documents are repetitive) is automatically retrieved and the previous translation automatically pasted in. The match does not have to be absolutely identical - the system will also recognise fuzzy match. The language industries have changed beyond recognition over the last decade, and will continue to develop. Their future is an exciting one. Languages of the European Union A description of each language is given under the appropriate alphabetical entry in the General Directory. I. Official Languages The following is a list of the official languages of the European Union, as at January 1, 1996. All official languages enjoy equal status. DanishDutchEnglishFinnishFrenchGermanGreekItalianPortugueseSpanishSwedish II. Other Languages Other languages, language variants and dialects which are indigenous to countries of the European Union are listed below. The interests of these languages are looked after by the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages. The following list does not claim to be comprehensive, nor does it imply any particular status for the language, language variant or dialect listed. The listing does not include the languages of immigrant communities (such as Turkish in Germany or Urdu in the United Kingdom), nor does it include the languages of some neighbour countries where for historical reasons some of the indigenous speakers of such languages have been included in the territory of European Union countries (Slovene or Croat in Austria, Albanian or Slovene in Italy, etc). Where there are alternative names for a particular language, these are set out in brackets. AlsatianAragoneseAsturianBasqueBretonCatalanCornishCorsicanFrisianFriulianGalicianGaelic (Scottish Gaelic)Irish (Erse, Irish Gaelic)Ladin (Romansch)Letzeburgish (Luxembourgish, Luxembourgian)ManxOccitan (Languedoc, Provençal)Romani (Gypsy)Sami (Lapp)SardinianScots (Lallans)Vlach (Aravounian)Welsh THE STATUS OF LANGUAGES We list below the countries of Europe and the status of languages in those countries. Information given in the first edition of this Language Industries Atlas has in some instances been updated using data supplied by national governments (all governments were asked for information via the cultural attachés of their embassies in the United Kingdom, whose assistance we gratefully acknowledge). Where no recent government information was provided, we have used a variety of reference sources. In addition to the countries of geographical Europe, we have included for convenience a number of countries which, though strictly speaking in Central Asia, have close historical links with Europe. Further details about individual languages can be found in the General Directory. Albania (Republic of Albania) Albanian is the official language throughout Albania, and the only one used in administration. There are small minorities with Greek, Macedonian, Romanian or Romani as mother tongue. Andorra (Principality of Andorra) The official language of this small principality is Catalan, but as more than three quarters of the population of 65,000 are not native Andorrans, Castilian Spanish and French are also spoken. Armenia (Republic of Armenia) Armenian is the official language throughout Armenia, as recognised by the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, passed on July 5, 1995. About 90% of the population are of Armenian mother-tongue. Russian is widely known, and there is a minority of Russian mother-tongue speakers. There is also a small Kurdish- speaking minority. Austria (Republic of Austria) German is the official language throughout Austria where it is spoken by some seven million of the eight million population. The language rights of the Croat-speaking community are protected by provisions of the Treaty of St Germain-en-Laye of 1919, the Austrian Federal Constitution, Treaty of the State of 1959 and the law on ethnic communities (Volksgruppengesetz) of 1977. The Slovenian language is also protected in Carintha, Styria and Burgenland. Azerbaijan (Republic of Azerbaijan) The recognised state language of the Azerbaijan Republic is Azeri Turkic. This is the Azeri dialect of the Altaic-Turkic language group which also includes Anatolia Turkish and Kazakh. Formerly written in a variant of Arabic script, Azeri Turkic adopted a Latin-based alphabet in the 1920s and changed to a modified form of Cyrillic in the late 1930s in line with Russification; in 1992 the Latin-based script was reintroduced as a mark of independence. The languages of the smaller, national minorities are taught in local schools and used in publications and broadcasts without restrictions. Belarus (Republic of Belarus) Despite being the first official language of the 10 million people living in Belarus, the use of the Russian language (the second official language since a referendum held in May 1995) still predominates. Belgium (Kingdom of Belgium) Disputes over language rights, between the Dutch-speakers, who live principally in the north and west of the country, and the French-speakers, who live to the south and east, were a major feature of Belgian politics in the years after the second world war, and led to a number of constitutional amendments (1971, 1980, 1988 and 1993), which seem to have brought about a modus vivendi. The effect of these amendments, particularly that of 1993, has been to turn Belgium into a quasi-federal state, with many powers being devolved from the national government to the community and regional governments. The community governments are language-based, with one serving the Dutch- speaking community of Flanders (the term Flemish [Vlaams] is often used for the Dutch language when it is used in Belgium), and another serving the French-speaking community of what is called Wallonia (the French-speakers of Belgium are sometimes called Walloons [Wallons]). The Brussels region remains officially bilingual, and there is a German-speaking community to represent the 150,000 German-speakers in the far east of the country, round Eupen, St Vith and Malmédy. Among the powers devolved to the communities are those dealing with all questions of language and culture. The Dutch-speaking community is associated with the Netherlands government in the Dutch Language Union (Nederlandse Taalunie) which pronounces on language questions. Naturally all national information, such as legislation, government announcements, text on banknotes, etc. is produced in both Dutch and French. Bosnia-Hercegovina (Republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina) Before its declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia was made in March 1992 it is estimated that the population of Bosnia-Hercegovina was made up of some 44% Muslim, 31% Serb and 17% Croat. However, all groups shared a common language, Serbo-Croat. The Serb population of Bosnia refused to accept the declaration of independence, and their opposition led to the civil war 1992-95, and the current de facto partition of the country. Although the situation at the time of this publication went to press was not finally settled, it seems that the language used for all administrative purposes in the area controlled by the Bosnian government will be called Bosnian, and written in the Latin alphabet, and in the area controlled by the Bosnian Serbs it will be called Serbian and written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Bulgaria (Republic of Bulgaria) The language used throughout Bulgaria, and for all administrative purposes, is Bulgarian, written in the Cyrillic alphabet. There is a Turkish-speaking minority, representing ten per cent of the population. Bulgaria also has one of the highest concentrations of Romani-speakers (which may be as high as 400,000). Council of Europe The official languages of the Council of Europe are English and French. Croatia (Republic of Croatia) Croatian is the language used throughout Croatia; it is written using the Latin script. The minority Serb population use the Cyrillic script, and refer to the language as Serbian. Cyprus (Cyprus Republic) Officially the two official languages of Cyprus are Greek and Turkish, representing the two major communities on the island, the Greek-speakers (81.6%) and the Turkish-speakers (18.4%). However, as a result of the Turkish invasion of 1974, only two- thirds of the island is now controlled by the Cyprus government, with the remaining one-third being controlled by Turkey. In practice the area controlled by the Cyprus government area is Greek-speaking, and the area controlled by the Turkish government (through the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) Turkish-speaking. Czech Republic Czech is the official language throughout the Czech Republic, and is used for all administrative purposes. There is a small minority (possibly three per cent) of Slovak speakers, but no special provision appears to be made for them (in any case, the Czech and Slovak languages are closely related) Denmark (Kingdom of Denmark) Danish is the official language throughout Denmark and is used for all national administrative purposes. German has local official status in South Jutland (Sydjylland), where there are an estimated 25,000 mother-tongue speakers. Although Denmark retains a close association, and provides international representation, for the Faroe Islands, as the islands are not part of the European Union they are the subject of a separate entry. Denmark also retains a close association with Greenland, another former possession, where the official languages are Danish and Inuktitut. Estonia (Republic of Estonia) Estonian represents the first language of 61.5% of the total population. There is also a substantial Russian-speaking minority, consisting mainly of ethnic Russians who settled in Estonia during the period (1940-1991) when Estonia was part of the Soviet Union. Following the declaration of independence of the Republic of Estonia in 1991 and the introduction of citizenship laws in 1993, applications for citizenship in Estonia are now, in addition to the fulfilment of other criteria, also granted only on successful mastery of Estonian, based on language tests. Faroes, The The Faroe Islands, formerly a Danish possession but now enjoying limited self-government, have two official languages, Faeroese and Danish. Both are used in the administration and both are taught in the schools. Finland (Republic of Finland) The official languages are set out in the Constitution of 1919 as Finnish and Swedish. Finnish is spoken by approximately 94% of the population. Those of Swedish mother tongue number approximately 300,000, less than 7% of the total population of Finland. The Swedish Assembly of Finland (Svenska Finlands Folkting) is a semi-official representative body of the Swedish-speaking Finns. Historically speaking, Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden until the Napoleonic Wars; furthermore, Swedish was the language of the government in Finland until, in 1863, special language decrees helped to put Finnish on an equal footing. Today books, plays, newspapers and films are available in both Finnish and Swedish. They are both taught in schools and used in public administration with various communications to and from the government being drawn up in both languages. In the Lapp population there are approximately 3,000 speakers of Sami in Finland. France (French Republic) French is the official language throughout France (including overseas territories) and is used for all administrative purposes. From the establishment of the Republic in 1793 until after the second world war there was little official sympathy for other languages, but since the 1970s the cultural identity of some local languages has been recognised. Languages which have benefited from this recognition are Basque, Breton, Catalan and Corsican. In practice the recognition of 'cultural identity' allows local voluntary bodies to establish language courses and cultural associations, all on an optional basis. Other languages or variants found in mainland France include Flemish, Alsatian and Occitan. Georgia (Republic of Georgia) This country has a mixed population of which about 70% are Georgian; the official languages nationally are Georgian and Russian. In the Abkhaz region an independence movement started after the break-up of the Soviet Union among the approximately 80,000 Abkhaz speakers was not successful, but Abkhaz now has local official status. Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) The official language throughout the Federal Republic, and the one used for all administrative purposes, is German. In the Land of Schleswig-Holstein the Danish-speaking community (about 50,000) enjoy the protection of the Bonn and Copenhagen Declarations of 1955, an agreement between the German and Danish governments. Danish has been taught in public schools used by this community since 1980 (and in private schools since 1920). Official recognition of their language rights is also given to the speakers of Sorb (also known as Sorbian, Wend or Lusatian), a Slav language which has survived in a number of small pockets of territory in central and eastern Germany (though the number of speakers is thought to have fallen to 20,000). There is some Frisian (Northern Frisian) spoken in the Frisian islands off the north sea coast; its speakers enjoy no legal protection of their language rights in Germany, but benefit to some extent from the substantial protection which is given to Frisian in the Netherlands. Near the eastern frontier there are some 100,000 people who have Polish as their mother tongue. Greece (Hellenic Republic) The official written and spoken language of Greece today is the Demotic or Modern Standard Greek which is a direct descendant of Ancient Greek. Until comparatively recently two forms of Modern Greek were in use: Demotic was the spoken form and Katharevousa, a more formalised version, the language of administration, religion, education and literature. Modern Standard Greek is used throughout Greece and for all administrative purposes. There is a small Vlach-speaking minority of about 40,000 but no legal status is given to their language. The language rights of the small number of Turkish speakers in Western Thrace (in particular, for their children to be educated in Turkish) is protected by the Treaty of Lausanne and by the Greek Constitution. Hungary (Republic of Hungary or Magyar Republic) Hungarian is the official language and is used throughout Hungary. There are small minorities of German-, Croat-, Slovene- and Romani-speakers, but there is no protection of language rights for these languages. Iceland (Iceland) Icelandic (also known as Norraena - Northern tongue -) is the official language and is spoken by the whole population. There are no linguistic minorities in Iceland. Ireland (Republic of Ireland) Irish is the first official language of Ireland according to Article Eight of the Irish Constitution, with English being the second official language. However, legislation is enacted in English and then translated in Irish. Irish is a compulsory subject in Irish primary and secondary schools. The Irish language television channel, Teilifíf na Gaeilge, is expected to commence broadcasting during 1996. Ireland waived its right to make Irish one of the official languages of the European Union, but treaties affecting Ireland are translated into Irish. Italy (Italian Republic) Italian is the official language throughout Italy, and is used for all administrative purposes (German is used alongside Italian for local administrative purposes in Bolzano). As Italy was only unified in the 19th century, regional dialects and variants are very strong, sometimes to the extent of being mutually unintelligible, but they rarely appear in written form. Only the standard form of Italian is taught in schools. There is local protection for Friulian language rights (including some teaching of Friulian) in the areas of north-east Italy where it is spoken, and for German in the province of Bolzano (where German has official status alongside Italian). Kazakhstan (Kazakh Republic) The population of this Central Asian republic is linguistically mixed. It is thought that 43% have Kazakh as the mother tongue, 36% Russian, 5% Ukrainian, 4% German, with smaller minorities speaking Uzbek, Tatar or Belarussian. Under the 1993 constitution Kazakh was declared the official language of the administration, but Russian was accorded a special status as an 'inter-ethnic' language, i.e. it is assumed that everyone is bilingual in their own language and Russian. Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic) As with Kazakhstan, there is a linguistically mixed population (52% Kirghiz, 21% Russian, 13% Uzebk, plus small minorities speaking Ukrainian, German, Tatar and Kazakh), and a similar solution has been reached. Kirghiz is recognised as the official language of the republic, but Russian has been given equal official status locally in specified areas (where the proportion of the Russian-speaking population is particularly high) and, nationally, in specified domains of activity. Latvia (Republic of Latvia) Of the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) Latvia attracted the greatest proportion of settlement of ethnic Russians during the 50 years of Soviet rule. Russian speakers now make up one third of the population. Education is in Latvian and Russian, but proficiency in Latvian (measured by language tests) must be shown to obtain employment in the public service. There are small minorities of speakers of Belarussian, Ukrainian and Polish. Liechtenstein (Principality of Liechtenstein) The official language of the 30,000 population of the principality is German. There are no linguistic minorities. Lithuania (Republic of Lithuania) According to Article 7 of the Provisional Basic Law of the Republic of Lithuania the government must ensure the use of the Lithuanian language in the activities of state and public bodies, educational, cultural, scientific, industrial and other institutions, enterprises and organisations as well as guarantee the state's commitment to the comprehensive development and teaching of the Lithuanian language. Lithuanian-speakers make up 80% of the population, with considerable Russian (8%) and Polish (7%) speaking minorities, and smaller Belarussian and Ukrainian minorities. There are language tests in Lithuanian for admission to public employment. Luxembourg (Grand Duchy of Luxembourg) The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg uses three languages. Its own Letzeburgish, a dialect of German with French influences, was awarded official national language status on February 24, 1984, and is used in public administration and as a language of education. French and German are also official languages, and most written documents are in one of these two languages. Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) The official language of the country is Macedonian, a variant of Bulgarian which is written in the Cyrillic script. Macedonian had been one of the three official languages (the others being Serbo- Croat and Slovene) of the old Yugoslav republic. The substantial (22%) Albanian-speaking minority has voiced complaints that their language rights are not respected, particularly with regard to access to university education. There are smaller minorities of speakers of Serbian, Turkish and Vlach. Malta (Republic of Malta) Maltese and English are the official languages of administration. Maltese is the language of the courts and of general use. There are no indigenous language minorities. The continued (but reducing) use of English in the administration is a relic of British rule over the island 1802-1964. Moldova (Moldovan Republic) Moldova adjoins Romania, and the territory has been the subject of annexations and counter annexations since 1812. The Moldavian language is, linguistically speaking, merely a variant of Romanian. The language question is associated with the larger issue of the reunification of Moldova and Romania, a concept which was vehemently opposed by the powerful Russian (12%) and Ukrainian (14%) minorities (to the extent of trying to form their own Transdniester Republic). Some of the pro-reunification politicians advocated calling the language Romanian. Following the defeat of the reunification idea in a referendum in 1994, a new constitution was adopted based on 'political pluralism'. Under this Moldavian is the official language of the state but the use of Russian and Ukrainian by people having business with the government is permitted. There is also local autonomous status for the Gagauz and Transdniester regions. Moldovan, which was written in the Cyrillic script during the Soviet period, is now written in the Latin script. Monaco (Principality of Monaco) French is the official language and is used for all administrative purposes. Netherlands (Kingdom of the Netherlands) There are 14 million speakers of Dutch in The Netherlands. Dutch is the official language of government and education of the Netherlands (it is also the language of administration in Surinam and the Nederlands Antilles). In 1982 The Netherlands and Flanders set up an organisation which draws up guidelines for government policy on Dutch. This organisation, the Dutch Language Union (Nederlandse Taalunie) represents an inter- governmental organisation promoting Dutch and its use. The only other indigenous language spoken in the Netherlands is Frisian, and this is formally recognised as a second language in the province of Friesland. In this province Frisian is taught in schools, and its use is allowed in certain conditions in the courts and by people approaching the administration. Norway (Kingdom of Norway) Norway has two official written forms of the language, standard Norwegian (Bokmål) and New Norwegian (Nynorsk). They have equal status and are both used in public administration, in schools, churches, and on radio and television. Books, magazines and newspapers are published in both languages. However, standard Norwegian tends to prevail in business and advertising. The Norwegian Language Council (Norsk Sprakråd) is the official body in Norway concerned with fostering the national language and carrying out practical language work. In the Lapp population there are approximately 20,000 speakers of Sami in Norway. New legislation, in addition to the Sami Language Act, is being brought forward to bring the Sami language on to an equal legal footing with Norwegian and to increase the possibilities for using Sami in an official context. There are no other indigenous language minorities. Poland (Republic of Poland) Polish is the official language and is used for all administrative purposes; all education is in Polish. The territory of modern Poland does include some speakers of other languages, particularly German (around 1.5 million) and Ukrainian (around 1.5 million); there are also speakers of Belorussian and Romani. However, it is generally accepted that apart from the older generation the minority language speakers are all bilingual in their own language and in Polish. Portugal (Portuguese Republic) Portugal, like Iceland, has no indigenous linguistic minorities within its borders (if one discounts a small number of Romani speakers). Portuguese is the official language and is spoken by the whole population. Romania (Romania) Romanian is the official language and is used for all administrative purposes. The largest language minority is Hungarian (approximately 8%), mainly concentrated in the areas contiguous to Hungary. We have not been able to discover whether any local language rights are allowed to minority languages (there is also a small German-speaking minority). Russia (Russian Federation) Although Russian is the mother tongue of 87.5% of Russians living in the Russian Federation, in this geographically vast country there is a total of 130 nationalities, speaking some 80 languages. The Russian Federation comprises 49 'regions' (oblast), six 'autonomous territories' (krai), 21 'republics', ten 'autonomous areas' one 'autonomous region' and the two cities of Moscow and St Petersburg. Russian is the official language of the Federation and is used for all 'top-down' communications. The status of other languages is usually decided by the local unit of the federation. A number of languages have been given official local status alongside Russian, e.g. Chechen in the Chechen Republic, Tatar in Tatarstan, Udmurt in the Udmurt Republic. San Marino (Republic of San Marino) The official language is Italian, which is spoken by the whole population. Slovakia (Republic of Slovakia) As this edition of the Language Industries Atlas went to press there was controversy in Slovakia, with the Hungarian minority (about 10%), supported by the Hungarian government, protesting about new proposals reinforcing the position of Slovak as the official language of the country and the language of all public administration. The proposals appear to cancel language rights previously conceded, whereby where a language minority represented more than 20% of the population in a given area, they could deal with the public authorities in that area in their own language. There is a Czech-speaking minority of about 1%, and smaller minorities speaking Ruthenian, Ukrainian or German. Our information is based on newspaper reports, and we have no formal information on the status of languages in Slovakia. Slovenia (Republic of Slovenia) Slovene is the official language of Slovenia and is spoken by the vast majority of the population. There are small Hungarian (0.5%) and Italian (0.1%) minorities and an effort has been made to provide language services in these languages in localities where they are strongly represented. Spain (Spain) Language history in Spain closely mirrors political history. Thus, of the various related Spanish languages and language variants which emerged during the Middle Ages, the Castilian version eventually came to prevail, as a result of the rise of the kingdom of Castile. Standard Spanish is often referred to as Castilian, especially in South America. During the years of the Republic (1931-1939) there was an upsurge of local particularisms, particularly in the Basque Country and in Catalonia, whose citizens fought hard on the Republican side during the Civil War which broke out in 1936. In contrast the Nationalist regime under General Franco which had gained control of the whole country by 1939 were determined to impose 'one country, one flag, one language, one leader'. There was no change until Franco's death in 1975, when a more liberal policy was introduced, which resulted in the constitution of 1978. The major effect of this constitution was to permit the establishment of autonomous regions, with their own parliaments and governments; the autonomous regions determine language policy within their areas. Three of these regions set out to actively promote local languages, the Basque Country (Basque), Catalonia (Catalan) and Galicia (Galician). These languages are taught alongside Spanish in schools, and in the Basque Country and Catalonia there is increasing provision for the teaching of all subjects through the local language. Sweden (Kingdom of Sweden) Swedish is the official language of Sweden and is used for administrative purposes throughout Sweden. The only indigenous minority languages are Finnish (3% of the population, all believed to be bilingual in Finnish and Swedish) and Sami (approximately 10,000 speakers in the Lapp community, again thought mostly to be bilingual). Switzerland (Swiss Confederation) There are four official languages in Switzerland, German (65% of the population), French (19%), Italian (12%) and Rhaeto- Romansh (less than 1%). Speakers of these languages are all concentrated in particular geographical areas, and there is hardly any linguistically mixed population. The particular constitution of Switzerland, whereby a great deal of power is delegated to the cantons (which operate monolingually), also leads to linguistic harmony. Turkey (Turkish Republic) Turkish is the official language of the country, is used for all administrative purposes, and is spoken by about 90% of the population. There are about 30 other languages, the most notable being Kurdish (about four million speakers). The Kurds are concentrated in the south-east of the country and in some areas represent the language majority; an armed Kurdish secessionist movement has been fighting the Turkish army since 1984, and this area is under Turkish martial law. We have received no formal information about the status of languages in Turkey. Turkmenistan (Republic of Turkmenistan) The official languages are Turkmen and Russian. Turkmen is the mother tongue of 72% of the population, Russian 9.5% and Uzbek 9%. Russian is however widely understood as a second language. The government, however, intends to reduce reliance on Russian as the lingua franca of the country and substitute Turkmen (1991 constitution). Ukraine (Ukraine) Ukrainian is the mother tongue of 73% of the population in the Ukraine, but Russian is the mother tongue of 22%. The Ukraine covers a vast amount of territory, including the Crimea, transferred arbitrarily to the Ukraine by Stalin, although its population was overwhelmingly Russian. Although the official languages throughout the Republic are Ukrainian and Russian, the practical status of the two languages appears to depend on local circumstances. Where Russian speakers are in a local majority they appear determined to resist any 'Ukrainisisation'. The remaining five per cent of the population is made up of the speakers of a number of other languages (including Belarussian, Moldovan, Tatar, Polish, Hungarian and German) but they do not seem to enjoy any official language rights. United Kingdom (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) The official language of the nation as a whole is English. The official status of Welsh in Wales is protected by the Welsh Courts Act of 1952 and the Welsh Language Act of 1967, but practice has now gone further than the official provisions of this legislation. In Wales the Welsh language may generally be used as an alternative to English in dealings with the administration (and the Welsh Office of the government produces most of its documentation in the two languages). A knowledge of Welsh is usually required for major civil service posts in Wales (though not for the government minister, known as the Secretary of State for Wales). Welsh is taught to all schoolchildren in Wales, and in the more strongly Welsh-speaking counties primary education is through the medium of Welsh. There is a Welsh television station. Gaelic (Scottish Gaelic) is spoken as a first language by only approximately 80,000 people, living in the Western Isles and north-west mainland (the most remote areas of Britain). It enjoys some local protection and the local authorities are permitted to provide education in Gaelic. There are a small number of Irish speakers in Northern Ireland (mostly families who have moved from Irish speaking areas in the Republic to seek employment), but there is no legal protection for them. The 'revived' languages of Cornish and Manx have no legal status. United Nations Organisation The official languages are Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Russian. Uzbekistan (Republic of Uzbekistan) The official languages are Uzbek and Russian. There is a linguistically mixed population, which is 71% Uzbek, 8% Russian, 5% Tajik, 4% Kazakh, and 12% made up of a wide range of other languages. The government has embarked on a five-year programme (1994-1999) to change the Uzbek language from the Cyrillic script to the Latin script. Vatican City State The official language is Italian, though Latin enjoys special status as the official language of the Roman Catholic Church. Yugoslavia (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) The six original constituent republics of Yugoslavia have now been reduced to two, Serbia and Montenegro (Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina having opted for independence). The official language throughout the two republics is Serbian, written in the Cyrillic script. There is a significant Albanian-speaking minority, and a smaller Hungarian-speaking minority. No formal information is available about what status these minority languages enjoy.