Revitalising Languages and Safeguarding Cultural Diversity

ended

Languages have always played an important role when groups of people were living side by side. Speakers might be suppressed or take up a new language. But as much as a language says a lot about individual identity, it also carries a large reference to the culture and history of the group in which it is spoken and the cultural background. It is tightly interwoven with emotions and traditions, which are worth keeping up, as they stand for personal roots. RISE UP interconnects all relevant knowledge actors including citizens, civil society and end users. It collects and analyses background information, it identifies good practices and develops new methods with the help and support of people being concerned and interested in the topic. Thus, RISE UP aims at the empowerment of these endangered language communities, fostering their self-confidence and overcoming past trauma. In the understanding of the RISE UP consortium these endangered language communities include learners, new speakers, people who have not had the chance to learn their heritage languages, supporters, and other interested parties as well as actual speakers. RISE UP explores and deals with (a) Context, reasons and policies for endangered languages within Europe (b) Collecting and creating a set of tools to support local communities (c) Interconnecting relevant groups of stakeholders and (d) Involving and attracting especially young people and other stakeholders, e.g. by using digital tools.