Hvad menes der med, at sprog er små?

Abstract

We can arbitrarily assume, that the class of small languages in Europe comprises languages with less than 0.5 mill. language users. For some of these languages reliable information is hardly available, which could indicate that the whole situation for these languages is unstable. Such languages are not the issue in the present contribution; neither are the so-called "languages in diaspora", i.e. languages brought to Europe with refugees and immigrants. The languages in question are Manx, Samish, Greenlandic, Faroese, Sorbian, Scottish-Gaelic, Icelandic, Frisian and Letzeburgish (arranged after increasing number of language users).The question of stability for the small languages now and in the future is discussed in connection with the willingness and possibility to develop electronic language engineering tools that can be a defence line against negligence and oblivion of the languages in more and more contexts. We could hope for a Nordic Council initiative to initiate and stimulate the necessary LE-development for e.g. Faroese and Greenlandic.