Abstract

This report is the second publication of the co-operative project Nordic-Baltic-Russian network of Finnic minority and regional languages funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The project participants are the Universities of Tromsø, Umeå, Stockholm, Mälardalen, Petrozavodsk, Tartu and Oulu, Võro Institute, Kväntunet, STR-T, Ruotsinsuomalaisten Keskusliitto, Karjalan Rahvahan Liitto and Võro Selts, and the project aims to follow up and support the revival and revitalization of Finnic minority languages. The project was launched in the autumn 2004, and it is coordinated by the Division of Finnish at the University of Oulu.

The purpose of the network project is to promote the use of Finnic minority languages in all domains, to increase co-operation between universities and the third sector, to continue the long-term research and educational co-operation between the participating universities and to support the regional education initiated by minority organizations.

The project is a continuation of the previous co-operative Academic networking in peripheral language research and higher education between the Nordic countries and the neighbouring states 1999–2001. The crucial difference compared to the aforesaid project is that the current project involves the organizations and institutes of linguistic minorities as equal participants. The previous project published a baseline report titled Kieli- ja kulttuurikontaktit and three reports under the title Tutkielmia vähemmistökielistä Jäämereltä Liivinrantaan. The current project published report IV in 2005, and this report is thus report V of the network for minority language research and education.

Project publications are significant in two ways. The section of research articles is a forum for ongoing research on Finnic minority languages. It allows especially junior researches to present aspects of their doctoral dissertations. More senior researchers can also report the results of their minority projects in this section. The other section of the publication reports on the current situation of minority languages. The present report focuses especially on the themes of the Vaskna (Estonia) and Petrozavodsk conferences: the contemporary status and developmental prospects of minority language instruction as well as the operation of minority organizations.