Meertaligheid en Bedreigde Talen

In this article, the point of departure is the contradictor}' developments of increased multilingualism in society and, at the same time, the danger of the disappearance of some languages. The case of Friesland is used to illustrate these processes. I European efforts to safeguard and protect languages are briefly discussed, and the framework of the Kuromosaic study is mentioned. The language situation in Friesland has always involved more than just the bilingualism of Frisian and Dutch. The number of languages in daily life has increased over the last few years, but dialects such as Town-Frisian or the dialects on the Wadden-islands are spoken less well by the next generation. These processes can clearly be demonstrated by the local changes in the town of Hindeloopen and the provincial capital Leeuwarden. In Hindeloopen, proficiency in the local Frisian dialect has been halved in 50 years. In the capital, over 50 different languages are spoken at home nowadays. In the 'linguistic landscape' (the public display of languages) Frisian occupies a minor place. English and Dutch are prominent. It is concluded that these trends will continue, and some suggestions for further research into these new phenomena of multilingualism are given.