Several members of the NOR Group participated in the XIX. International Conference on Minority Languages. The conference took place in Carerfyrddin, Cymru (Wales), from 20 to 24 June 2023. It is the most important conference in Europe on minoritised languages.
The previous edition was organized by the NOR Group in 2021. Due to the mobility restrictions caused by the pandemic, the event was fully virtual. That is why the organizers of the first edition allowed the NOR Group to take the floor to greet the participants in person.
On behalf of the group, and as a symbol that contradicts the disregard that minority languages often suffer, our colleague Edorta Arana, handed a copy of the Irulegi’s hand to the organizers of the Welsh edition. Thanks to this recently uncovered hand we know that those who said that Euskera was mostly oral and late language in writing were often wrong: it was already written more than two thousand years ago.
Bertze jendek uste zuten
ezin eskriba zaiteien
orai dute porogatu
enganatu zirela.
[Other people thought it could not be written; now they have seenthat they were wrong.]
(B. Etxepare, ).
