International Conference on Minority Languages
The International Conference on Minority Languages is a conference series first held in Glasgow in 1980, focused on lesser-used or minoritized languages. It has taken place periodically since, settling on a biennial schedule in 2001.
The 20th edition of the conference was held in Colombia in June 2025, at the Universidad Externado de Colombia. It was announced that the 2027 edition will be held in South Tyrol and hosted by Eurac Research.
Conference editions and locations
As of 2025, the conference has been held 20 times, with just 3 of these occurring in the same area twice - Leeuwarden, Friesland, Wales and the Basque Country.| Edition | Location | Organising Institution/s | |
| I | 1980 | Glasgow | Association for Scottish Literary Studies, University of Glasgow |
| II | 1983 | Turku | Åbo Akademi University |
| III | 1986 | Galway | Department of Old and Middle Irish and Celtic Philology, NUI Galway |
| IV | 1989 | Leeuwarden | Fryske Academy |
| V | 1993 | Cardiff | Department of Celtic Studies, University of Wales |
| VI | 1996 | Gdánsk | Kashubian-Pomeranian Association, University of Gdańsk, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan |
| VII | 1999 | Bilbao | Deputy Ministry for Language Policy of the Basque Government |
| VIII | 2001 | Santiago de Compostela | Dirección Xeral de Politica Linguistica, Xunta de Galicia, Conselleriá de Educación e Ordinación Universitaria |
| IX | 2003 | Kiruna | Department of Finnish, University of Stockholm |
| X | 2005 | Trieste | The Slovene Research Institute |
| XI | 2007 | Pécs | Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Institute for Ethnic and National Minority Studies, Faculty of Political and Legal Sciences of the University of Pécs |
| XII | 2009 | Tartu | |
| XIII | 2011 | Flensburg/Sønderborg | |
| XIV | 2013 | Graz | |
| XV | 2015 | Belgrade | Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade |
| XVI | 2017 | Jyväsylä & Närpes | |
| XVII | 2019 | Leeuwarden | Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning, Fryske Akademy |
| XVIII | 2021 | Online | University of the Basque Country |
| XIX | 2023 | Carmarthen | University of Wales Trinity Saint David |
| XX | 2025 | Bogotá | Universidad Externado de Colombia |
| XXI | 2027 | Bozen/Bolzano | Eurac Research |
Academic focus
The conference series has always had a multidisciplinary focus, although is largely attended by linguists sociolinguists, and other social sciences. The common point is therefore the focus on language, primarily 'minority' languages although terms such as regional, minoritized, lesser-used, indigenous, are all also used depending on the specific context.Beyond linguists and sociolinguists, the conference has attended to attract media scholars, legal scholars, political scientists and historians. An example of the multi-disciplinarity of the conference can be seen in the 2023 programme.
Notable keynote speakers
The conference has featured many well-known academics and practitioners in the 20 editions held over 45 years. One of the most renowned was the sociolinguist Joshua Fishman, who spoke at ICML IX in Cardiff, 1993.The two most recent editions have seen the serving United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues as one of the keynote speakers, Fernand de Varennes in Carmarthen 2023, then Nicolas Levrat in Bogotá 2025. Carmarthen also saw serving member of the Committee of Experts to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Vesna Crnić-Grotić.
Renowned Welsh scholars/activists, Colin H. Williams and Ned Thomas were both listed as Honorary Presidents at the 2023 conference, speaking as dinner speakers during the official conference dinner.