Niederdeutsche Vereinsnamen im Dialekt und ihr Beitrag zur Konzeptualisierung des Niederdeutschen

Low German is widely associated with such terms as humour, congeniality, and honesty. They are a result of the tension in the national language’s variational spectrum. This is reflected in the choice of names für North German clubs and associations, clubs devoted to the maintenance of local and regional traditions in the broadest sense: a history club is called Tru un fast, a theater club Snackfatt, and a choir Plattdeutsche Schreihälse, for example. Such names are gaining momentary importance in the description of linguistic landscapes attesting to the multilingualism and charm of a region. In tourism and its search for authenticity, this is in fact economic capital. The science of onomastics should pay more attention to the names and naming of clubs

Autochthonous heritage languages and social media:writing and bilingual practices in Low German on Facebook

This article analyses how speakers of an autochthonous heritage language (AHL) make use of digital media, through the example of Low German, a regional language used by a decreasing number of speakers mainly in northern Germany. The focus of the analysis is on Web 2.0 and its interactive potential for individual speakers. The study therefore examines linguistic practices on the social network site Facebook, with special emphasis on language choice, bilingual practices and writing in the autochthonous heritage language. The findings suggest that social network sites such as Facebook have the potential to provide new mediatized spaces for speakers of an AHL that can instigate sociolinguistic change

Social Safety Nets for Food and Nutritional Security in India

This paper brings together existing literature on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNRGEA) and the Public Distribution System (PDS) in India, offering a narrative review of the evidence on impacts on food security, health and nutrition of beneficiaries. Both programs operate on a large scale and have the capacity to impact the factors leading to undernutrition. It is evident that despite the deficiencies in implementation, both the MGNREGA and the PDS are inclusive and reach the poor and the marginalized who are likely to also experience greater undernutrition and poor health. Data challenges have however prevented researchers from conducting studies that assess the ultimate impact of these two large-scale programs on health and nutrition. The evidence that exists suggests largely positive impacts indicating a clear potential to make these programs more nutrition sensitive not just by incorporating elements that would explicitly address nutritional concerns but also by directing specific attention to innovations that strengthen critical complementarities and synergies that exist between the two programs