• Granted by Socrates, 57138-CP-1-98-1-HU-COMENIUS-C2
• Project period: 1999--2000
• 30 000 EU
• Host institute of the project: Juhász Gyula Teacher Training College, Szeged
• Project leader: Klára Sándor, PhD.

• Maria Sifianou, Athens; National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of English Studies
• Eleni Skourtou, Rhodos; Aegean University, Department of Pedagogy

• Miklós Kontra, Budapest; Linguistic Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Department of Sociolinguistics
• Csaba Pléh, Szeged; József Attila University, Department of Psychology
• Klára Sándor, Szeged; Juhász Gyula Teacher Training College, Department of Hungarian

• Gulbrand Alhaug, Tromsø; University of Tromsø, Department of Norwegian Language and Literature
• Ernst Håkon Jahr, Kristiansand; Agder College, Department of Norwegian, University of Kristiansand
• Helge Omdal, Kristiansand; Agder College, Department of Norwegian, University of Kristiansand

• Lars-Gunnar Andersson, Göteborg; University of Göteborg, Department of Swedish
• Gunnel Melchers, Stockholm; University of Stockholm, Department of English

• Karol Janicki, Bergen; University of Bergen, Department of English
• Peter Trudgill, Fribourg; University of Fribourg, Department of English

No matter how undesirable, linguistic intolerance is a widespread phenomenon in Europe. This is actually a surface form of linguicism, i.e. the idea that some languages/dialects are better than other languages/dialects, consequently their speakers can think more logically, and clearly, so they should have better jobs and other advantages. In societies where this idea is built deeply in everyday thinking, speakers of the "worse" languages/dialects are destined to live in the periphery of society.

With the aim of proposing a change from linguistic stigmatization to tolerance, some linguists at different institutions of four European countries started a project to describe the characteristics of linguistic stigmatization in their countries: Greece, Hungary, Norway, and Sweden.

The project's main purpose was promoting tolerance and mutual understanding between people of different linguistic background, especially in cases where linguistic diversity interacts with differences in socio-economic and/or geographical backgrounds both in national and intercultural dimensions. For this reason, in the project we studied comparatively the characteristics of linguistic attitudes toward non-standard dialects in the four countries.

• Issues on Language Cultivation: To summarize the outcomes of the project a volume has been published containing six studies about the institutions and characteristics of language cultivation in the participant countries.
• Proposal for the outline of a comparative study
• Two workshops: Szeged (May–June, 1999) and Andros (September, 1999)