In September Manchester Central Library celebrated Manchester’s linguistic diversity with a wonderful event supported by Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham. The celebration was part of a project promoted by Natalie Braber, Professor of Linguistics at Nottingham Trent University.

When we say “heritage”, what do you think about? Perhaps it’s grade-listed buildings, ancient books, or museum objects. But what if we told you that the language you speak, whether it’s English, Urdu, Hungarian, ‘Manc’, or more, is also part of your heritage? Manchester Central Library had a wonderful opportunity to explore this topic with the help of Prof. Natalie Braber as part of a project sponsored by Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham, a great language celebration between fellow UNESCO Cities of Literature.

Prof. Braber approached Manchester Central Library to engage our community groups in a project exploring language as heritage. consultations with Migrant Support and the Hungarian consulate, a focus on how migration to the UK influences immigrants’ perceptions of their native language was strong. This idea was then developed through two workshops with Migrant Support, where artist Sophie Gardiner encouraged participants to express their relationship with their native language through art.

On 11 September Prof Natalie Braber also visited the library and led a session with the Conversation Club, a group that meets in the library twice a month to practice their English. Finally, the project culminated with a language celebration on 13 September, where representatives from the Hungarian, Portuguese, and Romanian Consulate, Colibri Mexican Folkdance, the Chinese Music Classroom at Chetham’s School of Music, and others, shared their linguistic heritage through language-themed activities.

The event’s opening speech was delivered by staff from the Portuguese Consulate, who, together with the Hungarian, Greek, Romanian and Czech consulate, kindly donated a collection of books in foreign languages to the library. There were performances by Neysa Killeen (Irish storytelling), Eugénia Azevedo and José Dias (Portuguese poetry), Mandy Kotsopoulou, Iason Andreadakis, Doreta Boultouka, Spyros Pantos (Greek poetry), Dr Szilvi Naray and Zotmund Jakab (Hungarian prose and poetry), and more.