<div dir="ltr"><div><div style="margin:0px"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium">Duchene Alexandre <br>
</span></div><div style="margin:0px"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><b>Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium"><b>[liste RFS] TR: Declaration on Spain's offensive against the Catalan Language</b><br>
</span></div><div style="margin:0px"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><b>Date: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';font-size:medium">16 July 2013 13:37:10 BST<br>
</span></div><br><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Chères et chers collègues,</span></div>
<div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">
<span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Voici un message que m’a demandé de vous transmettre le Président de la Société catalane de sociolinguistique, Joan Pujolar.</span></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">
<span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Bien à vous,</span></div>
<div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">
<span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Alexandre Duchêne</span></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></div>
<div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif" lang="FR"><span class=""> </span><b>De la part de</b><span class=""> </span>Joan Pujolar<br>
<b>Envoyé :</b><span class=""> </span>mardi 16 juillet 2013 13:33<br><b>À :</b><span class=""> </span>Duchene Alexandre<br><br><b>Objet :</b><span class=""> </span>Declaration on Spain's offensive against the Catalan Language</span></div>
<div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:13.5pt">Alexandre Duchêne</span></div>
<div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:18pt">Reseau Francophone de Sociolinguistique</span></div></div><div style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">
<span style="font-size:13.5pt"><br><br>D</span><span style="font-size:18pt">ear Dr.Duchêne,</span></div><p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="EN-GB">I am the president of the Catalan Society of Sociolinguistics (<a href="http://blogs.iec.cat/socs/" target="_blank" style="color:purple;text-decoration:underline">http://blogs.iec.cat/socs/</a>).
Our executive board has felt it necessary to inform linguists and
social scientists around the globe about developments in Spain in
relation to language policies. We denounce the renewed persecution of
the Catalan language by Spanish authorities, and we attach a declaration
providing the details of the matter.</span></p><p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="EN-GB">You
are probably aware that Spain outlawed the use of Catalan for many
centuries up until 1980 in a bid to create cultural uniformity within
the country. The memory of General Franco’s dictatorship is still fresh
amongst most Catalan adults. And there are good reasons to believe that
the current authorities may seek to achieve the same goals through less
violent means by taking advantage of the fact that Catalan speakers are
demographically in the minority. During the last few years, Spanish
authorities have conducted a sustained strategy to decrease education in
Catalan, prevent media circulation and broadcasting and even create
adhoc regional standards to divide the community. Such behaviour is not
deemed acceptable by the international community and is in contravention
of UNESCO’s fundamental principles as well as the Convention for the
Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the European Charter
for Regional or Minority Languages, and the Framework Convention for the
Protection of National Minorities, all of which Spain has signed.</span></p><p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="EN-GB">We
would be thankful if you could do everything in your power to
disseminate our declaration and/or its contents. There are a number of
ways in which we would appreciate your help:</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom:0cm" type="disc"><li class="" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="EN-GB">Publish the declaration in your journal or e-mail list.</span></li>
<li class="" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="EN-GB">Send a letter to UNESCO or the Council of Europe expressing your concern (a letter template is attached)</span></li>
<li class="" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="EN-GB">Forward the declaration to colleagues you believe may be especially interested in this issue.</span></li>
</ul><p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="EN-GB">We
hope this letter provides an early warning before the situation in
Spain deteriorates and develops in loss of cultural and human rights in a
way that may send a poor signal to all the countries and organizations
that are working for a future of peace, prosperity and equality.</span></p><p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="ES">Yours sincerely,</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="ES"> </span></p><p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">
<span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="ES">Joan Pujolar</span></p><p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="ES">President</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="ES">Societat Catalana de Sociolingüística</span></p><p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">
<span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="ES">Institut d’Estudis Catalans</span></p><p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="ES">C./ Carme 47</span></p>
<span style="font-size:13.5pt" lang="ES">08001 Barcelona</span><br clear="all"><br></div>(Forwarded from Variationist Listserv. )<br><br><div>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br>
Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br>
<br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------
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