LL-L: "Language politics" LOWLANDS-L, 31.AUG.2000 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 31.AUG.2000 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Criostoir O Ciardha [paada_please at yahoo.co.uk]
Subject: LL-L: "Language politics" LOWLANDS-L, 31.AUG.2000 (01) [E]

Dear all,

This talk of Mercator is interesting. So far as I
recall, Mercator is a partnership between the
University of Wales/Prifysgol Cymru, the Catalan
government and the European Union. It's a welcome site
and very informative. It deals with media, legalities
and avenues of expression for minority languages in
general.

It was very interesting to hear that a Breton-language
television station - TV Breizh - has been set up in
Brittany. You are of course correct to assume that the
use of minority languages within the French State runs
contrary to a particularly imperialistic Constitution
that seems to be selective in its definition of
"Libertie, Egalitie et Fraternitie". It has long been
taken for granted by the French State that minority
languages have no place within the country and they
have resisted all efforts to amend their behaviour and
their violation of basic human and linguistic rights.

Breton, Euskara, Catalan, Flemish et al have no legal
recognition nor any overt existence within France. Any
usage by regional governments is furtive, frowned upon
or non-existent. And so far as I know, France was the
only country in the EU to refuse to sign the Charter
for Minority Languages. Latterly we have seen the
inherent centralising paranoia with regard to Corsica,
where the Interior Minister has resigned rather than
grant devolution to that embattled colony.

It seems from my Celticist viewpoint that the
intention of the chauvinistic French State is to
harass local languages out of existence and then to
belatedly offer a minor degree of recognition once
they are spreadeagled on the mortuary slab. The
attitude is one of rampant imperialism, based on the
notion that if you are French, then you must speak
that language and nothing else. If you speak one of
the minority languages such as Breton or Basque you
are a "traitor" or a "separatist".

But let not my word be taken at face value. I'm aware
I'm seen on Lowlands-L as a worthless socialist
polemicist. However, that doesn't change the basic
fact on the ground, which is that France is the most
aggressively and offensively centralised linguistic
hegemony in Europe, incapable of renovation and hungry
for a "Gallic State".

If you don't believe me, check the facts out for
yourselves.

I can't understand why more of us in the minority
language community don't stand up and be counted in
solidarity with the Bretons (Celtic), the Catalans
(Romance) or the Flemish (Lowland Germanic). This is
not a "French" issue - it is a European one.

Beidh ar la linn,

Criostoir.

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