LL-L "Language & identity" 2004.04.05 (02) [E/French]

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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: LL-L "Language survival" 2004.04.02 (04) [E]

I would like to comment further on the issue of Flemish in the North of
France. What follows reflects my personal experience and opinion. Since it
touches politics, others may not share it.

- 1 -
> From: denis dujardin <dujardin at pandora.be>
> Subject: LL-L "Language survival" 2004.04.02 (01) [E]
> I still wonder why, this language identity hasn't been on a higher level
of conscience in French-Flanders.

I'm already above mid fifty and I have been doing industrial restructuring
projects in the area from the Flemish North to as far South as
Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône (Poitiers area, Val-d'Oise). My cy is registered in
Lille and I regularly have a variety of contacts at the CCI (Chamber of
Commerce) in Rijsel/Lille and I regularely participate at events of the
Chambre-Franco-Belge, meeting almost monthly in the Marc-en-Baroeul area
with industrial people from both counties, mainly from Lille (F), Kortrijk
(B) and Mouscon (B).

What I see as main concern for many people is employment.
I think many young people are in a very deep career crisis, and I have been
seeing many people at occasions of recruitments in a serious degradation of
self esteem and professional ambition. The old industrial core business of
textile in the "Nord" and coal mining in the "Artois" are gone and not
replaced by new industrial activities. Second and third generation kids from
immigrants of the sixties(?) add to the problem, since they are still more
handicapped while competing.

I think, whoever wants to get an idea of what is living there must see the
film "La vie de Jésus", 1997, playing in Belle/Bailleul. (available on DVD,
editions M Montparnasse, French only).

>>From the many comments on IMDb, I quote the one of a Mr. Howard Schumann,
Vancouver, B.C., since it is close to my own perception of the film
-- quote
La Vie de Jesus, a film by Bruno Dumont, is an unconventional look at
marginal young people living in Bailleul in northern France. They spend
their time without much purpose, riding around the drab Flanders town on
motorbikes or playing in a marching band. From the opening of the film, I
could sense that I was in the hands of a director with unique talent. One of
Dumont's greatest strengths is his uncanny ability to capture the sense of
emptiness of the town and the people who inhabit it. With little dialogue
and no musical score other than the sounds of nature to break the stillness,
we are forced to relate to the characters by observing their eyes, their
physical movements, and the facial expressions that reveal an inner sadness.
In La Vie de Jesus, unemployed, uneducated, and epileptic 20-year old Freddy
(David Douche) lives with his mother Yvette (Genevieve Cottreel), a café
owner. Douche gives a haunting performance as the sensitive but not very
bright Freddy, his body scarred from repeated falls from his motorcycle and
his face mirroring the fear of not knowing when his next epileptic seizure
will come. Freddy has a girl friend, Marie (Marjorie Cottreel), who works as
a cashier at the supermarket but their relationship lacks an emotional pull
and their graphically depicted sex feels mechanical. Dumont does not judge
his characters and they are fully three-dimensional, both guilty and
innocent, displaying tenderness one minute and cruelty the next, searching
for human connection. Freddy trains his finch to sing and takes the boy who
just lost his brother to the beach to cheer him up, yet shortly afterwards
he and his friends humiliate an overweight girl who plays in the band.
One of the most moving scenes takes place at a hospital where the friends
stand around a hospital bed watching one of the boys' brother who is dying
of Aids. On the wall there is a picture of Jesus described as "about a guy
who comes back to life". They do not talk but wait and watch silently and we
wait with them as if expecting momentary redemption. Freddy and his friends
are not "bad" people but each one is tightly wound, looking for a reason to
explode and the film seethes with tension. When a young Arab boy Kader
(Kader Chaatouf) foolishly tempts fate by making a play for Marie, the
underlying racism of the society transforms an ordinary love story into a
tragedy of transcendent power.
-- end quote

Last year, starting up a facility in Lot-Beersel, just South of Brussels, we
got some people in from Maubeuge, travelling each day from the Avesnois area
in France, to Brussels for a meager salary of the distribution sector.

So I think young people over there have quite some other concerns than
preserving the languages of their grand-parents.

- 2 -
The Belgian "vision" of Flanders has been (19th and 20th century) the area
where dialects, associated with Dutch, were spoken, and where Dutch had a
tradition of being the written language (except for some upper-class French
speakers). The concept of the identity was, and for many still is, the
language, basically Dutch.
Attempts to create a "Flemish" language identity failed. That battle was
lost in 1844, when the Belgian government opted for an orthography close to
the Dutch spelling (the Commission orthography). Very strong West-Flemish
emotional resistance can be found in the parliamentary records (Moniteur
belge, 1844-01-20, 1844-01-26, 1844-02-02). That push towards Dutch was
finalized with the acceptance of the common (Belgium + Netherlands) Dutch
orthography of 1864.
Some writers (Gezelle, Streuvels, ...) have been using a very strong
West-Flemish vocabulary in their works afterwards, but the "Flemish" case
was lost in Belgium, and defending "Dutch" gradually became the core target
of Flemish movement.

No effort, I'm aware off, has been done to involve the French in these
reforms, and many took distance.
--- quote (in French)
Le Comité flamand et ses sympathisants comme Marie-Thérése insistent
inlassablement sur le caractère populaire de la langue flamande dans leur
Flandre française. Sociologiquement parlant, ils font de cette langue un des
attributs inaltérables d'une catégorie sociale à laquelle ils
n'appartiennent pas eux-mêmes, celle du peuple. Rien d'étonnant donc que
l'on retrouve chez eux une désapprobation sous-jacente dans leur
appréciation de phénomènes qui, à leur sens, vident le flamand de ce contenu
exclusivement populaire. C'est le cas de la « guerre de l'orthographe » et
de la réforme à laquelle elle aboutit en Belgique, réforme qui pousse les
patois flamands à se confondre avec le néerlandais tel qu'on l'écrivait aux
Pays-Bas [...]. Se fondant sur les informations recueillies auprès d'un
membre du Comité flamand à Dunkerque à la fin du siècle, Valabrègue note que
« le dialecte qui a été réorganisé de nos jours en Belgique se rapproche,
dans ses formes, du hollandais. Cette langue, en devenant officielle et
littéraire, s'est éloignée de ses origines populaires ; le flamand qu'on
parle aux environs de Dunkerque est resté, pour ainsi dire, plus classique »
[...]. En constatant le même phénomène en Belgique, Marie-Thérése, à travers
le choix de ses adjectifs, émet un jugement qui ne trompe pas : les deux
variétés de flamand littéraire sont : - le flamand de Courtrai, naif et trés
pittoresque ; le flamand de France se rapproche beaucoup du flamand de
Courtrai et est trés ancien ; - le flamand d'Anvers, illustré par H.
Conscience ; il est plus recherché, plus prétentieux que le flamand de
Courtrai et se rapproche davantage de l'allemand moderne ; c'est la langue
parlée en Hollande. Le curé Emile Delanghe parle tout simplement du «
flamand à la remorque du hollandais » [..].
-- end quote
quoted from p. 29 in: Eric Defoort, Une châtelaine flamande, Marie-Thérèse
le Boucq de Ternas 1873-1961, Dunkerque, Éditions des Beffrois, 1985

Momentarily, while courses of "Dutch" are organized, in Bailleul (Belle) and
at other sites, some people still defend the local "Flemish" language (as
e.g. Marteel, with his grammar of the Flemish of Bray-Dunes and Ternynck,
with poems written in Flemish of Steenvoorde). I think this division over
what is the language to defend, has weakened the few defendants of the
language tradition.
I have seen similar movements die in Thionville (Lorraine), where
preferences for the local dialect, for the Luxembourgish standard language
and for German, deeply and emotionally divided those defending maintenance
of a Germanic linguistic past in the area.
More interest is emerging from the Lille area, where a few people start
becoming interested in learning "Dutch" as a foreign language. Also some
shopping areas close to the border start doing something in Dutch as
courtesy to Belgian customers from over the border. At meetings of the
Chambre-Franco-Belge, even the old French premier, Mauroy, regularly
present, incidentally tries a couple of words in Dutch, as a gesture of
courtesy.

- 3 -
Where language became the key factor for defining the binding identity of
the new Flanders in Belgium (Flanders + Brabant - Loon-Limburg), people in
the North of France are also looking for a regional identity.
While some joint states got a name as:
Mexico for the "Estados Unidos en México"
Belgium for the Southern or Catholic Provinces of the Netherlands
Picardie for the region with departments Somme, Aisne and Oise
others never got a real name, as e.g.:
the United States (of/in America)
the region Nord-Pas-de-Calais in France.

For the latter case some intellectuals are trying to fix it and promoting
names as e.g. "Pays-Bas français", but when looking at the results of the
recent regional elections, with overall movements to the left, the majority
of the population is not concerned with these intellectual things, but
rather with their income, their pension, ... and how these all will be
affected by governmental savings.

I'm member of a cultural group of the area, the Michiel De Swaen cercle,
promoting a Flemish identity. Contributing to that identity is the (lost)
language for sure. but this is just part of a large collection of cherished
symbols, among flags, marches commemorating forgotten battles, as the one of
Peene, etc. etc.
A couple of years ago I participated at the annual banquet (in Cassel that
year). Of about 40 people present, about 20 came from Belgium. None of the
French people present spoke Dutch or Flemish. Flemish songs were sung, by
the Belgians only.
Since, among the Belgians present, some people were identifiable as
belonging to the extreme right, although I'm still member, I stopped
participating at these events.

What I want to say is that while the French Westhoek Flemings want to define
their identity, the elements they are using as building blocs are not the
same as the ones Flemings in Belgium have been using for creating their new
region "Vlaanderen".

Once a language is lost, it is very difficult to learn. It is much easier to
group around a flag and have a walking event in the Peene area. The (lost)
language remains as historical symbol, not as a tool for communication.

In Belgian Limburg we have a Celtic group, looking for remnants of the
Celtic past in traditions, archeological findings etc. Books are published
and they try to identify some kind of a remaining Celtic identity. For that
exercise they have apparently no need for trying to speak the old Gaulic
language. Others are playing Cowboy and Indian, and really believe in that
week-end identity.

I just want to say, language is not necessary the only posible factor for
defining an identity. The town Lille calls itself as capital des Flandres.
Flandres here includes as well the Westhoek, as also the old French (Picard)
speaking districts of Flanders, the old Chatellenies of Lille, Douai and
Orchies.

- 4 -
Many blame the French Jacobine state as responsible for loss of regional
languages. Certainly the state did not contribute to develop regional
languages, but people were not put in jail either for speaking the regional
language.
Use of the French language in administration, education and justice was
imposed by law indeed. But this was not necessarily so much different from
the impact of English in the UK and in the USA? Just on the continent all
these things are written in statutory law, while other countries may have
less parliamentary enacted legislation, but practically a very similar
result.
Jacobine legislators frequently motivated educating kids decently in French
in the country as a gesture for giving all kids equal opportunities in
France. I think many immigrants in the US desperately want and wanted their
kids to be excellent in English for the very same reason.
As for harassing kids on the school playground, because of them speaking the
regional dialect, this practice, used in some schools in Belgium, for
promoting kids speaking decent French, was later continued for making kids
speaking Dutch.
I was in middle school in the early sixties and I terribly hated the ABN
terror of those days (in Tongeren).

- 5 -
People in the Westhoek in France are French since the end of the 17th
century. That is about 15 generations ago. Virtually all are very loyal to
the French nation. One cannot redraw maps, restoring an old moment of the
past. Flemish people in Belgium incidentally think Westhoek people belong to
Belgium. They may like Belgium indeed, but they have been serving France for
several generations, and after 300 years, they are really French.

- 6 -
As to the anti-Germanic reactions after the 2d world war, the reactions were
much more confined than in Belgium. Just some of those, who used the
occupation for promoting the Flemish cause, got a couple of years. I cannot
find back details for the moment. But post-war anti-Flemish
repression,because of the war, never has been a big political case in the
French Westhoek. That does not mean people had sympathy for collaborators
with the ennemy.
Further, when I passed in Hazebrouck some time ago on a Sunday, there was
some festivity planned. On both side of the streets there were Flemish lion
flags every 3 meter. I felt as if I was walking in pre-war Germany.

So these were some of my thoughts on the subject,
Regards,

Roger

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language & identity

Hi, Roger!

Thanks a lot for sharing your views and thoughts above.  It's very much
appreciated, not doubt by more Lowlanders than just me.

Thanks for reminding us that the average person -- especially a person in an
economically depressed area, often inhabited by a community that is a
minority in some way or another -- does not care terribly much about such
"luxury" matters like ethnic and linguistic survival.  It is more often than
not people who are economically barely getting by and are burdened with low
self-esteem that are quite willing to let go of their ethnic and linguistic
identity if there are socioeconomic incentives for doing so.  Of course, you
can also turn around and say that the very threat of economic hardship --
real, imagined or fabricated -- could be used to entice minorities into the
"mainstream" (i.e., to let go of their "specialness") of the country in
which they happen to live.

It is certainly true to say that ethnic and regional identity can be
maintained even after the language of a group or region has become extinct.
However, as you, too, seem to say, at least indirectly, this tends to be or
come across either as "far right-wing" or as "old-fashioned" -- flags,
songs, dances, parades, historical grudges, etc. -- none of it appealing to
most younger people, and most of it misunderstood and ridiculed.  I still
believe that language and language-specific art and literature are still the
most important set of "anchors" for ethnic and regional identity.  Without
them, this identity is bound to fade away sooner or later.

You can clearly see this in the case of the Sorbs, a Germany-specific
Slavonic community.  There are some people who do not speak Sorbian and
still consider themselves Sorbian, often participate in Sorbian cultural
events and learn to sing Sorbian songs.  However, a generation or so later
this too fades away.  The Sorbian homeland of Lusatia used to be quite
large: from farwestern Poland to about Leipzig and from just south of Berlin
to about today's German-Czech border.  The only area in which Sorbian is
still used is also the only area in which Sorbian identity is still alive,
and it is this tiny area, economically disadvantaged (until German power
discovered natural resources and has been trying to eradicate Sorbian
towns), that still bares the name Lusatia.  Outside it, there are only faint
shades of Sorbian culture left, also Sorbian traces in the German dialects,
but Sorbian identity is more or less gone.  Similarly, we know that
Draveno-Polabian culture and identity of the Lunenburg Heath region only
lasted as long as the Slavonic language of the Draveno-Polabs lasted.  The
last native speaker died at the very end of the 18th century, and ethnic and
cultural identity followed very, very soon.

Eastern Friesland in Germany is a "mixed" case in my view.  Sure enough, the
East Frisian language has not been spoken there for centuries now (though
until the beginning of the 20th century there were some remaining enclaves
on the East Frisian Islands, and one of them remains till this day outside
Eastern Friesland, in the Sater area).  However, somehow the East Frisians
managed to substitute their lost language with Lowlands Saxon (Low German),
another minority language, and they use it as one of the most important
pillars of their identity, which may still be ethnically Frisian in some
ways.  Apparently, this was initially not intended, since Lowlands Saxon was
the majority language at the time it encroached in Eastern Friesland.  (A
similar thing happened in Groningen, in the Netherlands.)  But with the
unstoppable tide of true Germanization, Lowlands Saxon quickly descended to
the level of a low-prestige "dialect group."  It was in Eastern Friesland
that it has one of its most important remaining stalward communities.  I am
fairly convinced that in other parts of Northern Germany the language does
less "well" because Saxon identity has been eroded to the point of just
faint echoes of "North German" awareness.  This seems to point to a close
symbiotic relationship between ethnicity and language.

Given the seemingly intractable language policy situation in Belgium -- a
type of petrified compromise solution, a permanent uneasy truce, so to
speak -- I fear that non-"mainstream" languages (Flemish, Walloon,
Limburgish, Luxembourgish, other Rhenish dialects, etc.) are more
immediately doomed in that country than elsewhere, simply because they are
not and apparently will not be officially recognized, with or without
European Language Charter.  Instead, according to their loyalties, Belgians
will be more and more drawn into communities that utilize what amounts to
foreign languages: Standard Dutch, Standard French and Standard German
(never mind remaining Belgian shades).  Is my assessment of this situation
wrong?

Thanks again!
Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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