LL-L "Language politics" 2005.01.06 (02) [E]

Thu Jan 6 22:26:40 UTC 2005

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L O W L A N D S - L * 06.JAN.2005 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: "Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc." <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: Language politics

I just got in sent by Mr. Conter, one of the contributors of Belgian
Arelerland, a free copy of a publication about Luxembourgish:
:"Lëtzebuergesch: Quo vadis?", 304 pp in DIN A4 (some pages trilingual over
3 columns: French, Luxembourgish, German, ISBN 2-87996-855-0, publisher:
Melusina in L-8226 Mamer.
It brings together texts of several conferences held in the period November
2002 till January 2004.
I submit it under "Language politics" rather than under "Resources" since I
just pick out a few things, comparable with the situation of Flemish in
Northern France.

- A - The minority in Belgium -

p. 201-224 Alber Conter describes the situation in Belgium (Arelerland)

Some elements:

- 1839 Arel (Aarlen, Arlon), for political / military-strategical reasons
left to Belgium together with the Walloon part of Luxemburg, becomes the
capital of a basically romance speaking province and gets an influx of
French speaking administrative people.

- 19th century: in the Southern villages of Arelerland industrial
development gives a strong immigration of Romance speaking people, while one
has a strong emigration in the rural municipalities of the region.

- 1867 the municipal administration of downtown Arel replaces the bilingual
education (German-French) in primary schools with primarily French. The
villages around maintained German in primary school (except for the
industrial South)

- Other elements were the predominant position of French in the Kingdom of
Belgium, and the lack of any position of German in the 19th century.

- Reactions at the beginning of the 20th century: the Roman-Catholic church
maintains German. Movements: "Deutscher Verein zur Hebung und Pflege der
Muttersprache", with Godefroid Kurth.
The local dialect at the time was called "Däitsch", "Areler Däitsch".

- 1914-1918: Germanization efforts by the Germans, though psychologically
offset through cruelties committed in the area.

- After WW1: German completely banned in all (governmental and
Roman-Catholic) primary schools in Arel. Bilingual teachers sent to the
newly annexed territory of "Eupen-Malmedy-Sankt-Vith", so that only French
speaking teachers were left in Arel.
In secondary schools "German" as a foreign language taught was replaced,
mainly with "Dutch".

- In the villages though bilingual education French-German was continued
till 1947. The church maintained German till the end of the fifties.

- WWII 1940-1945 Arelerland was not annexed by the Germans
[contrary to
- Eupen-Malmedy-St_Vith;
- Northern Altbelgien (the Bleyberg-Moresnet area) and the
- Central Altbelgien (the Beho-Bocholz area)]
and remained under military government (Miltärverwaltung) with occupied
Belgium.
German and Luxembourgish are promoted by the Germans in Arelerland, while in
the Grand-Duchy Luxembourgish and French were banned
German imposed as language in schools created strong resistance: 40 percent
of the pupils left school, strong francisation as patriotic reaction.

- After-war repression period:
In 1948 German is banned from primary schools in the villages around Arel.
The results of the (politically biased) language census of 1947 are used as
justification
Strong anti-Germanic feelings (reasons include the fact that Belgian
Germanic speaking war prisoners were much earlier sent home by the Germans
during the ware than French speaking prisoners, etc. This all creating
aggressive popular reactions against non-French speakers)
The French school inspection advised strongly to burn all German language
books, teachers using German incidentally got negative appraisal notes by
school inspectors,..

- In 1960 though, 90 percent of the kids, in the villages around Arel, still
spoke the local dialect.
This was overturned completely with the start of kindergartens from age 2.5
on, with just French as vehicular language. The school language penetrated
in the families.

- Follow political reactions (without significant result), as well as an
extensive presentation of the movement "Arelerland a Sprooch"

- B- The situation in France

p. 225-240 Jean-Louis Kieffer describes the situation in Noth-Eastern
France.

Of the actual French region Lorraine, only the Northern part of the
department Moselle has Germanic dialects (a map is included in the text)
Name of this area:
- « Lorraine Allemande » / « Deutsch Lothringen »
also:
- « Lorraine thioise »
more recently:
- "Lorraine francique"
Name in "Platt":
- "Deitsch" or "Fränkisch Lothringen"
  as distinct from "Welsch Lothringen".

Identity problem:
For Alsatians it is accepted that they have their accent as part of their
identity. For Lothringians having a Germanic accent is a social handicap and
forces those people to assimilate thoroughly with French.
"Ma muss mét de Héerd gehn - Il faut marcher avec le troupeau".

Local name for the language :
"plattdeitsch" and "platt" (in French just "patois", term accepted by the
Lothringians, but rejected as offensive by-Alsatians)
Subdivisions:
- francique lorrain (Bitche, Sarreguemines, Forbach)
- francique mosellan in the West
The latter further subdivided in :
- mosellan (Boulay, Bouzonville)
- francique luxembourgeois (Thionville, Sierck)

- 1685 decree by King Louis XIV : French is the only official language in
the Thionville area (annexed part of Luxemburg), in Flanders (parts annexed
by France), in Alsace and in the Rousillion.

- 1748 King Stanislas, duke of Lothringen, declares French the official
language of the area. In 1766 Lothringen is annexed by France

-1794 All official documents must be in French or are void. Using French by
all introduced as policy for leveling social differences.

- 1871 Annexed by Germany. School education in German.

- 1919 racial selection [Î quote], expulsion of Germans, French as only
language in schools

- 1926 cultural movements get approval for having 3 hours per week of German
in the education system

- 1940 expulsion of French speakers who refuse to learn German

- 1945 teaching of German suspended officially for 4 years for compensating
the war, but never reintroduced.

-1945-1960 "platt" speaking punished in schools

- early sixties: churches stop using German for religious education of kids
and for preaching

Actual situation
German is treated as a foreign language in the educational system
Some teaching of Luxembourgish in a few schools (Ritzing, Launstroff,
Berg-sur-Moselle and in one secondary school in Sierck)

People nowadays are more and more aware that the "welschisation" is a
cultural regression. [But I guess it is much too late for reversing things]

Please be aware I just selected some items out of these articles.

Regards,

Roger

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