LL-L "Language politics" 2008.02.29 (05) [D/E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 29 February 2008 - Volume 05
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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language politics"

Beste Denis,

Je schreef:

Er is toch een groot verschil. In de Rand is Nederlands de officiële en
enige landstaal.
In Luxemburg is Letzeburgs overruled door het Frans.


Klopt, de lokale taal (het Letzeburgs) is door het Frans en het Duits wat
van haar prestige verloren, al heeft ze sinds 1984 ook officiële status, en
is ze de nationale taal. 61% van de bevolking geeft ze op als moedertaal en
minstens 80 % van de bevolking zou ze begrijpen. Vergelijk hiermee de 10 %
die Frans opgeeft als moedertaal. Weliswaar wordt er vrij weinig
gepubliceerd in het Letzeburgs.

En tòch zal de meerderheid der Vlamingen die naar Luxemburg uitwijkt, Frans,
Duits of Engels spreken. Zonder twijfel uit gemakkelijkheidsoverwegingen.
OK, juridisch zal niemand hen een strobreed in de weg leggen want Frans en
Duits zijn ook officieel (al is Engels dat niet), maar op puur menselijk
vlak getuigt het van precies even veel/weinig respect voor de lokale
taal/cultuur als het gedrag dat sommige Franstaligen ten toon spreiden ten
noorden van de Belgische taalgrens.

De Luxemburgers zijn trouwens behoorlijk fier op hun dialect hoor. Al weet
ik niet of ze er zó trots op zijn als de Zwitsers die Schwyzerdütsch
spreken. Het spreken van Schwyzerdütsch in het openbaar zou bijvoorbeeld
(bijna) geen stigma met zich meebrengen. Schrijven doet men wel meer in
standaard Duits dan in Schwyzerdütsch (diglossie).

Ik vraag me dan ook af of Franstalige Zwitsers die in het Duitstalig
gedeelte wonen, kunnen eisen dat hun communicatie met de overheid volledig
in het Frans zou gebeuren (en vice versa).

I wonder if French speaking Swiss, living in the German speaking part of the
country can legally ask their communication with the government to be in
French (and vice versa). Anybody know?

Met vriendelijke groeten,

Luc Hellinckx

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

Folks,

Gael sent me a copy of an article from *The Guardian* (February 28 2008):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/28/mexico

City employees learn language of the Aztec
Jo Tuckman in Mexico City The Guardian, Thursday February 28 2008

"The smoking stars gather against it and the one who cares for flowers is
about to be destroyed." This was the way one Aztec poem foretold the
crushing of empire and culture that would come at the hands of the Spanish.
Nearly 500 years later, Mexico City's leftwing mayor wants everyone to learn
the language of the Aztecs.

Marcelo Ebrard has asked all city officials and employees to learn Nahautl
in an effort to tackle discrimination against the indigenous minority and
engender greater appreciation of past glories

"All of us public servants are going to have to start studying," said
Ebrard. "A people that forgets its origins and throws out its traditions
will be at the mercy of those who dominate global culture."

The introductory course for city employees will begin with the alphabet, but
fluent speakers are already beginning to translate official documents; "This
is not symbolism," the mayor insisted. "It is public policy."

There are about 1.4 million Nahautl speakers in Mexico today, a little more
than 10% of the country's indigenous population. About 30,000 live in Mexico
City, mostly in the poverty-stricken semi-rural outskirts, or working in
wealthier areas as street vendors or servants. They tend to be treated as
second class citizens by the mixed-race majority.

The first course for city employees will be voluntary.

Gael also mentioned that she wondered if this applied to Low Saxon *et al*.
On this point I need to quickly clue her in, since she came on board just
recently.

Yes, Gael. Much like Scots, Low Saxon was suppressed or at least not
supported for centuries, being declared a group of Dutch dialects on the
Netherlands side and as a group of German dialects on the German side.
However, since the 1990s it has been officially recognized as a "regional"
language in both countries (or in the provinces/states in which it is used)
and thus by the European Union within the framework of the European
Languages Charter.

This sounds fine and dandy, but so far the reality is that implementation of
the required policies (such as the right to use the language in
communication with public administration) is being sabotaged by many a
government official or department that are clearly opposed to this "silly
stuff." The usual excuse is that there are insufficient numbers of officials
proficient in the language and insufficient funds to train them and conduct
bilingual communication.

Other Lowlands languages that are now official are Frisian (in the
Netherlands and Germany), Limburgish (in the Netherlands, not in Belgium)
and Scots. Germany also recognized the two Sorbian languages, also the two
languages of the Roma ("gypsies"): Romani and Sinti.

There's a big deal being made about "autochtonous" languages in the
participating countries. In the case of Germany (and probably also in the
case of the other countries) this is obviously with the aim of keeping
"foreigners'" languages foreign, such as Turkish and Kurdish which are
spoken in large numbers but most of whose speakers are what I call
"permanent temporary residents" (*Gastarbeiter *'guest workers'), though
many speakers are now German citizens and most of the young ones feel like
foreigners when they visit their parents' or grandparents' home countries.

Sweden, however, has it's own twist, partly running against that current. It
is one of only two countries that officially recognized Yiddish (the other
country being Moldova).  Yiddish hasn't been used in Sweden for a terribly
long time and certainly not by many, currently only by ca. three thousand
persons. Yet, "Great!" I say, also as far as official recognition of
Finnish, Torne River Finnish, Romani and the Sami ("Lapp") languages is
concerned.  At the same time Sweden has been steadfastly refusing to
officially recognize its "autochtonous" Scandinavian languages, maintaining
that they are parts of Swedish. This applies to Scanian (which, if not
separate, ought to be a part of Danish), Elfdalian, Dalecarlian, Gutnish,
and Jamtlandish (which is of the West Scandinavian type, not East
Scandinavian like Swedish, and ought to be considered a form of Norwegian if
it is not separate).

As for the newspaper article, I say, "¡Bien hecho, excelentísimo señor
alcalde! Pero ..." I have serious reservations.

Yes, Nahuatl (*nāhuatl*), which is really a group of languages, is still
spoken fairly widely in some communities, and Mexico City (*Ciudad de México
*, *Āltepētl Mēxihco*) is within the old heartland (*Mēxihcatl Huēyi
Tlahtohcāyōtl* ~ *Mēxihcatlahtohcāyōtl*) of the Nahua people ("Aztecs").
Furthermore, there has been a movement toward appreciating native heritage
in Mexico, and I say "Great!" to that. Also, I applaud Mexico, which has a
gezillion languages, for not having an official language policy and thus no
official language (like the USA). Even though this may never happen, it
leaves open the possibility of another language taking over as the *de facto
* power language (which is what some people in the USA fear and therefore
want to make English for ever official, while the current two Democratic
contenders are opposed to it). This works in the Americas because the
situation is different from that in Europe where tribalism has been
transferred to nationalism and protection of minorities is thus important.

The only gripe I have with the proposed policy in Mexico City is with the
approach. I fear the mayor is going to shoot himself in the foot. Forcing
people to learn and use another language rarely works. It would be much
better to create incentives, such as a language bonus, perhaps a pay step up
for knowing and using Nahuatl as a city worker. (There are similar things in
the US, for instance in California, especially with regard to Spanish
proficiency.) This ought to go hand in hand with tests so that people don't
just *claim *they have the required proficiency. Furthermore, on the basis
of the tests there ought to be proficiency ranking, where each step up comes
with the incentive of a higher step on the salary scale. This is the only
thing people tend to respond to. Just forcing them will generate nothing but
resentment and cynicism. Furthermore, to set the tone, Nahuatl language and
culture ought to be made a school subject, if not a mandatory one then an
elective one that students find very attractive.

This is my take.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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