LL-L "Language diversity" 2009.02.20 (07) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 20 February 2009 - Volume 07
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From: Marcus Buck <list at marcusbuck.org>
Subject: LL-L "Language diversity" 2009.02.20 (05) [E]

From: heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk <mailto:heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk>
<heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk <mailto:heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk>>

>
> The schools certainly thought they were "freeing" people to move
> unhindered and without bias throughout the world of work by giving
> them a lingua franca that could be understood in the late 19th century
> all the way round the world.
>

That's the humanist's point of view. But there is at least one other
relevant point of view. That of the rulers. The King or the many
sovereigns in the German states didn't want educated citizens. They
wanted brave soldiers who happily give their life to defend the ruler,
they wanted hard working people, who don't doubt the decisions of their
rulers. And the schools were the perfect instrument to indoctrinate the
people.

Even if they wanted the best, that's no reason not to critize them. What
they did, was still wrong.

And about the "anti-British" thing: I personally dislike it when people
are argueing in favor of "agressor languages" cause of the alleged
agression from the self-defending minority. After decades of Soviet
suppression of the Baltic languages the Estonians are bad people cause
they want to reinstate Estonian in public life. After centuries of
spurning Low Saxon by the German and Dutch authorities the Low Saxons
are bad people, cause they want some schooling in their language. Cause
that's a) useless and b) bad for German only pupils. The Spanish elites
published a dramatic manifesto that calls for the preservation for the
full Spanish cultural sphere cause the status improvement of Catalan,
Basque, Galician etc. is such a big threat for the tiny and fragile
Spanish speaking area. Boohoo.
After long times of discrimination the attitudes are slowly changing and
former minorities are getting the upper hand and there's a slim chance
to at least partially reverse the destructive effects of the
discrimination and suddenly the former dominant language community
changes the mind and sets a status quo policy. Assimilate or destroy
them until they cease to exist and if they contrary to expectations
successfully resist, try to tell them how bad it is to (re-)assimilate
people.

It's true that Englishmen didn't kill Welsh people and there were no
obvious orders to "kill Welsh language/culture" and the English indeed
were able to indoctrinate Welsh people to participate in their
English-only system. There was no big anti-Welsh plot. And still I say,
yes, the English tried to eliminate the Welsh language and culture.
Cause they took many measures to support and protect English, but they
took no measures to support or protect Welsh. They didn't try to kill
the language but they were fully aware, that the way they were acting
could and would lead to the extinction of Welsh in the long run. And
they were very fine with that.

Marcus Buck

•

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