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<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 03 July 2008 - Volume 05<br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
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<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe"><span class="EP8xU" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Marcus Buck</span> <span class="lDACoc"><<a href="mailto:list@marcusbuck.org">list@marcusbuck.org</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe">LL-L "Language politics" 2008.07.03 (07) [E]<br><br></span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> <mailto:</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">>></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Subject: Language politics<br>
<br>
Dear Lowlanders,<br>
<br>
Here's something from southwest across the European Lowlands fence in the area of language politics and activism.<br>
<br>
The French government may be sticking to its guns by refusing to make
official any indigenous language besides French (based on a specific
interpretation of the constitution). However, at the same time -- or is
it /because/ of it? -- language activists in France seem to be getting
rather boisterous. I've read a fair bit about Breton and Occitan
rallies and demonstrations, and I've also been watching some video
footage of such events as well as Occitan presentations online. There
seems to be much more energy in the Occitan movement than in those of
minority languages in Northern Europe, probably including French
Flanders. Some of it seems like street parties. Participants look like
having fun mixed with anger and frustration. There seem to be many, if
not mostly, young people among them. There is a general call for
Occitan consciousness, including calls with what sounds to me like
secessionist tones. Might this be an example to show that
non-recognition can unleash exactly that which non-recognition is
supposed to prevent?<br>
<br>
While the situation is not as serious for Low Saxon for instance, I
wonder if some of this youth-appealing energy would do its reassertion
movement good in combating lethargy and infighting as well as
administrative non-cooperation in the implementation of promised
policies. It is my impression that some of this is indeed being done in
the Netherlands' part of the Frisian-speaking world.<br>
<br>
Please take a look at one of the more "aggressive" Occitan Flash presentations:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjjkAQE1A3Y" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjjkAQE1A3Y</a><br>
<br>
The song is in Occitan, but this is a rare case of inclusion of both
Occitan and English subtitles (not French ones!). You might have to
watch it more than once, because there is a lot being sung and written
in rapid succession.<br>
</blockquote><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
After reading about this bold (to avoid the word "aggressive") example
of demanding rights for the Occitan language, I read a bit about
Occitan, cause whenever I hear things like that, I want to understand
the differences that make them "bold", where the Low Saxons are
"cowardly".</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
According to the English Wikipedia article the language is not doing
well. It has a figure of 1.9 million speakers at the top (I don't know,
where they got that number from, there's no source specified, damn
Wikipedia...). Down in the text it has another number: 610,000 people
according to the 1999 census (praise France for doing meaningdul
censuses, Germany has not done any census since 1987, and even before
language wasn't asked. The last census asking for ethnicity or language
was in 1939. And Low Saxon was never an option to answer). The number
of inhabitants of the historical language area is 14 million. These
numbers are comparable to Low Saxon. Low Saxon's historical language
area has (the Eastern territories not counted, only Germany and the
Netherlands) 29 million inhabitants. A survey from 2007 had the result,
that 14,3% of the people in Northern Germany could speak Low Saxon. If
we take the same number for the Netherlands we are at 4.15 million
speakers. So the degree of language maintenance is comparable between
Low Saxon and Occitan. The total numbers are not the same, but are
roughly the same order of magnitude. The degree of differentness to
other languages should be comparable too, I guess (Basque has a high
degree of differentness and many dialects have a low degree of
differentness, Low Saxon in relation to German and Occitan in relation
to French should be in the same range).</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
So both languages do poorly. Most of the speaker base is lost and
speakers are almost all elderly (Wikipedia at least says so for Occitan
too).</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
I wonder: What's the difference, where do the "bold" people come from?
Who sings these protest songs? Who attends the demonstrations?
Wikipedia has an image from an pro-Occitan demonstration: <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Besi%C3%A8rs17march2007.JPG" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Besi%C3%A8rs17march2007.JPG</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">>.
There are many young people in the picture. But didn't we just learn,
that there are almost only elderly people left? Are there pockets with
better language maintenance, where even young people still speak the
language (Low Saxon equivalent: Eastern Frisia. But even there are few
signs of language "boldness")? Or are the young people in the picture
actually no speakers but only supporting the demonstration cause of
regional identity ("we'll show these Parisiens, that the South is still
strong")? What makes the movement successful? Does anybody know answers?</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" color="#888888">
<br>
Marcus Buck</font><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
•
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