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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 11pt;" lang="PT-BR">===========================================<br>
L O W L A N D S - L - 20 February 2009 - Volume 07<br>
===========================================</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br>
From: <span class="ep8xu"><span style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Marcus Buck</span></span></span><span class="hccdpe"> </span><span class="ldacoc"><<a href="mailto:list@marcusbuck.org">list@marcusbuck.org</a>></span><br>
Subject: <span class="hccdpe">LL-L "Language diversity" 2009.02.20 (05)
[E]</span><br>
<br>
From: <a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk">heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk</a>
<mailto:<a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk">heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk</a>><br>
<<a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk">heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk</a>
<mailto:<a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk">heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk</a>>></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">><br>
> The schools certainly thought they were "freeing" people to move<br>
> unhindered and without bias throughout the world of work by giving<br>
> them a lingua franca
that could be understood in the late 19th century<br>
> all the way round the world.<br>
></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">That's the
humanist's point of view. But there is at least one other<br>
relevant point of view. That of the rulers. The King or the many<br>
sovereigns in the German states didn't want educated citizens. They<br>
wanted brave soldiers who happily give their life to defend the ruler,<br>
they wanted hard working people, who don't doubt the decisions of their<br>
rulers. And the schools were the perfect instrument to indoctrinate the<br>
people.<br>
<br>
Even if they wanted the best, that's no reason not to critize them. What<br>
they did, was still wrong.<br>
<br>
And about the "anti-British" thing: I personally dislike it when
people<br>
are argueing in favor of "agressor languages" cause of the alleged<br>
agression from the self-defending minority. After decades of Soviet<br>
suppression of the Baltic languages the Estonians are bad people cause<br>
they want to reinstate Estonian in public life. After centuries of<br>
spurning Low Saxon by the German and Dutch authorities the Low Saxons<br>
are bad people, cause they want some schooling in their language. Cause<br>
that's a) useless and b) bad for German only pupils. The Spanish elites<br>
published a dramatic manifesto that calls for the preservation for the<br>
full Spanish cultural sphere cause the status improvement of Catalan,<br>
Basque, Galician etc. is such a big threat for the tiny and fragile<br>
Spanish speaking area. Boohoo.<br>
After long times of discrimination the attitudes are slowly changing and<br>
former minorities are getting the upper hand and there's a slim chance<br>
to at least partially reverse the destructive effects of the<br>
discrimination and suddenly the former dominant language community<br>
changes the mind and sets a status quo policy. Assimilate or destroy<br>
them until they cease to exist and if they contrary to expectations<br>
successfully resist, try to tell them how bad it is to (re-)assimilate<br>
people.<br>
<br>
It's true that Englishmen didn't kill Welsh people and there were no<br>
obvious orders to "kill Welsh language/culture" and the English
indeed<br>
were able to indoctrinate Welsh people to participate in their<br>
English-only system. There was no big anti-Welsh plot. And still I say,<br>
yes, the English tried to eliminate the Welsh language and culture.<br>
Cause they took many measures to support and protect English, but they<br>
took no measures to support or protect Welsh. They didn't try to kill<br>
the language but they were fully aware, that the way they were acting<br>
could and would lead to the extinction of Welsh in the long run. And<br>
they were very fine with that.<br>
<span style="color: rgb(136, 136, 136);"><br>
Marcus Buck</span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></p>