<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">===============================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 08 January 2010 - Volume 06<br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><a href="mailto:lowlands.list@gmail.com">lowlands.list@gmail.com</a> - <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/">http://lowlands-l.net/</a></span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">
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===============================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI"><span class="gD" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Marcus Buck</span> <span class="go"><<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="gI">LL-L "Language promotion" 2010.01.08 (03) [EN]</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><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><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="im">
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Subject: Language promotion<br>
<br>Thank you very much for your interesting comments today, David and Marcus. Here are just a couple of comments of mine in return.<br>
<br>
Marcus:<br>
<br>
The most recent developments in Catalonia are quite stunning, at least
to me. On 13 September 2009 the municipality Arenys de Munt held an
inofficial local referendum in which the voters were asked: "Do you
agree on Catalonia becoming an independent, democratic and social State
of law, integrated in the European Union?"<br>
<br>
It resulted in 96.2% voting Yes, only 2.3% voting No, with a
participation rate of 41%. After this many more municipalities held
inofficial referendums. So far 168 municipalities have done so. There
was not a single one where less than 80% voted Yes. The outcome so far
is 94.89% Yes and 3.21% No. Other municipalities will vote in two more
rounds in February and April.<br>
<br>
Of course the participation rate is rather low with 27.41% (the vote is
totally unofficial) and the voting areas so far are mostly rural (e.g.
Barcelona has not yet agreed to hold a vote). But it's still quite
impressive: almost 95% support for full independance!<br>
<br> Far be it from me to rain on this parade, but ... I have read these
reports and I must say that the percentages seem suspect to me. For one
thing, large numbers of residents in these areas are from other parts
of Spain or have roots there, and among these must be a good percentage
that does not use and care about Catalan and/or endorse Catalonian
independence. (Note differentiation between “Catalan” and “Catalonian”,
the latter referring to the region with its ethnically diverse
population.) After all, throughout the eastern area you get by with
Castilian,<br>
<br>
</blockquote></div><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
That's true for sure. Go to the airport of Palma and ask the people
stepping out of a airliner from Frankfurt about the language spoken on
Mallorca. You'll hear a very confident "Spanish" from most of them. In
any area where a native language only recently has gained equal rights
with a formerly dominant language there are people who don't accept the
new status of the language.</span><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="im"><br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
although not knowing Catalan probably keeps you out of certain social
circles. 95% voting for full independence? Hmm ... I don’t know about
that. I expect that Barcelona with have very different results.<br>
<br>
</blockquote></div><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Well, I assume there was no electoral fraud going on. So the numbers
will be right. But of course pro-independantists are more likely to
participate in a referendum about this and anti-independantists are
more likely to boycot it. And of course municipalities with a
predominantly pro-independantist population are more likely to carry
out the rederendum early while predominantly ant-independantist
municipalities will not participate at all. The numbers represent only
192,460 votes so far. The full voting population is about 6 million. So
it's only a tiny fraction. It depends on how "split" or homogenous the
Catalonian population is, how representative these 192,460 are for all
of Catalonia.</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;">
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