Петиция за признание русского языка

[anne marie devlin]

The question of language identity and policy in the Baltic (and many other post-soviet) states is more complex than that of Catalan, for example.  As far as I'm aware a mono- or bi-lingual Catalan speaker does not have to undergo an exam in Castillian before being granted an EU passport as is the practice at least in Latvia.  It seems as if the extreme policies of the Baltic states are creating further and deeper divisions within their societies.  
Although, the push towards monolingual states is understandable given the history and size of the population - the Baltic states are after all re-asserting their identity after 45 years of oppression and of course Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian should be the official languages and yes, there should be a drive to ensure that everyone speaks the official languages but you cannot create equal, stable countries by denyng a sizaeable proportion of the population rights.  Being from the north of Ireland, I have witnessed this in practice and am paasionate about equality and mutual cultural respect and tolerance regardless of who you think is to blame.
For anyone who's interested in language policy, I recommend a volume edited by Aneta Pavlenko entitled Multilingualism in post-Soviet Countries
 AM

> Date: Mon, 21 May 2012 12:53:52 -0400
> From: paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Петиция за признание русского языка
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> 
> George Kalbouss wrote:
> 
> > I'm not going to be Pollyanish and ignore the reality that some of
> > the language policies of the [Baltics] were legislated to "get back"
> > at the Russian domination during the Soviet era, but -- let's face it
> > -- it is now 20 years since Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have
> > regained their independent state status. From what is being
> > discussed in SEELANGS, it seems that the Russian speakers in these
> > nations haven't yet learned the languages of their respective realms?
> > Am I incorrect in my assumption? And, if they haven't, why hold
> > out?
> 
> National pride aside, which is the more useful skill? Speaking a Baltic 
> tongue (and for the purposes of this discussion I'm including Estonian) 
> will get you contact with a few million people in the immediate area, 
> but speaking Russian will get you contact with hundreds of millions 
> throughout the FSU and beyond, not to mention the vast literature in 
> both arts and sciences.
> 
> I'm not advocating for Russians in the Baltic countries to ignore the 
> local language, I'm just saying this is an important reason why they do.
> 
> -- 
> War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
> --
> Paul B. Gallagher
> pbg translations, inc.
> "Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
> http://pbg-translations.com
> 
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