Antw: Venezuela proposes UNESCO convention for the protection of endangered languages

[Franz Dotter]

Dear Mike,

You are right in saying that things are far more complicated. There are
many factors which cause extinction or endangerment of languages. E.g.
the "big languages" eating up the smaler ones are not simply evil agents
but show so many economic and social advantages that they are chosen by
users of minority languages. It is not (only) bad old or new
"colonialism" but also national or even regional oppresssion or
devaluation of smaller languages and cultures, sometimes only taking no
measures to help these languages. And. in my experience, there are many
people in administrations who do not really understand what linguists or
anthropologists mean when they argue for keeping languages alive. And we
have to respect the self-determination of the users of minority
languages.

As scientists, we have the obligation to analyse the roles of the
different agents very cautiously and not to offer simple
solutions/explanations. E.g. I'm really angry that the USA politics
against Sudan is not supported by others (the same case as in Bosnia).
The situation is different in South America where we can often find
activities of US and European companies collaborating (or in silent
agreement) with regional or local authorities just looking aside, the
reults of which are endangering indigenous culture. In many cases over
all the world, big companies or political clans do not stand at the side
of local indigenous people. I keep to the information obtained from the
journal "Pogrom" (puiblished in German by the society for endangered
people). As you may know yourself, the work of SIL has unquestionable
advantages for many languages, but also some dangers for cultures
(again: we have to very clearly analyse the balance of plus and minus in
every case).

Anyway, there are enough reasons why scientists should also be active
on the political level.

Best 

Franz

>>> <Mike_Cahill at sil.org> 04/18/07 10:39  >>>
Dear Franz (if I may),

As I'm reading the document more closely, it looks like they're saying
"languages are in danger, so we should do something." The "something"
is
not specified. It's a nice sentiment, and goes in the right direction,
but
I hate to put my name to support that's this vague. I do think it's
worth
watching, though.

The other slight objection I have is the phrasing "this significant
drop in
the number of languages is due, among other things, to the cultural,
political, religious, and economic expansion of dominant countries
whose
languages prevail over others through hegemony and imposition." In
Africa,
it is not languages of particular *countries* that are killing smaller
languages. It is larger African languages, like Swahili and Hausa, and
even
lesser-known languages, that gobble up their neighbors. So there is
some
room for improvement in the factual basis, I think.

Practically, I'm not sure if there is a mechanism in place for
supporting
this. I suppose one could always make a petition and send it to
UNESCO...
But like I said, I'm reluctant to sign something when I don't know what
the
actual proposal could be. Would it be that each government would be
required/encouraged to develop orthographies and a mass of literacy
materials for each of its languages, no matter how small? If so,
governments would just ignore it as impractical.

And we in SIL are doing our best to improve the ratio, so that 80% of
African languages do not remain unwritten!

Mike Cahill



                                                                       
   
             "Franz Dotter"                                            
   
             <Franz.Dotter at uni                                         
   
             -klu.ac.at>                                               
To 
                                       <Mike_Cahill at SIL.ORG>           
   
             04/18/2007 11:03                                          
cc 
             AM                                                        
   
                                                                  
Subject 
                                       Antw: Venezuela proposes UNESCO 
   
                                       convention for the protection of
   
                                       endangered languages            
   
                                                                       
   
                                                                       
   
                                                                       
   
                                                                       
   
                                                                       
   
                                                                       
   




Shouldn't we have a possibility to support this initiative by
electronically signing somewhere?
(despite the initiative comes from Venezuela; beg your pardon
US-citizens, smile)

Best

Franz Dotter

University of Klagenfurt
Center for Sign Language and Deaf Communication
Funded by: Provincial government of Carinthia, Bundessozialamt
Kaernten, European Social Fund
Head: Franz Dotter (hearing)
Collaborators: Elisabeth Bergmeister (deaf), Silke Bornholdt (deaf),
Christian Hausch (deaf), Marlene Hilzensauer (hearing), Klaudia
Krammer
(hearing), Christine Kulterer (hearing),  Anita Pirker (deaf), Andrea
Skant (hearing), Natalie Unterberger (deaf).
Homepage: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/fzgs 
Fax: ++43 (0)463 2700 2899
Phone: ++43 (0)463 2700 /2821 (Franz Dotter), /2822 (Andrea Skant),
/2823 (Marlene Hilzensauer), /2824 (Klaudia Krammer), /2829 (Christine
Kulterer)
Email addresses: firstname.lastname at uni-klu.ac.at 


>>> Michael Cahill <Mike_Cahill at SIL.ORG> 04/18/07 5:34  >>>
FYI, a proposed UNESCO resolution.

Mike Cahill

(See attached file: 07-04 Proposal to UNESCO EB re Endangered
Languages.pdf)