UN proclaims 2008 as Year of Languages

[Wayne Leman]

from Eurolang website:

http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2879&Itemid=1&lang=en

      Bruxelles - Brussel, Friday, 18 May 2007 by Davyth Hicks

      The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2008 the 
International Year of Languages. It will aim to promote unity through 
linguistic diversity. The Assembly called upon States and the Secretariat to 
work towards the conservation and defence of the world's languages and 
requested the Secretariat to appoint a coordinator for multilingualism.


      Representatives from several States made contributions. The Andorran 
representative said, "Protecting languages is one of the fundamental pillars 
of cultural diversity".


      Meanwhile, there was refreshing news for our Breton, Basque, Occitan 
and Corsican readers when the representative from France said, “The right to 
use your own language, the capacity to communicate and, therefore, to 
understand and be understood, the preservation of an inheritance that dates 
back centuries or even millennia, should be of prime importance to the 
United Nations”.


      The idea of devoting a whole year to languages was proposed by Austria 
two years ago at the 33rd UNESCO General Conference held in Paris. (Eurolang 
2007)

      UN Press Release 
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2007/ga10592.doc.htm