printability and standardization

[Alkistis Fleischer]

Absolutely. In the Ladin language use survey (1995) that I referred to in my
previous message, only a minority of respondents had less than fluent
ability in German and Italian.

Alkistis Fleischer


----- Original Message -----
From: "Christina Paulston" <paulston+ at pitt.edu>
To: <lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 9:12 PM
Subject: Re: printability and standardization


> Of course it makes sense to use German. Ladin speakers are all bilingual
in
> one or the other lge and if there still, which I doubt, are any
monolingual
> Ladin speakers hidden away in any valley, they are likely to be
illiterate.
> I don't think linguists are always about making sense. Christina
>
> ----------
> >From: Alkistis Fleischer <fleischa at georgetown.edu>
> >To: lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
> >Subject: Re: printability and standardization
> >Date: Thu, Jan 8, 2004, 9:25 PM
> >
>
> > This is a very interesting discussion, but I am wondering:
> >
> > Why should the Italian government utilize Ladin if it is not an official
> > language? It makes sense to use German: it is an official language of
the
> > Trentin-South Tyrol Region along with Italian (since 1972); German
speakers
> > form the numerical majority in the province of Bolzano-South Tyrol, etc.
But
> > why should there be labels in Ladin? To return to the original article,
why
> > should there be pharmaceutical products labeled in Ladin in South Tyrol
if
> > the clientele for these products is less than 5% of the population?!
> >
> > Alkistis Fleischer
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Joshua Fishman" <joshuaafishman at yahoo.com>
> > To: <lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 12:08 AM
> > Subject: printability and standardization
> >
> >
> >> The discussion of (non-)Standardization of Ladin
> >> and the "reluctance" of the Italian government to
> >> utilize it in print should remind us that print
> >> and standardization are quite separate and
> >> independent of each other. Many languages have
> >> been printed (and, of course, also written) far
> >> before their standardization and, indeed, their
> >> use in print contributed greatly to their
> >> ultimate standardization (viz. D-B Kerler 2003).
> >> Of course, standardization did not rescue Latin,
> >> Greek, Hebrew, etc. from disappearing as
> >> vernaculars. It would be particularly
> >> "indelicate" for the Italian government to snub
> >> Ladin due to Ladin's lack of full
> >> standardization, given the lack of full
> >> standardization of Italian to this very day.
> >> English too is far from being fully standardized,
> >> which should lead most of us to be rather less
> >> dismissive of Ladin for this same very human
> >> "failing". All in all, "complete standardization"
> >> is a will-of-the-whisp and some small languages
> >> are far closer to this goal (acting on the
> >> mistaken assumption that it will promote their
> >> acceptance) than much larger ones who couldn't
> >> care less. Joshua A. Fishman
> >>
> >>
> >> =====
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> >>
> >
>
>