[lg policy] Catalan language policy: Marxist, Stalinist, Francoist or fascist?

Fri Jan 29 15:09:19 UTC 2010

All,

I realized this message was problematical when I forwarded it, but it
seems to me that
there can be excesses in language-policy management, especially when a former
minority then asserts its hegemony in unfair ways.  I was thinking of
the situation in India
where in all of its big cities, all of which are multilingual, various
measures have been taken
to suppress the rights of now-smaller minorities there.  In Madras,
where Telugu is reported by
various censuses to be at least 40% of the population, no provision
for Telugu schooling,
signage, or any usage whatsoever is allowed.  In Karnataka, attempts
to control cinema
showings to restrict them to Kannada only in some places, has led to
violence and attacks
on movie theaters, even though Kannada film production is very low.
In Bombay, signs
on buses are in Marathi only, and the bus numbers are in devanagari
also, which makes it
impossible for speakers of other languages (myself included) to know
what the destinations
of the  buses are.  By contrast, the regional rail systems, managed by
the Central government,
have signage in three languages--the local "state" language, English,
and Hindi.  (IN fact, I
think I once even saw signage in Gujarati while in a Bombay regional
railway, but I'm not sure.)

Notice I haven't referred to Bombay as "Mumbai" or Madras as "Chennai"
 These name changes
I feel, are also an attempt to impose a single ethnic identity on the
multilingual city, and extinguish
any past notions of a more cosmopolitan history.  India is a naturally
multilingual country, so
attempts to deny this and impose local nationalism in its cities seems
to me reminiscent of what
the Nazis did linguistically in territories they occupied during WW2.

I know this position will not endear me to certain factions, but I am
tired of extremism, wherever
it occurs.

HS

On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 7:47 AM, Joseph Lo Bianco
<j.lobianco at unimelb.edu.au> wrote:
> Sorry to be unclear, I meant "making amends" or redressing injustices,
> Joe
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stan-sandy Anonby [mailto:stan-sandy_anonby at sil.org]
> Sent: Friday, 29 January 2010 11:40 PM
> To: Language Policy List; Joseph Lo Bianco
> Subject: Re: [lg policy] Catalan language policy: Marxist, Stalinist,
> Francoist or fascist?
>
> Hi Jo,
>
> "unpicking the past"?
>
> On Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:20:56 +1100
>  Joseph Lo Bianco <j.lobianco at unimelb.edu.au> wrote:
>>This article is pretty bad.  So much heavy duty labelling, so little
>>analysis or understanding.  Essentially let's let those who dominate
>>continue to do so because unpicking the past is difficult.    Of course
>>we should condemn coercion and authoritarianism in language policies,
>>but that is just used as a ruse in the article to essentially tell
>>minorities to "cop their lot".  In a speech at the opening of the great
>>Library of Alexandria Umberto Eco made the point that perhaps the
>>greatest gift of literary and educated culture is the capacity to make
>>distinctions. Consider the absurd section of the article where the
>>author fails to notice the difference between Fascist language
>>repression and Italy's 1946 constitution which expressly recognises
>>minority regions.   The invitation to Inspector Clouseau is telling in
>>more ways than one.
>>
>>Joe
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>NEW PUBLICATIONS
>>
>>Lo Bianco, Orton and Gao, (2009), China and English: Globalisation and
>>Dilemmas of Identity.  UK: Multilingual Matters
>>
>>Lo Bianco, J. (2009), Second Languages and Australian Schooling.
>>Australian Council for Educational Research
>>
>>********************************************
>>
>>Joseph Lo Bianco, AM, FAHA, FACE
>>
>>Professor of Language and Literacy Education
>>
>>Associate Dean (Global Engagement)
>>
>>President, Australian Academy of the Humanities
>>
>>Melbourne Graduate School of Education
>>
>>The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010 VIC Australia
>>
>>Tel: +613 8344 8346
>>
>>Fax:+613 8344 8612
>>
>>MOB: 0407 798 978
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: lgpolicy-list-bounces at groups.sas.upenn.edu
>>[mailto:lgpolicy-list-bounces at groups.sas.upenn.edu] On Behalf Of Harold
>>Schiffman
>>Sent: Friday, 29 January 2010 2:30 AM
>>To: lp
>>Subject: [lg policy] Catalan language policy: Marxist,
>>Stalinist,Francoist or fascist?
>>
>>
>>
>>Catalan language policy: Marxist, Stalinist, Francoist or fascist?
>>
>>
>>
>>The precedents for, and some possible implications of, the
>>
>>Catalanisation of Barcelona's cinemas. Plus some crowd-pleasing video
>>
>>of the Quebec language police in action. (Allez! Allez! Allez! And the
>>
>>hell with the economy!) All in somewhat fevered response to an article
>>
>>by Martin Dahms in the Tages-Anzeiger.
>>
>>
>>
>>Trevor @ Wednesday January 27th 2010 16:40
>>
>>
>>
>>Last night I had a quick beer with someone who wonks policy for the
>>
>>Catalan governing coalition. He was very upset about a piece published
>>
>>a couple of days ago in the Tages-Anzeiger, a left-leaning,
>>
>>Zurich-based, mass-circulation daily, by a respected German foreign
>>
>>correspondent called Martin Dahms. Entitled "In Barcelona Hollywood
>>
>>has to speak Catalan," the article is a well-researched and objective
>>
>>look at Catalan government plans to force cinemas to show half of
>>
>>films in Catalan. These plans have caused the cinema industry
>>
>>association, which controls some 80% of seats in the region, to call a
>>
>>strike next Monday. They fear that frustrating the overwhelming market
>>
>>preference for Spanish showings (to which, given that everyone speaks
>>
>>Spanish, you can take all your friends) will inevitably accentuate the
>>
>>already rapid drift, particularly among the young, away from public
>>
>>cinema (and video clubs) to internet downloads. And even the Chinese
>>
>>haven't completely figured out how to regulate or impose quotas on
>>
>>those.
>>
>>
>>
>>Mr Wonk's main beef was about Mr Dahms' comparison of the Catalan
>>
>>government's gradualist strategy to banish Spanish from public life
>>
>>with the Franco government's summarily implemented, anti-Catalan
>>
>>version of this policy in 1939. "How dare he! There is a world of
>>
>>difference between us and them!" he cried, echoing Christian
>>
>>objections to analysis linking human beings with other primates. Apart
>>
>>from all the usual "didn't never have no niggers/faggots/Spanish here
>>
>>before" paleocrap essential to any progressive discourse in Barcelona,
>>
>>Mr Wonk also made the interesting claim that Catalan linguistic
>>
>>aggression is essentially Marxist, designed to create a common
>>
>>language and thus achieve equality of opportunity for all.
>>
>>
>>
>>Neglecting the fact that we already have a common
>>
>>language-Spanish-you've got to be pretty stupid or ignorant to believe
>>
>>that The Beard's works sanction cultural interventionism, whether
>>
>>we're talking about ironing out dialectal variation and linguistic
>>
>>diversity or any other field. As any Eastern European child over the
>>
>>age of 50 can tell you, Marx actually says that culture is
>>
>>superstructural to the economy. So the only strategy open to a
>>
>>conventional Marxist who wants to make Catalan the common language in
>>
>>Catalonia is to leap into a time machine, rip back to the 14th
>>
>>century, close the borders, thwack down the populace, and try to make
>>
>>anti-revolutionary autarky work ... for ever. Which, for all I know,
> may
>>
>>indeed what President Montilla has in store for us.
>>
>>
>>
>>However, at this point the barman suggested that a far better
>>
>>left-wing model for the restriction of individual language rights is
>>
>>provided by Stalin. Stalin knew Marx rather better than my friend and
>>
>>realised that if Marx had got it right then the language of the Tsars
>>
>>should have disappeared automatically as a superstructural consequence
>>
>>of the economic changes wrought by the October Revolution; there was
>>
>>no theoretical basis to justify the (violent) Russification of the
>>
>>Soviet Union. He got round this by saying-obviously not in so many
>>
>>words-that Marx was wrong and the Nazis were right: that language is
>>
>>not superstructure but is by some ingenious and unspecified means
>>
>>generated by the entire course of a society's history, reflecting not
>>
>>needs based in time or class but the Volksgeist.
>>
>>
>>
>>Like Stalin's massive programme of cultural expansionism, the Catalan
>>
>>government's willingness to pay for Catalan education, exhibitions,
>>
>>street signs etc in areas of France and Italy to which it has cultural
>>
>>and thence territorial claims, as well as hegemonist pressures on
>>
>>Valencia and the Balearics, show that its ambitions are imperialist.
>>
>>In that sense it may be closer to Stalinism than to the Francoist
>>
>>programme of Hispanicisation in the 1940s, which reasserted (by
>>
>>totalitarian means) public dominance of the national language in
>>
>>territories which had been formally Spanish for some 500 years and
>>
>>where Spanish had been the language of the educated class and the
>>
>>administration for respectively some 400 and 200 years.
>>
>>
>>
>>In another sense, however, Catalan nationalists would say
>>
>>Catalanisation is merely reasserting (by totalitarian means, of
>>
>>course) the public use of Catalan in territories which in the late
>>
>>Middle Ages were Aragonese and where Catalan and other southern French
>>
>>dialects were at the time the language of the educated class and,
>>
>>subordinated to Latin, of the administration. Which is rather
>>
>>complicated, but at least indicates that they accept the
>>
>>Catalanism/Francoism parallel.
>>
>>
>>
>>[
>>
>>And that's all so Ulster isn't it! For novices, here's a helpful
>>
>>summary of provincial life by Manuel Estimulo:
>>
>>
>>
>>As I am understand it, the place is divided up into two part, one
>>
>>ruled over by a militaristic authoritarian misogynistic reactionary
>>
>>Protestant fascism, which want to take everyone back to the 17th
>>
>>century, and the other part is rule over by a militaristic
>>
>>authoritarian misogynistic progressive Catholic fascism, which want to
>>
>>take everyone back to the 1920s. And even though they seem to have
>>
>>everything in common with one another, the main sticking plaster is
>>
>>they cannot agree over which football team to support. It all very
>>
>>much seem like a stork in a teacup!
>>
>>
>>
>>]
>>
>>
>>
>>I find neither Francoism nor Stalinism to be an entirely satisfactory
>>
>>parallel, because neither is afflicted by the all-devouring
>>
>>inferiority complex which drives mandatory Catalanisation: the notion
>>
>>that if people are not forced to use the language, it will die, and
>>
>>that this is for some reason of transcendent importance.
>>
>>
>>
>>A few years ago following a rather wild bet I denounced myself to the
>>
>>language police for using English preferentially in (public) business
>>
>>communications, and when they failed to respond an Italian friend
>>
>>commented that the narrow focus of their paranoia-a rival Romance
>>
>>dialect-was reminiscent of the persecution of French in Italy in the
>>
>>late 19th and early 20th centuries, reaching its peak under Mussolini.
>>
>>
>>
>>French was a more vigorous language, with far greater intellectual,
>>
>>artistic and industrial reach, and so strenuous efforts were made to
>>
>>deny French-speaking families education in French and other public
>>
>>opportunities to use it, and to cleanse Italian of all trace of French
>>
>>loanwords. (There's a fascinating piece here on the Aosta Valley, the
>>
>>persecution of French by Italian nationalists, and the French-language
>>
>>anti-fascist resistance.)
>>
>>
>>
>>Mussolini was inverted in 1945 but his world was not, and full
>>
>>Italianisation of French-speaking areas was achieved in the post-war
>>
>>period by the pervasive influence of Italian mass media. Yet while
>>
>>Catalonia has succeeded in denying access to Spanish-language
>>
>>education, and while heavy fines are used to ensure that businesses
>>
>>promote themselves according to the ethnic fantasies of civil servants
>>
>>rather than according to their perception of customer need and their
>>
>>desire to maximise profits, it's difficult to see in the internet age
>>
>>how putting cinemas out of business will contribute either to getting
>>
>>people to speak Catalan or to rescuing the region's struggling
>>
>>economy.
>>
>>
>>
>>Whether or not you agree with me that this is closer to
>>
>>(Mediterranean) littoral than to continental totalitarianism, it's
>>
>>clear that the direct inspiration for Catalan ethnic bulldozering
>>
>>comes mainly from Quebec. Stuff that should concern serious people:
>>
>>despite considerable natural potential, Quebec has succeeded in
>>
>>driving away much of its original business class, it has struggled to
>>
>>maintain foreign investment, it has a poor record on wealth creation
>>
>>compared with other provinces, and, although it effectively runs its
>>
>>own immigration policy, immigrants there are spectacularly less
>>
>>successful than in neighbouring Ontario, which has no such powers or
>>
>>ethnic paranoias. And so on.
>>
>>
>>
>>Stuff that may amuse less serious people: an old favourite, Inspector
>>
>>Clouseau of the Quebec language police at work:
>>
>>
>>
>>http://oreneta.com/kalebeul/2010/01/27/catalan-language-policy-marxist-
> s
>>talinist-francoist-or-fascist/
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>
>>**************************************
>>
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>>
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>>
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>>
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>>
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>>
>>
>>
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>>*******************************************
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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