[lg policy] Declaration on Spain's offensive against the Catalan Language

[Harold Schiffman]

*From: *Duchene Alexandre
*Subject: **[liste RFS] TR: Declaration on Spain's offensive against the
Catalan Language*
*Date: *16 July 2013 13:37:10 BST

Chères et chers collègues,

Voici un message que m’a demandé de vous transmettre le Président de la
Société catalane de sociolinguistique, Joan Pujolar.

Bien à vous,

Alexandre Duchêne

 *De la part de* Joan Pujolar
*Envoyé :* mardi 16 juillet 2013 13:33
*À :* Duchene Alexandre

*Objet :* Declaration on Spain's offensive against the Catalan Language

Alexandre Duchêne
Reseau Francophone de Sociolinguistique


Dear Dr.Duchêne,

I am the president of the Catalan Society of Sociolinguistics (
http://blogs.iec.cat/socs/). Our executive board has felt it necessary to
inform linguists and social scientists around the globe about developments
in Spain in relation to language policies. We denounce the renewed
persecution of the Catalan language by Spanish authorities, and we attach a
declaration providing the details of the matter.

You are probably aware that Spain outlawed the use of Catalan for many
centuries up until 1980 in a bid to create cultural uniformity within the
country. The memory of General Franco’s dictatorship is still fresh amongst
most Catalan adults. And there are good reasons to believe that the current
authorities may seek to achieve the same goals through less violent means
by taking advantage of the fact that Catalan speakers are demographically
in the minority. During the last few years, Spanish authorities have
conducted a sustained strategy to decrease education in Catalan, prevent
media circulation and broadcasting and even create adhoc regional standards
to divide the community. Such behaviour is not deemed acceptable by the
international community and is in contravention of UNESCO’s fundamental
principles as well as the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages,
and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, all
of which Spain has signed.

We would be thankful if you could do everything in your power to
disseminate our declaration and/or its contents. There are a number of ways
in which we would appreciate your help:

   - Publish the declaration in your journal or e-mail list.
   - Send a letter to UNESCO or the Council of Europe expressing your
   concern (a letter template is attached)
   - Forward the declaration to colleagues you believe may be especially
   interested in this issue.

We hope this letter provides an early warning before the situation in Spain
deteriorates and develops in loss of cultural and human rights in a way
that may send a poor signal to all the countries and organizations that are
working for a future of peace, prosperity and equality.

Yours sincerely,



Joan Pujolar

President

Societat Catalana de Sociolingüística

Institut d’Estudis Catalans

C./ Carme 47
08001 Barcelona

(Forwarded from Variationist Listserv. )

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

 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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