LL-L: "Multilinguism" [E/D] LOWLANDS-L, 22.AUG.1999 (01)

[Sandy Fleming]

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From: Roger Thijs [Roger.Thijs at village.uunet.be]
Subject: "Multilinguism"

Since we have 3 official languages in this silly kingdom (of Belgium),
Dutch, French and German, and several regional varieties (Flemish,
Brabantish, Limburgish - recognised as regional language in the
Netherlands-, Ripuarisch, Moselle-Franconian, Lëtzeburgesch - recognised as
one of the national languages in the Grand-Duchy -, Picard, Walloon,
Gaumais-Lorrain and Champenois-Ardennais), even forgetting the Brussels
mixed varieties often designated as Marollien, this all creates daily
smaller - or incidentally bigger - incidents.
cf. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Roger_Thijs/langbel.htm

So, for the continuation of our national, never ending, soap story:
1. A "collation" for testing janitor women
2. For the animals might understand.

1. Story nr. 1 happened in "Voeren".

Background about Voeren:
When the Belgium Kingdom was created in 1830 it's official language was
factually "French".
Gradually "Dutch" (as koiné for Flemish, Brabantish and Limburgish
dialects) got an official position:
- legal acceptance in the second half of the 19th century till about 1920
- official "administrative language" for the municipalities with linguistic
majorities (as to the linguistic censi every 10 years). These censi were
politically monitored and, as a result, reduced the Dutch administrative
area with some lost municipalities every census.
- freezing of a fixed administrative language "border" in the early sixties
(leaving the 19 Brussels municipalities bilingual, and the Eupen- Sankt
Vith area, Belgian since 1919, German), and a gradual development of
regional autonomy afterwards.
When fixing this border, some municipalties adjacent to the border were
assigned to one or another side, but with a possibility left open for
individuals to get a linguistic exception for being served in their own
language in administrative matters. (These municipalities are called
"faciliteitengemeenten" or "communes à facilités")
In most municipalities this exception rule didn't give any problem. Dutch
speaking people in French borderline municipalities accept documents in
French and don't use the facilities, so there is no practical need for the
facilities apparently over there. To the contrary French speaking people at
the overside of the border stick more strongly to their cultural identity
and try to get the max out of the system. And this creates incidents,
especially in the 6 municipalities with facilities adjacent to Brussels,
and in Voeren, an enclave of Belgian Limburg, squeezed between Dutch
Limburg and the Province of Liège.
Part of the problem is that these 7 municipalities are in the frozen
"Dutch-speaking" area, but have "French speaking" municipal majorities and
governments nowadays.

So the municipal government ("gemeentebestuur", headed by the "college van
burgemeester en schepenen") of Voeren needs a janitor women,who can prove
she masters both languages. Needless to say that a matter of such
importance gets headlines in the national newspapers.

Quoting the "Belang van Limburg" of Friday August 20, on page 1 (in Dutch):
"... Wil je in Voeren ... poetsvrouw worden bij de gemeente, dan moet je
wel een taalexamen afleggen. De proef bestaat uit een gemakkelijk opstel en
een conversatie. Aan het wervingsexamen kan enkel deelgenomen worden als de
kandidaat slaagt voor het taalexamen. Frans- en Duitstaligen leggen een
examen Nederlands af, Nederlandstaligen moeten hun kennis van het Frans
bewijzen.
Volgens de Vlaamse raadsleden is de werfjury wel erg politiek gekleurd. Er
zetelen ondermeer Luiksgezinde raadsleden in. Ze doen dit trouwens niet
gratis. Er is een heel speciale vergoeding voorzien. Volgens de agenda van
de gemeenteraad hebben ze recht op 'vergoeding en een collatie'. Bedoeld
wordt uiteraard een 'collation of lichte maaltijd'. Een lapsus van de
opsteller want collatie betekent onder meer het aanvaarden van een
geestelijk ambt. ..."

2. And now what animals have to do with lazy translators.

In the "Belgisch Staatsblad - Moniteur Belge" of August 19, 1999, pages
30836-30844 we got a "Ministerieel besluit tot vaststelling van
minimumnormen voor het houden van zoogdieren in dierentuinen / Arrêté
ministériel fixant des normes minimales pour la détention de mammifères
dans les parcs zoologiques".

Since a French-Dutch translation of the names of all these poor beasts was
clearly too difficult, the translators returned to latin, common for both
linguistic versions.
So for the standards for housing, it starts with "Tachyglossus aculeatus"
and it ends with "Myocastor coypus"; for the bassins (sunks) it starts with
"Panthera tigris" and ends with "Fam. Castoridae".
I guess at least the animals might understand.

Regards,
Roger

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