LL-L "Language politics" 2008.07.04 (05) [E]

Fri Jul 4 23:40:07 UTC 2008

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L O W L A N D S - L - 03 July 2008 - Volume 05
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From: Marcus Buck <list at marcusbuck.org>
Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2008.07.03 (07) [E]

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com <mailto:sassisch at yahoo.com>>

> Subject: Language politics
>
> Dear Lowlanders,
>
> Here's something from southwest across the European Lowlands fence in the
> area of language politics and activism.
>
> The French government may be sticking to its guns by refusing to make
> official any indigenous language besides French (based on a specific
> interpretation of the constitution). However, at the same time -- or is it
> /because/ of it? -- language activists in France seem to be getting rather
> boisterous. I've read a fair bit about Breton and Occitan rallies and
> demonstrations, and I've also been watching some video footage of such
> events as well as Occitan presentations online. There seems to be much more
> energy in the Occitan movement than in those of minority languages in
> Northern Europe, probably including French Flanders. Some of it seems like
> street parties. Participants look like having fun mixed with anger and
> frustration. There seem to be many, if not mostly, young people among them.
> There is a general call for Occitan consciousness, including calls with what
> sounds to me like secessionist tones. Might this be an example to show that
> non-recognition can unleash exactly that which non-recognition is supposed
> to prevent?
>
> While the situation is not as serious for Low Saxon for instance, I wonder
> if some of this youth-appealing energy would do its reassertion movement
> good in combating lethargy and infighting as well as administrative
> non-cooperation in the implementation of promised policies. It is my
> impression that some of this is indeed being done in the Netherlands' part
> of the Frisian-speaking world.
>
> Please take a look at one of the more "aggressive" Occitan Flash
> presentations:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjjkAQE1A3Y
>
> The song is in Occitan, but this is a rare case of inclusion of both
> Occitan and English subtitles (not French ones!). You might have to watch it
> more than once, because there is a lot being sung and written in rapid
> succession.
>
After reading about this bold (to avoid the word "aggressive") example of
demanding rights for the Occitan language, I read a bit about Occitan, cause
whenever I hear things like that, I want to understand the differences that
make them "bold", where the Low Saxons are "cowardly".
According to the English Wikipedia article the language is not doing well.
It has a figure of 1.9 million speakers at the top (I don't know, where they
got that number from, there's no source specified, damn Wikipedia...). Down
in the text it has another number: 610,000 people according to the 1999
census (praise France for doing meaningdul censuses, Germany has not done
any census since 1987, and even before language wasn't asked. The last
census asking for ethnicity or language was in 1939. And Low Saxon was never
an option to answer). The number of inhabitants of the historical language
area is 14 million. These numbers are comparable to Low Saxon. Low Saxon's
historical language area has (the Eastern territories not counted, only
Germany and the Netherlands) 29 million inhabitants. A survey from 2007 had
the result, that 14,3% of the people in Northern Germany could speak Low
Saxon. If we take the same number for the Netherlands we are at 4.15 million
speakers. So the degree of language maintenance is comparable between Low
Saxon and Occitan. The total numbers are not the same, but are roughly the
same order of magnitude. The degree of differentness to other languages
should be comparable too, I guess (Basque has a high degree of differentness
and many dialects have a low degree of differentness, Low Saxon in relation
to German and Occitan in relation to French should be in the same range).
So both languages do poorly. Most of the speaker base is lost and speakers
are almost all elderly (Wikipedia at least says so for Occitan too).
I wonder: What's the difference, where do the "bold" people come from? Who
sings these protest songs? Who attends the demonstrations? Wikipedia has an
image from an pro-Occitan demonstration: <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Besi%C3%A8rs17march2007.JPG>. There are
many young people in the picture. But didn't we just learn, that there are
almost only elderly people left? Are there pockets with better language
maintenance, where even young people still speak the language (Low Saxon
equivalent: Eastern Frisia. But even there are few signs of language
"boldness")? Or are the young people in the picture actually no speakers but
only supporting the demonstration cause of regional identity ("we'll show
these Parisiens, that the South is still strong")? What makes the movement
successful? Does anybody know answers?

Marcus Buck

•

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