LL-L "Resources" 2010.05.20 (01) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 20 May 2010 - Volume 01
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From: Helge Tietz <helgetietz at yahoo.com>

Subject: LL-L "Resources" 2010.05.19 (02) [EN]



Moin, leeve Lowlanders,

It is good to see that there is obviously a growing awareness in North
America that, as far as I can determine from here, all native American
languages are greatly endangered and at this moment it looks like as if
Inuit in Greenland is the only one to survive because they are not part of
the US or Canada and have a substantial autonomy. Fortunately for them,
Europeans (here predictably Danes) never settled there in great numbers and
inspired by the success of Faroese they quickly established a written
standard and it seems to work in Greenland. Although most American native
languages have now a written standard I am fearing it might be too late if
not some "drastic" action is being taken. I think Europe can supply them
with examples of what is possible if some degree of autonomy is established,
Inuit in Greenland (well, Greenland is actually geographically part of
America...), Faroese, Luxembourgian and Romansch (as e.g. in Ardez in
Switzerland) have only a comparibly limited amount of speakers but they
flourish even in its written form, also Latvian is a good example that
linguistic territory can be "regained" if a higher degree of autonomy is
established, and, last but not least Hebrew in Israel (that, of course, is
geographically in Asia). Looking at Africa I am fearing they heading the
same way as the Americas despite Europeans not having settled there in great
numbers, the idea to appear educated when speaking one of the "great"
European languages appears very strong and could have effects as High German
had on Low Saxon. Again, in Europe itself there are examples that a small
local language can be just as educated as any "great" language. Let's hope
that the many African emigrants in Europe also take this ideas back home
when visiting their families and friends in their native lands.

Groeten,
Helge



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

Subject: Language politics



Thanks, Helge.

Let’s hope that at least in the case of Nunavut it is not a case of too
little too late, since its government seems to be putting a lot of support
behind Inuktitut and to some degree behind Inuinnaqtun. Also, it seems to me
that exchanges with Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) have increased, and I hope
that the success of that language encourages the people of Nunavut, which
may also encourage other American communities.

On the other hand, as you know, even the signing of the European Languages
Charter has not made all that much of a difference for most European
minority and regional languages. Most of what you see is for show, lip
service, and the various governments are not putting their money where their
mouths are.

And, yes, I fully agree that Greenland is a North American country.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA



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