MERCATOR :: News File

Days before Fernando Lugo is sworn in as Paraguayan President, Guaraní-speakers call for an end to ‘linguistic discrimination’ · Although the language is spoken by more than 80% of the population and has official status, Spanish is the predominant language at every level.

Fernando Lugo's victory in the presidential elections on 20 April brought an end to 61 years of right-wing rule and gave hope to Paraguay's indigenous community, which has traditionally been excluded from government. On Friday 15 August Lugo will take office as the President of Paraguay, and a group of some thirty political and cultural organizations have released a document asking him to put an end to the "linguistic discrimination" still faced by Guaraní-speakers. They want to put pressure on the former bishop by reminding him of his manifesto pledges concerning linguistic discrimination.

As A Nosa Terra reports, the document, signed by trade unions, educational establishments, cultural associations and other types of organization, stresses that Guaraní, despite being official and spoken by more than 80% of the population, is neither used in administration nor taught in most schools, reflecting an ongoing lack of respect for the linguistic rights of speakers of the language.

If Lugo really represents "change", the above organizations want the new President to implement a series of specific measures: they want the presidential swearing-in ceremony to take place in both Spanish and Guaraní; they want a new Languages Act to be drawn up, a Guaraní Language Academy to be established and the education system to be thoroughly revised; and they want the language to be introduced into public administration, signage and the media. The message to Lugo is simple: native languages must be promoted, protected and taught.

Nationalia.info

Related links...
A Nosa Terra (in Galician)
Indígenas Paraguay (in Spanish)
Indymedia Argentina (in Guaraní and Spanish)

Skopje’s bid to gain international recognition for Greece’s Macedonian minority

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski asks NATO, OSCE and UN members to put pressure on Athens · Greek Government states that there is no Macedonian minority in Greece · The controversy forms part of the ongoing diplomatic tug-of-war over the official name for the Republic of Macedonia.

Greece and Macedonia are not only at loggerheads over the official name for the former Yugoslav republic: recognition of the Macedonian minority in Greece - a particularly sensitive matter - has recently added further complications to the already complicated relationship between the two neighbouring states. Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has now sent letters to NATO, OSCE, G8 and UN Security Council members asking them to put pressure on Athens to recognize the existence of Macedonians living in Greece.

The Macedonian Prime Minister's current strategy began in July when he called for his Greek counterpart, Kostas Karamanlis, to concede Macedonians living in Greece "basic rights", including schooling in Macedonian and the possibility to use Macedonian in areas where the minority is especially concentrated. Gruevski did not have to wait for a reply: Karamanlis answered claiming that there is no Macedonian minority in Greece. While Athens does officially recognize that some people in northern Greece speak a "Slavic dialect", Greece denies that this language is the same as that spoken in the neighbouring Republic of Macedonia.

Gruevski claims Greece is violating international laws

With a direct plea to Karamanlis failing to yield results, the South European Times reports that Gruevski has decided to set his sights even higher and address the abovementioned organizations. Gruevski believes that, with its constant denials, Athens is violating international laws and treaties protecting ethnic and linguistic minorities. On 2 August, the national day of Macedonia, the Prime Minister said he would not stop calling for the rights of Macedonians in Greece to be respected until those rights are fully recognized, the MIC news agency explained.

Skopje also claims that there is a Macedonian minority living in neighbouring Bulgaria. The Bulgarian authorities disagree, arguing that the alleged presence of Macedonians in the Pirin region of southwestern Bulgaria amounts to a Macedonian manoeuvre to increase Macedonian influence in the area. The idea that Macedonian is not a genuine language but simply a western Bulgarian dialect is fairly commonplace in Bulgaria.

Nationalia.info

Related links...
Southeast European Times (in English)
Government of the Republic of Macedonia
MRT online (in English)

Sardinia to launch pilot program to teach Sardinian in some schools

The Regional Board approves the 2008-2010 triennial plan for the Sardinian language · The island's government plans to invest in the training of language teachers and to set aside funds for the creating of an online digital television channel in the Sardinian language.

The Regional Board of Sardinia has approved the 2008-2010 triennial plan for the Sardinian language, which aims to “assure the 'linguistic rights' of the Sardinian people,” according to the website of Sardinia. The plan covers several activities that the island government will carry out over the next three years. The more notable actions are the experimental introduction of the Sardinian language in some schools, the creation of a digital television channel in the language and the training of teachers at the universities of Cagliari and Sassari.

As such, the triennial plan proposes, in “experimental” form, the implementation of “pilot projects” at schools interested in introducing “teaching of the Sardinian language during normal school hours.” The aim, according to the plan (which can be downloaded here), is to “encourage the teaching of the Sardinian language, and teaching in the Sardinian language.” The limited presence of Sardinian in schools now consists only of elective classes outside of the main curriculum.

To put weight behind this still timid plan for supporting Sardinian, the triennial plan includes grants three times a year of 500,000 euros each for the training of teachers at the universities of Cagliari and Sassari.

The language in the media

Another of the areas in which Sardinian has little presence and where the plan hopes to improve things is with the mass media. The government plans to create a digital television channel over the internet in the Sardinian language with “highly professional programs” that "bring together content of Sardinian linguistic heritage." The plan also calls for the dubbing of cartoons for young children.

Also in the area of mass communications, the government of Sardinia signed an accord with Italian radio station and television channel RAI last April that calls for the broadcasting of a current affairs program in the Sardinian language, lasting thirty minutes and running from Monday to Friday. The Sardinian government, despite the fact that the total broadcasting in their language is limited to an hour and a half each week, called the decision “historic.”

Need for a new law

The report by the Regional Board highlights the need in Sardinia for a new law calling for speech “in Sardinian” and not “about Sardinian.” That is, the island government admits that the current linguistic law, from 1997, fails to distinguish between defense of Sardinian culture and the defense of the Sardinian language. The Sardinian government makes clear that the aim of a future law should be to ensure that the island's language “is present in the public communicative domain” and that it “is socially useful” and has “prestige.”

The Sardinian law of 1997 on the promotion and valuing of the language recognizes that Sardinian has “equal dignity” as Italian, despite the fact that it does not establish its official status and restricts the area of the language's presence especially on matters of culture. The text also recognizes the other languages spoken on the island: Catalan, Ligurian, Sassarese and Gallurese.

Nationalia.info

Related links...
Sardegna Oggi (in Italian)
Government of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (in Italian)
Government of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (in Italian)

Ecuadorian constitution makes Quechua and Shuar official in 'intercultural relations'

Spanish/Castilian will retain its status as the official language of the republic · The remaining native languages will have official use for the peoples who speak them · The magna carta establishes that Ecuador is a “plurinational state” and provides for the creation of autonomous governments with legislative and executive powers.

Two indigenous languages, Quechua and Shuar, will be official languages of Ecuador along with Spanish. This was decided by the Constituent Assembly of the Andean country, which defined itself as an “intercultural state” and “plurinational.” The reform of the magna carta was one of the initiatives launched by the current leader of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, after taking power at the end of 2006.

The new constitution, which was approved on July 24 and which will be submitted to a public referendum in September, lays out three categories of languages in Ecuador. In the first, Spanish will continue to be categorized as “the official language of Ecuador." Nonetheless, the state will have three "intercultural languages," which will be Spanish, Quechua and Shuar. In the third place, the new magna carta states that "the other ancestral languages [some twelve are spoken in Ecuador] are to be used officially by indigenous peoples in the areas they inhabit and as stipulated by the law."

Until now, the current constitution, which dates from 1998, established that Quechua, Shuar and the other native languages were official only for indigenous peoples. Now this limitation is overcome for Quechua and Shuar, although not for the other indigenous languages.

Last minute recognition

The article on languages of Ecuador was practically the last that the Constituent Assembly approved. At first, it was expected that the only official language would be Spanish and that the rest of the languages would have their use restricted to the peoples that speak them. According to the newspaper El Comercio, President Correa was against the recognition of Quechua and Shuar, but a considerable bloc from his party, Acuerdo País, forced him to reconsider.

Rights of indigenous peoples

The brand-new constitution protects, among other things, the rights of native peoples to “the inextinguishable ownership of their community lands”, to "previous consultation on plans and programs related to prospecting, exploiting and commercializing non-renewable resources" and to "not being displaced from their ancestral lands" and to "develop a bilingual intercultural educational system."

On the matter of decentralization, the text establishes that in Ecuador governments will be created with “political, administrative and financial autonomy,” although it is made explicit that "in no way" will "succession” be permitted. These governments will have legislative and executive powers. The door is also opened for the creation of autonomous districts for indigenous peoples and Afro-Ecuadorians.

Nationalia.info

Related links...
El Comercio (in Spanish)
El Mercurio (in Spanish)
El Universo (in Spanish)

Constitutional reform, a first step for France's minority languages

Parliament definitively approves changes to the magna carta to recognize “regional languages” · Despite the change, languages such as Catalan, Basque, Occitan, and Breton will remain unofficial · The vice president of the Assembly says “the struggle is still not over”

Minority languages have been recognized for the first time in the history of the constitution of the Republic of France. Deputies and senators meeting in congress in Versailles voted in favor of constitutional reforms urged by the government of the Union for a Popular Movement (UPM) party which recognize languages other than French. Article 75 of the principal legal text of France states that from now on "regional languages form a part of the heritage of France."

As predicted, the vote was very close due to opposition from the socialists to a reform that did not satisfy them because, among other reasons, they saw it as "presidentialist." The modification required support from three-fifths of the representatives. The final vote was 539 in favor and 357 against. The minimum number of votes in favor in order for the change to proceed was 538. Members of the UPM and its allies in the New Center voted in favor of the modification, as well as the Left Radical Party. The communists and socialists (except the ex-minister Jack Lang) voted against the measure, while there was mixed opinion among the centrists.

Significant step forward or too limited?

The measure's approval can be seen in several ways. On the one hand, the criticism leveled at it suggests that in practice there will not be any great advances for minority languages. This was made clear by the UPM senator Jean-Jacques Hyest a few days ago: "This article [75] does not offer any new right, and the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Council maintains that French must be used in the public sphere in conformity with Article 2 of the constitution." French will remain the only official language, so the more than 70 languages spoken in French territories (on the mainland and in the various dependent territories) will have to settle for other spheres.

On the other hand, however, this recognition shatters the historic taboo of the so-called regional languages. The official doctrine, until recently, held that there was only one language in France-the French language-because that is what was stated in the constitution. Now that has changed: deputies and senators have debated the matter of these languages in parliament. And that is not all: One deputy, the Northern Catalonian Daniel Mach, had the gumption to address the National Assembly in Catalan-an act without precedents. The debate made it all the way to the president of the republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, who declared himself in favor of preserving the linguistic diversity of France and denied that the use of diverse languages would "break" the unity of the state.

One of the most vocal defenders of minority languages was the vice president of the National Assembly, the Breton Marc Le Fur. Upon learning of the measure's passage, Le Fur said the change brought "great satisfaction," but added that "the struggle for regional languages is not over." In fact, the presence of Catalan, Breton, Occitan, Corsican or Basque in essential areas like the schools and the media is still sub-par, and the recognition of these languages as "heritage" will not turn this situation around on its own.

Law on development

The addition of minority languages in the constitution opens the door to what might be the fulfillment of one of the promises of Sarkozy and his culture minister Christine Albanel: pass a language law in 2009 that gives rights to speakers of these languages. This was the message of the Occitan Studies Institute, an institution that a few days ago called for the writing of this law and the creation of a public television channel in Occitan. The Cultural Council of Brittany also views the new situation as "opening the way for legislation that will allow for the real development of our languages."

Poll shows citizenry in favor of linguistic diversity

Several newspapers have carried out studies of public opinion. Such is the case with Ouest France, whose poll found that 68% of the French are in favor of the recognition of minority languages, a figure that reaches 80% among people under 30 years old. And for anyone who thinks the defense of so-called regional languages is a matter for peasants, the study by the French daily dispels that: Residents of Paris and its surroundings are more in favor of preserving linguistic diversity (69%) than those who live in municipalities of fewer than 2,000 inhabitants (65%).

Nationalia.info

Related links...
Libération (in French)
Le Figaro (in French)
Oui au breton (in French)

Belgian Constitutional Court upholds requirement to know Flemish for renters of social housing

Government of French-speaking community had asked court to rule on ‘discriminatory’ requirements · Flemish representatives argue that basic knowledge of the language is vital for communication in the community.

Belgium's Constitutional Court has given the green light to the Wooncode, the housing code approved by the Flemish Parliament. The Woodcode requires renters of social housing to have a basic knowledge of the Flemish language or, as a minimum requirement, to attend free lessons provided by the Government.

The French-speaking community, which considers the measure discriminatory, had asked the Constitutional Court to review the Woodcode. Although the Court ruled that the housing code was not discriminatory, it did decree that knowledge of Flemish could not be a requirement in municipalities with "linguistic facilities" ("communes à facilités" in French, or "faciliteitengemeenten" in Dutch) where languages other than the dominant language are permitted. This affects several municipalities near Brussels in the Flemish-speaking zone which also use French for administrative purposes.

The controversy over the Woodcode goes back to 2006, when the Flemish Parliament decided to include linguistic criteria in the housing code. As De Redactie.be explains, the reason behind the language requirement is that an increasing number of renters lack basic knowledge of Flemish, causing communication difficulties.

Nationalia.info

Related links...
De Redactie (in English)
Le Soir (in French)