For years France's regional languages were seen by Paris as a taboo that threatened national unity and should be repressed — children were punished for speaking Breton in the playground, banned from speaking Occitan in southern schools or the Alsatian dialect in the east. But now, just as the French parliament has taken a historic step to recognize minority languages in the Constitution, a new war of words has broken out.
L’Academie francaise, the institution that defends the purity of French, yesterday issued a furious warning that recognizing regional languages in the Constitution would be an attack on the French national identity. In turn, local language militants slammed the academy as a ridiculous relic of outdated nationalism.
The row has highlighted how far France differs from other European countries in the defense of minority tongues. Unlike the UK, which has acted to protect languages such as Welsh and Scottish Gaelic, France is one of the few European states which refuses to ratify the European charter for minority languages and give legal status to its various language groups.
France boasts 75 regional languages, including those spoken in far-flung territories from the Indian Ocean to South America. Regional languages such as Alsatian, Occitan, Corse, Breton and Basque, and even smaller ones such as Bearnaise and Picard, have increasingly powerful and well-organized lobby groups.
Parents have campaigned to set up regional language schools outside the state system, while the state has started offering some bilingual classes.
But minority languages have no legal status and are deemed by UNESCO to be dying out. Before 1930, one in four French people spoke a regional language to their parents; that figure has nosedived.
Last month parliament broke a taboo by holding a debate and agreeing to insert a line in the Constitution recognizing local languages as part of French heritage.
“Speaking or singing in Breton, Alsatian or Basque doesn’t stop you being patriotic,” one Breton MP said.
All parties were unanimous.
But before the senate examines the issue today, l’Academie francaise has objected, warning that writing regional languages into the Constitution would dilute French identity.
David Grosclaude, president of Occitan language group l’Institut d’Estudis Occitans, issued an open letter to the academy, which he called “full of bitterness, resentment and fear” and too blinkered to recognize France’s diverse citizenship.
Philippe Jacq, director of l’Office de la Langue Bretonne, said the constitutional change was only a small step and France must also provide legal recognition and sign the European charter.
“All we ask for is to speak our languages in public life, to have services in our languages, for parents to have the right for their children to be taught in the language of their choice,” Jacq said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS