News

18/05/2012 - 14:29

The French State and the French Language: 2011 report by the Ministry of Culture and Communication

In this article we regularly take interest in the annual report published by the Ministry of Culture and Communication of France with regard to languages in the nation. On this occasion, leaving aside regional languages, we will analyze the policy in favour of French presented in the last report: 2011 Report to Parliament on the Use of the French Language.

27/04/2012 - 08:15

Hunger strike for Catalan in the Balearic Islands

In an unprecedented initiative in democracy, a 64-year-old retired teacher, Majorcan Jaume Bonet, began a 26-day hunger strike on March 1st, to protest, on behalf of his organisation, Jubilats per Mallorca (Pensioners for Majorca) against the language policy of the government of the Balearic Islands, once again in the hands of the People's Party (PP) since the last regional elections. The media, including the well-known Catalan broadcaster Joaquim M. Puyal, and the main digital newspaper in Catalan, Vilaweb, have covered this action, which has helped to highlight that within the PP positions are far from being unanimous in this regard (as revealed, for instance, by Antoni Pastor, mayor of Manacor and vicepresident of the party in the Islands).

25/04/2012 - 16:56

Postcard from Paris

We always fall in love at first sight. With people and places. At least that is the feeling I get at a cafe in the Latin Quarter of Paris where I can imagine Juliette Gréco showing Miles Davis that «not all whites were equal».

01/04/2012 - 17:32

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Basque, a Desert for Youth?

«Basque is a desert for children-youth between the ages of 10 and 18», I was told by a 25 year old leisure activities supervisor who worked on extracurricular activities with adolescents in Iruñerria (The Basin of Pamplona). «They have many stimuli in Spanish and what interests them and happens to them at that age has very little to do with Basque».

18/03/2012 - 20:08

March 31st demonstration for France's "regional" languages

NGOs point out if the EU can protect fish, the environment, and have a Directive against racism, why not for Europe's national and linguistic minorities?

02/03/2012 - 09:16

Caucasus: linguistic mosaic Europe

The Caucasus Mountains mark the border between Europe and Asia. If Georgia and Azerbaijan occupy the south face of the mountain range, the north face belongs to Russia. It is around this mountain range where one can find the greatest linguistic complexity and richness in all of Europe. In fact, languages pertaining from various Indo-European groups coexist in said environment, as well as Altaic languages and others that make up the Caucasus languages themselves.

20/02/2012 - 13:18

Treacherous anglicisms

In an "increasingly interconnected" world everybody understands the worth of good translators. They are more than a living bridge between languages, they are the invisible wordsmiths hidden in lonely booths at the far end of conference halls and the meaningful voices in the shadow of otherwise mutually incomprehensible conversations.

09/02/2012 - 09:11

American postcard

The emigrant is always the last to arrive. In New England, for example, Italians who I know consider themselves authentic Americans. According to those Italians, Russians are now the immigrants. In California, immigrants are, by definition, the Hispanics -in reality, the Mexicans. On the contrary, Canadians do not see themselves as being different. The language and culture are the same. The biology, different in the case of Hispanics, also helps. The fact that they compete in the same basketball and football leagues is a determining link.

21/01/2012 - 18:46

The vitality of the Basque language in the Northern Basque Country

A special group of experts on endangered languages from the UNESCO presented a report in 2003 entitled Language Vitality and Endangerment. The objectives of the report were to define the level of erosion of the languages and establish the evaluation criteria for the danger of being lost.

03/01/2012 - 19:05

Lagundromoa and the simpletons of Saint Sebastian

«No, Marije, no!» I recalled myself saying. Like every Monday, we were returning from Leioa, from the umpteenth session of the Linguistic Planning Diploma, the first result of Hiznet, in the 1993-1994 course.

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