Top of the page Culture loss, culture protection?
In Belgium there are approximately 3,200 000 people, 10-20% of which speak ‘Walloon’. (Walloon Language Page, LORINTH@IBM.NET) The language is not sufficiently active in public daily life for the users to be able to use it all of the time,(and is a minority compared to Flemish and French). The schools cannot advocate the wide use of it in the curriculum as it is not easy to find a teacher who can understand all the different dialects of Walloon, and teach it to a class of various Language varieties and dialects. The multi-lingual nature of the diaglossic patterns involved present problems which cannot easily be overcome.
Walloon is not spoken by enough people to give it prominence over the dominant varieties in the political, economic or educational areas. Those who speak Walloon must also know the French or Flemish language so as to enter these three fields, as Walloon has not the prestige of the other languages.
The language of a people in my opinion must either be in use in all the areas that concern them so that they have no need that forces them to be better off using a second language.
In Belgium there are two officially recognised languages; Flemish and French (Linguist discussion list,macrakis@dupuis.gr.osf.org). The country is split between these two main languages, with each of them having control over the educational content in their schools. They have chosen to teach their own language as the first, and the other as the second (Linguist discussion list,macrakis@dupuis.gr.osf.org). This strategy is for the economic advantage of their children, as knowledge of both languages allows a wider sphere to be exploited.
Political and economic power gives the LV prestige. Those users who have the social mobility tend to use the prestige language, i.e. Walloon, the language was in regular use in the 18th century, but as the higher social groups began to adopt French the language. Walloon then went into decline (Walloon Language Page, LORINTH@IBM.NET).
This evidence of language shift in the politically, and economically well off sector of the Wallonia (Belgium) in the 18-19th C shows that although the language most widely used was Walloon, it could not gain more through it’s LV against the high prestige French.
The Philippines in 1946 became independent and recognised ‘Tagalog’ as it’s official language. But there were also other large groups; Cebuana 10 million plus users, and Ilocano with 5 million speakers. (Holmes, J., 1992,p111) The factor that led toward Tagalog as the official LV was as Holmes said ‘....it reflected the political and economic power of it’s speakers...’ , this was more than that of the other LVs.
In Quebec the province is approximately 80% francophone (Linguist Archives, FANSHEN@ccvm.sunysb.edu) and as the system allows each province of Canada to govern itself, it can have political, economic and educational areas in it’s grasp. In 1988 Bill 178 was passed stating that there could be no language other than French on signs outdoors. (Linguist Archives, JDOBALJ@ATHENA.MIT.EDU) This immediately put the minority language of Canadian French ( As English is the spoken by the majority) in the power position. The number of these speakers had reached a point at which it actively gave the minority the sufficient leverage to instigate further encouragement for the francophone to gain more political power, and increasing the job prospects, and educational resources.
The funding of the Universities in this province was given based on the amount of undergraduates enrolled, this left McGill and Concordia universities who ran mainly graduate courses, with less funding (these universities are both anglophone) and therefore their character’s existence, in the long run more, less likely. (Linguist Archives, PEETERS@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au)
In conflict with this I think that it is more overtly evident that language could be the ‘necessary or sufficient’ factor for the situation in Quebec, but that the need for a minority group to have used it’s language to gain power is not necessarily the case. If the people do not perceive it advantageous to maintain their own language above that of the dominant LV, then it is possible that this will lead to a language shift (Holmes, J.1992,p65).
In both Scotland and Wales referendums have recently given these people more political, economic (in the case of Scotland), and educational rights. These efforts were not overtly achieved via identity enhanced by the use of their own language, but by common interests held by the population of these areas. Their cultural and social identity is held on deeper and for longer than their language has as a medium for general expression.
The languages of Brythonic and Scots Gaelic are no longer in the monolingual majority, they are alive in some areas but are not as widely used as English in daily public life, except in small isolated areas, where the LV is still in active service. They have become more of a symbol of the difference between the various language groups. They are important as they mark the boundaries between peoples.
The Scottish people have a language that although it is mostly used in isolated parts has historical links with other aspects of the Scot’s identity.
John Edwards in his book ‘Multilingualism’ talks of the ‘mutable culture....and language...’, but the often ‘immutable boundaries’(Edwards,J.1994,p126). These boundaries, I believe, can be the motivating factor for a group to seek out rights as a group with it’s own identity .
Top of the page Symbolic Ethnicity.
The identity of the peoples of Scotland and Wales does not only exist in their language, but in their traditional dress and foods etc. These peoples have maintained an allegiance to their languages but more as a symbolic banner for all of the other characteristics that they have. The identity of these people is more a belief in their heritage, as Max Weber put it in 1910;
‘We shall call "ethnic groups" those human groups that entertain a subjective belief in their common descent...’ (Edwards,J.1994,p127).
The language most widely used in these areas is indeed English, and it has not diminished their identity as a recognisable people. The perception of the people as clearly shown in the referendum shows that they see themselves as a separate people, with links to the outside world but still different if not wholly linguistically. When I say this I accept that there are different dialects of English i.e. Scots and Welsh, but that as you travel from one end of the dialect continuum coherence is maintained across from A to B, and B to C.
The use of a language in the political forum can follow two paths; conformist, or non-conformist. The use of the minority language as a passive protest for the recognition of rights to education and representation is a sound idea, but when the governing body and the majority of voters are speaking only the language of the majority, then conformist approaches are needed. The campaign leading up to the Gaelic Irish, who when fighting for their rights to freedom to govern themselves, had to conform and use English to further their campaign. (Lecture notes,6/11/97)
The use of the minority language also furthers the oneness that is needed to set the signal of community alight. In the play by Brian Friel, ‘Translations’, it is mentioned that the politician who believes in the promotion of English as the way forward, speaks in Irish when canvassing. The signal of solidarity that language gives is a strong one, a phatic action, as all in the group use it.
The Quebecois people have used their language in the political forum and gained as a result as there is a sufficient proportion of their LV group.
The European Union has brought many changes to instigate a more wealthy / prosperous Europe. The ramifications of the amalgamation of this many countries is that the communication of directives, objectives, and trade has become subject to language barriers. The need for recognised official languages raises problems for the many MLVs who will not be represented by the ‘severe restriction of the number of languages recognised as official at Euro-level’ (MacHale, C.,14/10/91). Those not represented will have to use a majority language.
Other problems arising from this is that Denmark of whose 5 million people 98% speak Danish, have official status, and Catalan with only 10 million speakers has not? (MacHale, C.,14/10/91) Here the LVs picked seems to be in relation to the ‘nationstate’, or the idea that the people are represented by the state.
The use of the Parents Charter does enable the parent of a child to have a say in their education, the result being that they can in fact send their child to a school of their choice. This means that the MLVs can chose a school that teaches via their own language medium.(MacKinnon, K.,p54) An earlier education act in 1918 state that; ‘Gaelic could be taught in Gaelic speaking areas’ (MacKinnon, K.,p54). This gave rights to the MLV in regards to their children’s education, thus giving a means for on going survival of the language.
To gain economic rights for the MLV, there would need to be a wealth of jobs available using that LV. As it is a MLV that is unlikely, and will probably lead to the inculcation of the dominant variety, unless more jobs can be made available amongst themselves i.e. China town in London, Asian, and Greek business communities who stick together and serve a community of Chinese, Asian, and Greeks (as well as others).
In the case of Gaelic areas in Scotland there has been research that concluded ‘Gaelic is best preserved within the semi-skilled agricultural group’ (MacKinnon, K.,p57). The lack of other employment in alternative fields, leaves those left seeking jobs which require the adoption of the English language. This means a shift towards bilingualism which is hard to maintain when the jobs which require the use of English are in the ‘professional, managerial, skilled non manual, and skilled manual occupations’ which have been seen as high prestige (MacKinnon, K.,p57), and therefore similar to the introduction of the Priests in Ireland who were trained in English, which influence gave high prestige to the dominant LV over the MLV (Nelde, P.H.,p39). This imbalance in opportunity could lead to the decline in usage of the MLV as mentioned by Edwards; ‘permanent bilingualism...depends upon a continuance of domains for each variety’ (Edwards, J.,1994,p110).
The dominance of a language variety is not the only issue, that of script has been addressed by the Turkish government who changed to the Roman Alphabet so as to make the language more accessible to the outside world (MacHale, C.,14/10/91), and hopefully avoiding the perils of being a MLV in a large multilingual community.
The use of a minority language to gain political rights can be achieved, but only it seems at the mercy of the political powers and opinions of the majority. The MLV is less likely to be able to remain monolingual because of the need for jobs which are statistically more likely to be in the majority variety. The educational rights of the MLV are subject to the laws and social policies that exist in the occupied area; for example; England has the Parents charter allowing the parent control over where it is best for the child to learn and how, Belgium allows the various Flemish and French speaking areas to have control over their program ( not Walloon), and in Quebec the MLV user can finish their education in that variety.
These are ideas of an amateur linguist in conjunction with qualified linguist's findings and ideas. There are many minority languages should they be maintained or just observed, I would like to hear your response;
Edwards,J., ‘Multilingualism’,Penguin Books,1994,p 110,126/7
FANSHEN@ccvm.sunysb.edu, ‘Language in Quebec’,Linguist Archives, 29/04/91
Friel, B., ‘Translations’, Class hand out
Holmes, J., ‘Introduction to Sociolinguistics’, Longman,1992,p 65,111
http://wallonie.com/wallang/wal-wal.htm, WWW
JDOBALJ@ATHENA.MIT.EDU, ‘Language in Quebec’,Linguist Archives, 28/04/91
LORINTH@IBM.NET, ‘Walloon Language Page’,
Lecture notes,6/11/97
MacKinnon, K., ‘The Gaelic speech community’, Chp 3, Class hand out,p54,57
macrakis@dupuis.gr.osf.org, ‘Bilingual education’,Linguist discussion list, 29/04/91
MacHale, C.,’When political manipulation is as easy as a b c ‘, The Guardian, 14/10/91
Nelde, P.H., ‘Language contact means language conflict’, Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, Vol 8, Nos 1&2, 1987,p39
PEETERS@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au, ‘Canadian French’, Linguist Archives, 27/04/91,
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Edited by: Brian Wright , Joint Linguistics and Information Technology Undergraduate
December 1997
© University of East London 1997