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Language, Ethnicity, and the State: Minority Languages in the EU

Language, Ethnicity, and the State: Minority Languages in the EU. Ch2: Many Tongues but One Voice By Donall O Riagain. Post WWII: how did minorities fare?. Post-War Europe was not friendly to minorities (it was claimed they did not contribute to stability, were collaborators)

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Language, Ethnicity, and the State: Minority Languages in the EU

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  1. Language, Ethnicity, and the State: Minority Languages in the EU Ch2: Many Tongues but One Voice By Donall O Riagain

  2. Post WWII: how did minorities fare? • Post-War Europe was not friendly to minorities (it was claimed they did not contribute to stability, were collaborators) • 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights censured discrimination based on language • International Labor Organization (under UN) promoted education in mother tongue for indigenous peoples • UNESCO supported minorities’ rights to maintain schools for their languages

  3. Expansion of official EU languages • EU precursor organization initially chose French, but had to add more and more due to protests & requests • 1979 Gaetano Arfe (member of European Parliament) called for a Charter of Ethnic Minorities, and similar efforts soon followed, leading to 1982 establishment of European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages • 1992 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

  4. “Minority”, “lesser used”, etc. – how are these terms defined? • It is hard to define a minority language, since it might be an official language (Irish) or a majority language elsewhere (German in Belgium) • What is a language & what is a dialect? • Yes, the most important criteria is self-identification of the speakers

  5. European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages • Coordinates joint efforts among minorities across Europe • Lobbies governments to sign the Charter and enact policies that promote minority languages • Reports, publications, conferences • Funds visits to other minority groups to see what measures do and don’t work

  6. More Detail on the Charter for Regional or Minority Languages • Minority language is • 1) used by a numerically smaller # of citizens in a given territory of the state • 2) distinct from state language • Minority language is not • 1) language of immigrants • 2) dialect of majority language • 3) non-territorial (Romany, Yiddish) -- but these are included in part II of Charter

  7. Charter for Regional or Minority Languages • Has been signed by most EU countries (plus Norway, Switzerland & others), and is under consideration by Russia • Has achieved widespread recognition of importance of linguistic human rights and linguistic diversity as a resource

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