European Cultural Parliament

Berlin 15 -17 December 2012

Rodolfo Maslias

 A different language means a

different culture? The 2005 edition of Ethnologue listed 6,912 living languages If we add to main languages regional languages and dialects, 46,821 have been counted worldwide

Is language democratic?
The birth and the evolution of a language is a deeply democratic process Language is the tool that enables

communication of a social community under certain conditions Its birth and limits cannot be imposed Monitoring of its evolution cannot be prescriptive, it must be descriptive Criteria adapt to the changes of the communication needs and trends

Language; a cultural right?

If the communication tool of a community

makes an integral part of ist culture, then each language must be preserved like any other cultural asset then each society must be free, encouraged and assisted to use its language

When do we accept a language?

The example of Catalan:

A regional language: Spoken by 11 mio and taught at school to 7 mio pupils, used in 4 countries, official language of one State The example of Luxembourgish: A national language: Officialised very recently (1984), spoken before as a dialect in regions of 4 States

In some countries the own language is not promoted and protected. In some countries there are no classes for foreigners (Denmark) Some languages receive a worldwide support (Francophonie) Some languages are protected through public structures (Lithuania)

Multilingualism-Multiculturalism
In multicultural communities, the preservation of all

languages as a right of each member or group of the community becomes a main task and obligation Enabling use, divulgation, protection of each language needs efforts in education Respect of multiculturalism is respect of multilingualism Hosted communities integrate better if their culture and language is respected and taught

Each EU legislative act becomes national law and each citizen has the obligation to be aware of it Each citizen may go to trial on the basis of the EU legislation A fair trial supposes expression in their own language

506 language combinations Some 5000 translators and connected staff In 10 Institutions Numerous linguistic tools; translation memory, terminology database, CAT-tools 100s of hours of interpretation in all 23 languages in plenary sessions and every meeting on lower level Immense quantity of material in all languages, printed or electronic

The Institutions of the European Union tend to reduce the usage of the offical languages to increase efficiency and save resources So called pivot languages are used as intermediaries for the translation and translations are limited From the other side, language communities seek to impose new official languages How to deal with this additional dilemma?