Re: Reading Martin

From: Martin Owen (mowen@rem.bangor.ac.uk)
Date: Thu Jan 27 2000 - 02:30:18 PST


Sorry Genevive. It was the end of a long day for me, and I was thinking
this is getting too long.Quick exits do not lead to greatest clarity.

I suppose:
1) Many centuries of legislative action against a language in itslef does
not have appeared sufficient to obliterate a language
(either in modern times, where "politics", and thus the "politics of
language" has existed, nor in pre-political time, where temporal power
was weilded by the sword and stirrup.
2) genocide seems to be an effective strategy to obliterate languages.

For reasons why languages are obliterated/survive therefore you must look
beyond the impositions of the rulers on the ruled. I know in the "modern"
period the langauge in Wales survived because there was a strong
oppositional stance in well organised cadres who acted to subvert the best
efforts of the ruling classes.

There are two important features in the survival of Welsh in the modern age
a) the existence of the Bible in Welsh since the 16th Century... and
therefore a legtimation of the language/ a source book.
b) a strong protestant church (with the emphasis on protest), where the
working/peasant classes had a focus of social cohesion, organisation and
political opposition, which was mediated through the language. The use of
the language was both a mediation system and an object of
transformation.<< Interestingly destroying much of the rest of the folk
culture in the process: sing only hymms and don't dance.>> (Welsh secular
folk music survived in the hands of the gypsies)

This may provide an interesting contrast to events in Ireland, which had
its colonisation later than Wales and lost its language much faster, where
Roman Catholicism was the dominant religion.

Our "sophisticated" C20th analysis allows us to see that what is required
to sustain diversity is for the conditions for reproduction must be a
focus of attention, (It's the economy stupid!... well not quite).

Look at http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/education/mercator/eurom.html
and the report which fowwlows for further deatials.

As a major aside, Tiryakin's current interest in US protestantism presents
a different side of the same coin.

Martin O



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