Edward’s post: “Meantime the European Union also granted semiofficial status today to three more of Spain?s national languages: Basque, Catalan and Galician .”

Edward previous comment: “The Euskera and Gallego things are just thrown in as camouflage IMHO.”

For those who didn’t know Euskera is the way people in Spain call the Basque language. IIRC Basques say Euskara.

DSW

Spanish Dialects map

I can’t seem to find my favorite European language map right now. Shows Galician, Walloon, all the littler ones.

I believe it is central to understanding modern terrorism/seccession movements. (Spain’s three languages don’t include Basque, I guess).

This page has many pretty linguistic maps (from the Encyc Brit or something) and includes this one showing Italy is more complicated than Spain (France has Walloon, too).

How can you follow laws that aren’t published in your language?

Yes, well, expediency rules here. Since the issue is – to use present day parlance – about the Spanish Cheque. The Catalans want anything between 3 and 5% of Spains GNP returning to them, and Zapatero probably thinks if he can keep them happy with a bit of translation, the cost will be trivial. The Euskera and Gallego things are just thrown in as camouflage IMHO.

Well I put this up because I basically respect minority linguistic rights. In some ways it is about social cohesion. I mean we pay traffic police to keep things flowing smoothly, so I don’t see why we shouldn’t pay tranlators to do likewise. Naturally it isn’t a bad principle that if you want ‘own language documentation’ you should have to pay something for it.

I don’t see why the UK doesn’t press for Welsh, and cough up the money.

In cases like Belgium and Spain linguistic flexibility may come cheap at the price, if you have to cost it against what ‘national divorce’ might add up to.

First language English speakers – like me – tend to be unsympathetic (and to under-rate the importance of this for people whose first language is other than English). My mother spoke Welsh at home, and I tended to reject it as not sufficiently modern and un-sophistocated. With time we mature, and become more tolerant and accepting.

Actually the French, for all the special case pleading, tend to be even less sympathetic to minority languages than we Brits. I often say to my French friends: it seems I speak one language which is too big for your taste, and one which is too small (Catalan). This is clearly an area where ‘one ring to fit them all’ doesn’t hold .