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Minority Linguistic Issues in Western and Eastern Europe: An overview of two cases.

Minority Linguistic Issues in Western and Eastern Europe: An overview of two cases. Breton in France and Russian in Ukraine. Jose C. Ibarra . France: brief background. France is notorious for the prestige with which it holds its language and culture.

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Minority Linguistic Issues in Western and Eastern Europe: An overview of two cases.

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  1. Minority Linguistic Issues in Western and Eastern Europe: An overview of two cases. Breton in France and Russian in Ukraine. Jose C. Ibarra

  2. France: brief background • France is notorious for the prestige with which it holds its language and culture. • A telling statement made by French culture Minister Jacques Toubon in 1993 states that: “Francophonie can and must be an alternative to the cultural and linguistic uniformity that threatens the world” (Anthony p. 3). • This same conservative Culture Minister made the Toubon Law of 1994 mandating all official publications, public announcements, and advertisements to be given in French.

  3. Brittany: Overview • Brittany occupies the northwestern region of France and is roughly about the same size of Taiwan or about 70% larger than Massachusetts. • The population of Brittany is estimated at 4,200,000. • The main language of the towns is French, however both Breton and Gallo are spoken in the region as well. ----------------------------------------- Wikipedia

  4. Challenges facing Breton speakers • According to Patrick Malrieu, the President of the cultural Council of Brittany: Breton is losing 20,000 speakers a year and can wait no longer. • France has yet to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages due to its unwillingness to modify its constitution. • The 2002 Financial Legislation Act published by the French Constitutional Council asserts that the constitution allows no other language besides French to be used in instruction.

  5. Breton Challenges cont’d • Privately funded Diwan (“seed”) schools, where classes are taught in Breton through the immersion method, have been very helpful in reviving Breton. • However plans to incorporate these schools into the state education system have been blocked by the French Constitutional council.

  6. The Breton Struggle • The Breton struggle is typical of that in many countries outside the Soviet sphere: A minority group trying to maintain its language amongst a society dominated by a national language and that pursues a monolingual education system.

  7. Ukraine and the Soviet Era • Ukraine experienced a gradual suppression of Ukrainian and an ensuing Russification during the Soviet era, especially in the 1970s and 1980s. • Parents were given the opportunity to choose the language of instruction for their children • Most chose Russian due to its importance in job opportunities whereas Ukrainian was not as vital. Wikipedia

  8. The legacy of Russification • Today in Ukraine 20% of its population is ethnically Russian and more than 60% of its 51 million inhabitants speak Russian. • Between 1995 and 1997 the number of Russian language journals increased from 101 to 118 and the number of newspapers from 721 to 746. • The current President of Ukraine is a native speaker of Russian and actually spoke very little Ukrainian when he was elected.

  9. Russian Minority struggles • Following the demise of the Soviet Union, there has been an emphasis on De-Russification. • An extreme example is the recent outlawing of Russian pop music from public buses in Ukraine last year. • Ukrainian has become the official language of instruction. Currently the number of schools instructing in Russian does not surpass 10% of the total number of schools. • In 2001 out of a total 21,258 general schools in Ukraine, 2,215 were teaching in Russian.

  10. Legislation in Ukraine • Ukraine made strides in guaranteeing rights to minority groups following the Soviet breakup. • The 1991 Declaration on National Minorities guaranteed every ethnic and nationality group the right to use the native language in “every field of social life.” • It also passed a Language Law which allows for the use of other languages parallel to Ukrainian under the conditions of having citizenship, being a local majority in population, and having a high density of speakers.

  11. Russian Minority Struggles • Despite these legislative advances, there is still ethnic strife due to the emphasis on Ukrainization and Derussification. • For example, Segments of the Russian-speaking population have viewed the decreasing use of Russian in schools and the outlawing of Russian music as being unfair.

  12. Comparing East to West • Like many Eastern European countries, Ukraine is still dealing with the lasting effects of the Soviet era. • In trying to promote its long-suppressed national language and culture, it is passing policies viewed unfair by the Russian-speaking population. • France, like most other Western European nations, isn’t having to deal with the after-effects of the Soviet era and is dealing more with the more typical majority vs. minority issue. • In France a minority population is seeking to gain rights and not be completely assimilated into the French culture, whereas in the Ukraine the large Russian-speaking group is trying defend its rights and not have them consumed by the surge of Ukrainian nationalism.

  13. bibliography • “Ukrainians Take Control.” The Register-Guard. December 28, 2004: p. A10. NCLive.  • “Ukraine: Language Issues.” U.S. English Foundation, Inc. < http://www.us-english.org/foundation/research/olp/viewResearch.asp?CID=23&TID=3>. 03 November 2005. • “Ukraine: Minority Groups.” U.S. English Foundation, Inc. < http://www.us-english.org/foundation/research/olp/viewResearch.asp?CID=23&TID=4>. 03 November 2005. • “Ukraine: Language in Everyday Life.” U.S. English Foundation, Inc. <http://www.us-english.org/foundation/research/olp/viewResearch.asp?CID=23&TID=6>. 03 November 2005. • “Ukraine: International Treaties.” U.S. English Foundation, Inc. < http://www.us-english.org/foundation/research/olp/viewResearch.asp?CID=23&TID=7>. 03 November 2005. • “France: Language Issues.” U.S. English Foundation, Inc. < http://www.us-english.org/foundation/research/olp/viewResearch.asp?CID=59&TID=3>. 18 October 2005.  • 1. Anthony, Ted. “Fears of Cultural Imperialism Spread along with English.” Associated Press. 2002. <http://wire.ap.org/APpackages/english/imperialism.html>. • 2. “A World Empire by other Means.” The Economist. 20 December 2001. <www.economist.com>

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