Protecting Europe’s Indigenous, Regional and Minority Languages
DEVELOPMENTS
A patchwork of languages makes up modern Europe and Russia. The region’s linguistic diversity includes numerically small, indigenous language communities, robust regional and minority languages, languages brought to Europe and spoken by its immigrants, and major world languages that are spoken far beyond Europe’s borders. The Council of Europe, an international organization of 47 members including Russia, estimates that there are approximately 225 languages indigenous to Europe. Among Council of Europe member states, there are approximately 40 national languages, with many others afforded regional or privileged status.
Yet, in Europe, as in other parts of the world, parts of this patchwork are fading. By conservative estimates, half of the more than 6,700 languages are spoken around the world are in danger of disappearing before the end of the century. It is estimated that 96% of the world’s population speaks just 4% of its languages. Maps of the world’s vulnerable languages and where they are spoken are available from the 2009 United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger.
BACKGROUND
The language we speak is at the core of our identity. It establishes a connection and means of communication with those around us, as well as those who came before and will come after us. As the expression of ethnic or national identity, languages preserve a culture’s history and worldview and contribute to the sum of human knowledge. Yet, it is natural in the course of human history for languages to evolve, disappear, and see new ones take their place.
This process has been accelerated in recent times, however, first by colonization and the promotion of monolingualism and more recently simply through globalization. Through the Internet, popular music, and film, global languages are becoming ever more prevalent. Increased mobility and urbanization, as people move in search of jobs and educate their children in the dominant language of their new home, threaten traditional languages around the world. In fact, a language can disappear within two generations if children are not raised in it.
Specific to Europe, the creation and subsequent expansion of the European Union established an area for the free movement of goods, capital, services, and persons, dramatically enhancing cross-border and cross-language interaction. To balance this, both national governments and the European Commission developed policies to preserve Europe’s multicultural- and multilingualism. As a matter of principle, the European Union conducts business in the 23 national languages of its member states. Even Irish, spoken by a small minority at home, has been made an official language of the EU.
The European Commission counts an additional 60 indigenous regional or minority language communities within the European Union. These range from the Saami languages spoken by indigenous populations in northern Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia, some of which (Pite Saami and Ume Saami) have only a few speakers left, to the languages of the stateless Sorbs, 60,000 speakers of which remain in eastern Germany, to robust communities such as Basque, Catalan, and Galician in Spain, which share official status with Spanish in the regions in which they are spoken. In Wales, part of the United Kingdom, Welsh, though not an official language, has over 500,000 speakers and shares equal status with English in the public sector.
In addition, Europe is full of examples of national languages that are minority languages in other geographies. Because populations migrated, territories changed control, and borders were redrawn so many times throughout the continent’s history, it is common to find, for example, Hungarian language communities in Slovakia or native Slovene speakers in Italy. Indeed, the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Herta Müller, a German author who grew up in a German-speaking town in Romania.
ANALYSIS
What can be done to protect these minority language communities and preserve the continent’s linguistic diversity?
According to UNESCO, one of the most important things states can do is to create conditions that favor a minority language’s continued use, including among the next generation. This involves national policies that recognize minority languages and encourage their use in the public sphere, promotion of minority language publications, broadcasts, and other media, and access to educational instruction in minority languages. In the Welsh example, the number of speakers has increased since the introduction of the 1993 Welsh Language Act, which ensured equal status for Welsh in court proceedings and public service provision and established the Welsh Language Board to promote its use.
The challenge is that such measures are expensive. The German federal government spends €8.2 million annually ($12.2 million) to preserve Sorbian culture, including its two languages. States have limited funds for education, and training teachers and developing curricula for minority language education is usually not seen as a priority. However, several studies have shown that children educated in their native language are more likely to stay in school, attend college, and acquire skills that they can contribute to their communities.
Under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, a convention of the Council of Europe, 17 signatories have agreed to apply specific measures to protect and promote historical minority languages in the fields of education, justice, administration, media, and cultural activities. As this Charter recognizes, most important of all to the preservation of linguistic diversity is that native speakers and society alike view minority languages as assets, not liabilities, and contribute to helping keep them alive.
Annie Verderosa is the Europe/Russia Editor at Foreign Policy Digest.