Next year will be the tenth anniversary for the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages an international Charter that has given some linguistic safeguards for many of Europe's most vulnerable regional or minority languages.
Many of the Celtic languages have benefited from the Charter and even though it is not legally binding, it has placed an onus on Governments to protect and promote our languages. The UK Government have signed and ratified the Charter, but the French are yet to do the same. This has left the Breton language in a precarious position, because without Governmental support and funding in particular, the future of the language remains uncertain.
Last month an Extraordinary General Assembly was held of the Diwan schools association, after it emerged that a financial crisis was imminent as a consequence of a 87000 Euro deficit. Diwan has taught children, through the medium of Breton, for thirty years and have never received any state funding, despite numerous appeals. Without the immersion method used in the Diwan schools, the Breton language would be severely weakened as a spoken community language and its future would be more uncertain.
The French State Council argues that it is this method of immersion teaching, in a language other than French, which runs contrary to the French Constitution and this is one of the reasons why the French Government refuses to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages. According to the French Government, there is only one language in France and that is French. If the Charter was ratified by France, the Government would be committed to promote and protect its languages, including the immersion method of teaching Breton.
This has not stopped state funding of bilingual French and Breton schools, which have, incidentally, grown out of the successes of Diwan. To highlight the academic excellence of the Diwan schools, over two thirds of Breton students who sit the bilingual Baccalaureate examination every year have studied in a Diwan school. It is not the Diwan school system that is at fault for not attracting enough students, because demand for places continues to outstrip availability. Rather the failure lies with the French authorities for not giving parents a free choice of how they want their children educated. The objective of Diwan is to offer free education in Breton to everyone, rich or poor and this, sadly, has been its downfall.
The EuroNews television channel is currently featuring a programme on its website that compares the situation of both the Breton and Welsh languages. In the programme, Emyr Lewis, who is on the Committee of Independent Experts for the Council of Europe says:
"The Welsh language enjoys a degree of support from the authorities that the Breton language does not. And there is, not universal, but on the whole, respect and tolerance for the Welsh language and speakers of the language, which is sadly missing in some aspects of French civil society in relation to Breton"
Confirming this in the same programme, a Breton language campaigner, Tangi Louarn, argues that Breton speakers are treated as second class citizens when expressing themselves through their language and culture.
Even though ten years have now passed since the launch of the Charter for Regional or Minority languages, there is still no sign that the French authorities will ratify the Charter on its ten year anniversary. This is in spite of the fact that 2008 will also be the United Nations International Year of Languages a proposal, ironically enough, put forward by the French Ambassador to the UN.
The Celtic League will continue to lobby the French Government to ratify the Charter in 2008, because without its protection the Breton language is in a very vulnerable position against a Government that seems to have little or no notion of linguistic rights.
(Research and preparation of this article Rhisiart Tal-e-bot)
Euronews link:
Charter for Regional or Minority Languages:
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
20/12/07
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