[BRIEF NOTE] On the Corsican language
Aug. 18th, 2009 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldTF1 reports that the regional assembly of the French island of Corsica has rejected, by a majority of 28 out of the 47 representatives present, a plan to make Corsican an official language of the island alongside French.
The Corsican language, called a collection of Italian dialects by some and part of a continuum of Romance languages in the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea, doesn't seem to have a good fate ahead ofi t.
Euromosaic is quite skeptical of the idea of reversing the fall in the numbers of speakers of the Corsican language, that it "is a clear example of the gradual demise of a linguistic tradition. Bilingualism in one generation has normally been followed by monolingualism in the next. Despite the absence of reliable data (an absence which is significant in itself), the reduction in the number and percentage of Corsican speakers over the last few decades is obvious. Socioeconomic conditions for the preservation of Corsican have long been unfavourable, due to the twofold phenomenon of the emigration of native speakers and the immigration of non-speakers."
The lack of institutional support for Corsican, as mentioned above, hasn't helped, this lack derived in part from the identification since 1992 of French as the country's official language, with other languages at best coming in behind. As the above vote demonstrates, it doesn't seem as if very many Corsicans mind this fate for their island's indigenous language.
L'Assemblée de Corse a rejeté à une large majorité une motion déposée par les nationalistes indépendantistes visant à donner à la langue corse un "statut d'officialité", dans la nuit de lundi à mardi. La motion a été rejetée par 28 des 47 conseillers présents sur un total de 51. Dix neuf autres ont voté pour. La motion avait été déposée par Jean-Guy Talamoni, le leader de Corsica Nazione Indipendente. "A défaut de donner un statut d'officialité à notre langue - un trésor que nous avons en partage - il n'est pas envisageable d'en enrayer le déclin", a plaidé le conseiller territorial devant l'Assemblée.
Le communiste Dominique Bucchini a estimé qu'"il fallait donner un statut aux langues de France" et s'est prononcé pour "un statut de "co-officialité" du Corse, qui ne serait pas en opposition avec la langue de la République mais en complémentarité" avec elle.
Selon les chiffres avancés lors du débat, environ un tiers seulement de la population de l'île, 100.000 personnes, parlerait le Corse. Lors du débat, plusieurs élus de la majorité ont estimé qu'"il ne fallait pas brûler les étapes mais commencer par un réel apprentissage du Corse". "Il n'y a pas eu de sursaut dans la population, le nombre des locuteurs n'augmente pas, le bilinguisme instauré à l'école maternelle n'est pas une réalité, pas plus que les 3 heures d'enseignement hebdomadaire prévues dans le primaire, et 12% seulement des collégiens de l'île suivent un enseignement bilingue", a ainsi rappelé Madeleine Mozziconacci (divers gauche).
The Corsican language, called a collection of Italian dialects by some and part of a continuum of Romance languages in the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea, doesn't seem to have a good fate ahead ofi t.
The January 2007 estimated population of the island was 281,000, while the figure for the March 1999 census, when most of the studies - though not the linguistic survey work referenced in this article - were performed, was about 261,000 (see under Corsica). Only a certain percentage of the population at either time spoke Corsu with any fluency. The 2001 population of 341,000 speakers on the island given by Ethnologue exceeds either census and thus may be considered questionable, like its estimate of 402,000 speakers worldwide.
The use of Corsican over French has been declining. In 1980 about 70% of the population "had some command of the Corsican language." In 1990 out of a total population of about 254,000 the percentage had declined to 50%, with only 10% using it as a first language. The language was clearly on the way out when the French government reversed its non-supportive stand and began some strong measures to save it. Whether these measures will succeed remains to be seen. No recent statistics on Corsu are available.
Euromosaic is quite skeptical of the idea of reversing the fall in the numbers of speakers of the Corsican language, that it "is a clear example of the gradual demise of a linguistic tradition. Bilingualism in one generation has normally been followed by monolingualism in the next. Despite the absence of reliable data (an absence which is significant in itself), the reduction in the number and percentage of Corsican speakers over the last few decades is obvious. Socioeconomic conditions for the preservation of Corsican have long been unfavourable, due to the twofold phenomenon of the emigration of native speakers and the immigration of non-speakers."
The lack of institutional support for Corsican, as mentioned above, hasn't helped, this lack derived in part from the identification since 1992 of French as the country's official language, with other languages at best coming in behind. As the above vote demonstrates, it doesn't seem as if very many Corsicans mind this fate for their island's indigenous language.
