Un jorn t'i tornaràs far !

Dear members of the Star'Ac

Trobada sus : parlar_occitan@yahoogrupos.com.br

Dear members of the Académie française :

I would have preferred to write this letter to you in Catalan –also a language of France– but I’m aware that there is no Catalan language service at the Académie française. I imagine most of you –at least as scholars of renown– must be able to at least read English if not speak it fluently.

I could have also chosen to write this letter in Castilian Spanish –the language of Cervantes– but I have chosen the most widely used international language in Europe and the planet hoping to be widely and directly understood by your Honours without translators.

Being a native Catalan-speaker from the Kingdom of Spain –although born in the French Republic where I spent my early childhood– I’m afraid French has almost disappeared from our Education system. Such a pity ! Quel dommage !

Nevertheless, having left France at an early age I was lucky enough to have my Catalan not only saved but enhanced as one of Europe’s great languages of culture. You will surely grant me –at least I do hope so– that languages and cultures have little to do with boundaries or political agendas although ill winds are not of any help for language survival.

As a linguist, scholar and man of culture, I could have also have written this letter in Occitan –the first language of culture Europe produced after the fall of the Roman Empire– a language dear to my heart and a twin sister close to my native Catalan language. My love of France is born out of the love of Occitan and through Occitan I have also rediscovered my rusty French. It is born, needless to say, from my Catalan-speaking friends on the other side of the Pyrenees.

I’m not quite sure that would have been understood either since none of the great works of Medieval Occitan Literature appear either in the Oil or Oc dialects which you state –in your official Web page– as constitutive parts of the French language. Any 1st year University Romance Language student will agree with me on how misleading and biased is the information you offer in your official page. Whether you agree or not with Occitan being in the French Constitution intelligence would appreciate a higher respect for philological studies. Occitan is simply not a set of dialects of French.

Unfortunately, I do not consider French to be amongst my languages of high level written culture although I can speak and read your language fluently, with a beautiful mild Occitan accent, which I learnt as a child and which, I treasure.

I also very much enjoy to practice my French but I dare not soil a language that has given such great thought and entertainment to mankind.

Therefore, may I let you know how appalled I am at how such a noble and prestigious French Institution treats the languages of France ?

We are no longer in the 1930s and Europe and the world are now in another sphere. It would be nice –for a change– if France gave light to the world in the best tradition of liberté, egalité and fraternité. What other meanings do you give to these words ?

JC Mxxxx

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Translation and Interpretation and Bachelor of Arts in Tourism Studies

joan-peire @ 13:50

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