A piece of information that might interest you (unless I've already ranted about it, in which case, you may just find yourself bored ;D).
In New Zealand, as recently as the 50s and 60s, Maori children were still having pepper and mustard rubbed into their mouths, for speaking Maori at school and I mean even amongst themselves, in the playground, not just in class.
The (laughable if it weren't so terrible) situation now is that NZ is officially a bilungual country and English and Maori share co-official status. What it actually is, in practice, is:
- place names and public buildings are labelled bilingually
- anyone training for coounselling, teaching or the police force has to learn a token amount about Maori language and culture and (usually) do a short course on the Treaty of Waitangi.
- there is (or was, when I left) a Maori television channel, on one of the most limitedly and badly received frequencies
- official visits and many sporting events bear the trappings of Maori cultural welcomes, dances etc.
- annual cultural youth events are organized
However, while I don't know the actual numbers, growing up there, I know that a huge percentage of the small number of people who speak Maori fluently are not Maori themselves. It's quite a done thing to learn the language if you are either a language freak or a new age, touchy feely counsellor etc.
Somehow, even without the level of violence carried out by Franco, Maori is now in a MUCH more precarious position than Catalan - and that's even after imporvements in the situation, in the last couple of decades. :S
A piece of information that might interest you (unless I've already ranted about it, in which case, you may just find yourself bored ;D).
In New Zealand, as recently as the 50s and 60s, Maori children were still having pepper and mustard rubbed into their mouths, for speaking Maori at school and I mean even amongst themselves, in the playground, not just in class.
The (laughable if it weren't so terrible) situation now is that NZ is officially a bilungual country and English and Maori share co-official status. What it actually is, in practice, is:
- place names and public buildings are labelled bilingually
- anyone training for coounselling, teaching or the police force has to learn a token amount about Maori language and culture and (usually) do a short course on the Treaty of Waitangi.
- there is (or was, when I left) a Maori television channel, on one of the most limitedly and badly received frequencies
- official visits and many sporting events bear the trappings of Maori cultural welcomes, dances etc.
- annual cultural youth events are organized
However, while I don't know the actual numbers, growing up there, I know that a huge percentage of the small number of people who speak Maori fluently are not Maori themselves. It's quite a done thing to learn the language if you are either a language freak or a new age, touchy feely counsellor etc.
Somehow, even without the level of violence carried out by Franco, Maori is now in a MUCH more precarious position than Catalan - and that's even after imporvements in the situation, in the last couple of decades. :S
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