xxx wrote: ↑Thu Jun 06, 2024 12:42 pm
the decision was overturned only because of a procedural error (the height of judicialization...),
all other attempts, including allowing diacritics by law, have been rejected, even at European level...
Fortunately, you can name your children whatever you/they like without having to register them...
Oh, that's true (it's a bit more complex than a procedural error) but yes, apparently, Fañch could still be rejected. That's pretty depressing.
Yes, you can call your kids whatever you like, but over-zealous officials giving their opinion is still ridiculous IMO.
The whole debate made me dig out a Breton grammar, so that's a good thing. Some highlights:
There's something very Tolkienian about it; perhaps even more than Welsh.
The amount of dialectal variation is amazing (especially given how tiny the Breton speaking area is); you get stuff like very different plural markers over an area maybe a hundred miles wide.
The dialect thing is kind of a problem; or was, because the variety taught is Breton school won't be understandable by native speakers. Or wasn't -- there aren't a lot of native speakers left.
The grammar has quotations from a visiting Parisian writer. His conclusion: the language is 'devilish'. What he means by that is that it's difficult to learn and most people were monolingual. This probably informs much of the historical French attitude towards minority languages.
I mentioned the plurals. Another interesting feature is the singulative, which you can use for individual mice, drops of rain and women in traditional costume. A woman from Cornouaille is a Kernevodez; but if she'd in traditional dress, she's a Kernevodenn
it's the difference between wild languages (meaning mostly spoken, and little written)
and policed languages (meaning with a navy and an army, (and civil registry))...
the time of wild languages is over, (even in conlanging ?)
they are all endangered languages, Breton in particular is at the end of the line,
rather than registering first names in the civil registry like bottles in the sea
or toponyms of forgotten languages, or even like Khaleesi syndrome,
it would be better to learn the language of one's grandparents before they die
and pass it on to one's children,
the ad hoc culture is rich enough to valorize without waiting for a return on investment...
is it time to think collective rather than individualistic...
xxx wrote: ↑Fri Jun 07, 2024 4:08 am
rather than registering first names in the civil registry like bottles in the sea
or toponyms of forgotten languages, or even like Khaleesi syndrome,
it would be better to learn the language of one's grandparents before they die
and pass it on to one's children,
the ad hoc culture is rich enough to valorize without waiting for a return on investment...
It's not an either - or proposition. It's possible to give Breton names and pass Breton on as a living language. In fact I'm pretty sure Breton speakers are doing both. Culture isn't just a language.
Learning the language of 'one's grandparents' is, sadly, no longer an option. I think by the 80s there were no longer any native speakers, or very few -- it's really a matter of language revival now and for language revival, every bit helps.
yes, but don't ask armed dialects to give up their weapons...
the real world is not in the registers...
nor in a fairytale world for teleworking and new-age Parisians...
it's in your heads and through your mouths...
just as I use my conlang to filter the world and revive its colors,
it's enough to speak in tongue to change the world...
