Planning policies for language diversity : the weight of national realities in applying international conventions

Abstract

Conference given in may 2012 at the university of Alberta (Canada) Media in minority contexts ; Never before has "cultural diversity" been such popular topic, not just among international institutions, but also in the field of cultural industries or for the defenders of world cultures. According to Armand Mattelart, who analysed the genesis of "Cultural diversity", it has become a real hotchpotch with, as time goes by, a loss of its meaning and heuristic scope, thus making it difficult to understand the main issues at stake when dealing with the relationships between cultural matters, public policies and economy. [Mattelart, 2005] "Cultural diversity" includes "language diversity" which is similarly subjected to contradictory and paradoxical discourses. Indeed, as linguistic minorities and researchers already know, the variety of the languages spoken in the world is declining [Crystal, 2000; Hagège, 2000; Moseley, 2010]. The hegemony of two or three international languages (above all the Anglo-Saxon/varieties of English) leading to a language market [Calvet, 2002]; the globalization of media and cultural industries; economic exchanges; and, population flows due to mass tourism and migrations, are some of the majors factors that contribute to marginalizing linguistic idiosyncrasies. These main trends keep on developing and therefore threaten language diversity, all the more so when minority languages are only spoken within the scope of the private sphere and kept away from media, education, justice and administration. At the dawn of the XXI° century, the awareness that language diversity is a precious heritage is grudgingly be faced by many State authorities throughout the world in planning linguistic policies for minorities. Even though many countries signed the international conventions promoted by the ILO (International Labour organization), UNESCO or the European Union, and sometimes supported these decisions through constitutional changes, concrete measures to promote and foster minority languages usually go ...