Winter Olympics French Language Usage At Issue

Anyone who doubts that language issues are divi­sive would be surprised by the latest flap about the amount of French language usage in the Winter Olympics cere­monies in Canada. According to a story in the Toronto Star, the Heritage Minister of Canada and the Premier of Quebec expressed dissat­is­fac­tion with the place of the French language in the enter­tain­ment activities.

An update in the London Daily Exchange reports that the Official Language Commissioner is launching an inves­ti­ga­tion. The Official Languages Act of Canada names English and French as the offi­cial languages of the country and provides for legal reme­dies if the oblig­a­tions of federal insti­tu­tions in promoting these languages are not met. Curiously enough, the offi­cial languages of the Olympics are French, English and the language of the host country. So appar­ently there was enough French for the local Olympics Committee but not for some of the Canadian offi­cials present.

As you can imagine, colum­nists and everyday citi­zens have been weighing in on both sides. The Globe and Mail had a sympa­thetic opinion piece and a sports blog site carried an opposing opinion. Reader comments have included a wide variety of opin­ions, not neces­sarily predictable ones based on Anglophone/Francophone lines, as to whether lack of French was an issue. One site even has a poll as to what the Olympics languages should be. It will be inter­esting to see where this goes.

Photo © Paul Binet | Dreamstime.com

Language Celebrations Abound

International Mother Tongue Language Day is being honored today through Tuesday, February 21–23. This is the eleventh year for the cele­bra­tion, which was initi­ated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2000. Following an opening cere­mony at UNESCO head­quar­ters in Paris on Monday morning, an International Symposium on Translation and Cultural Mediation will be held Monday and Tuesday. An infor­ma­tion session will be held Tuesday after­noon following the symposium.

The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, is holding Endangered Languages Week, February 22–27. Activities include a variety of work­shops, films and presen­ta­tions regarding dying languages and the field­work involved in attempting to preserve them.

It seemed appro­priate to begin a language policy blog in a week when multiple language events are in session. One purpose of this site is to gather news on language policy matters around the world, keep tabs on upcoming confer­ences and discuss recent and upcoming publi­ca­tions. Another is to provide tools and data for language policy research. Language policy measure­ment scales and some of the data coded using those scales are already present on the site. Additional data will be made avail­able for down­load as datasets are prepared. Please explore the research pages and use the contact form to ask ques­tions or provide feed­back, whether on site navi­ga­tion or content. This site is a work in progress and can benefit from your input.

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