Endangered Languages

[TesticleMilkshake]

Interesting stuff, especially the interactive map.

http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/

 

[Plendakor]

I speak french and am from Quebec and the damn PQ (political party) won't stop whinning and say we're losing french (cause They don't speak english) but still, support an "office of the french language" that massacres grammar rules and words with their stupid reform. Hell, I can't even send my kid to an english school so she'd pick it up faster than I did (cause when you speak english here, you can ALWAYS find work). Fuck them, I probably can write better french than those cocksucking politicians. Sorry, just wanted to add this. It's like, let's ban drums cause I can't fucking play them and I'm jealous. Um no?

 

[DarkTom666]

^ I'll have to disagree on a certain point here. We're actually losing French quite a bit; Montréal is 50/50 (hell, I'd say even more to the English side) when it should be French-oriented. Go into almost any possible store and everyone will answer you in English, almost every time.

I then proceed to answer back in French telling them I don't speak English and want to see the manager. Fun times.

I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing since our neighbors are English and it's one of the most spoken language in the world, but being from the Province of Québec, we should be proud of our language and try to preserve it...

Anyways, awesome website! Loved the interactive map too, very nice addition.

 

[John_C]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvlQXPNwrqo&sns=fb[/ame]

 

[StefTD]

that video was awesome

 

[HCL]

Cornwall represent.

 

[ratsapprentice]

 

[HCL]

To be fair, Cornwall has as much right to be called a nation as Wales does. It's small and insignificant and therefore gets laughed out when it suggests it but in principle it has every right. Nobody down there wants independence, it's more like recognition that they aren't English.

/tangent

 

[ratsapprentice]

I know only a very tiny minority actually want independence.
I think that their calls for their culture to be more widely recognized as separate from "England" are a little petulant sometimes.
It's not like every member of the Heptarchy didn't lose their own cultural independence when we merged.

 

[HCL]

I know only a very tiny minority actually want independence.
I think that their calls for their culture to be more widely recognized as separate from "England" are a little petulant sometimes.
It's not like every member of the Heptarchy didn't lose their own cultural independence when we merged.

Speaking different dialects is slightly different to speaking a different language and belonging to a different ethnic group though. No matter which way you look at it, you can't call the Cornish English any more than you can the Welsh, after all both were absorbed into and counted as part England for hundreds of years.

I'm neither (at least ethnically) so I don't particularly care either way, it just seems that wanting to be recognised as their own cultural nation seems like a fair call.

 

[AgentX]

There are a couple of bearded folks in Cornwall who think independence is good but they are usually drunk and can be found in the dark recesses of a fishing pub.

I had a lecturer at College who ran as MP for Mebyon Kernow but failed miserably to get any significant votes.

More laughably there is actually a "terrorist" group campaigning for independence, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_National_Liberation_Army I heard rumours they burnt down a brewery in Redruth which seems quite self defeatist!

Kernow bys vyken! (Cornwall forever)

 

[HCL]

There are a couple of bearded folks in Cornwall who think independence is good but they are usually drunk and can be found in the dark recesses of a fishing pub.

I had a lecturer at College who ran as MP for Mebyon Kernow but failed miserably to get any significant votes.

More laughably there is actually a "terrorist" group campaigning for independence, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_National_Liberation_Army I heard rumours they burnt down a brewery in Redruth which seems quite self defeatist!

Kernow bys vyken! (Cornwall forever)

MK will never win anything significant because most people realise independence is ridiculous and don't care enough to vote for them instead of one of the national parties.

 

[ratsapprentice]

The language/dialect is not the be all/end all of a culture.
It just seems as if they feel like it's big old stupid England ignoring little old Cornwall, when in fact most of England (and the UK to an extent) is painfully ignorant of it's own history/cultural heritage.
Let's face it, most English people's idea of "cultural heritage" is football or fish and chips.

I do in fact completely empathise with the sentiment, just not the sense of victimisation.

 

[HCL]

The language/dialect is not the be all/end all of a culture.
It just seems as if they feel like it's big old stupid England ignoring little old Cornwall, when in fact most of England (and the UK to an extent) is painfully ignorant of it's own history/cultural heritage.
Let's face it, most English people's idea of "cultural heritage" is football or fish and chips.

I do in fact completely empathise with the sentiment, just not the sense of victimisation.

If there's a chip on Cornwall's shoulder about England it's considerably smaller than Scotland's.

You're right about English cultural heritage, the only problem is that the Norman invasion completely changed English culture and little of what came before still survives, leaving people confused about what it means to be English. I mean, we still used French in courts until the 17th century.

 

[ratsapprentice]

If there's a chip on Cornwall's shoulders about England it's considerably smaller than Scotland's.

No doubt. I've been on the receiving end of some pretty vitriolic anti English abuse before

About the confusion surrounding what it is to be English, I often get people asking me where my surname comes from, and being completely thrown off when I tell them it's English!

 

[vikk]

Interesting stuff, especially the interactive map.

http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/

 

[TesticleMilkshake]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Bzjw7CLw0

YESSSSSSSS Love yoik and the Sami people.

 

[John_C]

One of my mates ended up getting to know some cornish liberation army guys. Complete nutters.