Lingvoj de Francio

…de la Guardian:

For years France's regional languages were seen by Paris as a taboo that threatened national unity and should be repressed - children were punished for speaking Breton in the playground, banned from speaking Occitan in southern schools or Alsatian dialect in the east. But now, just as the French parliament has taken a historic step to recognise minority languages in the constitution, a new war of words has broken out.

L'Académie française, the institution that defends the purity of French, yesterday issued a furious warning that recognising regional languages in the constitution would be "an attack on French national identity". In turn, local language militants criticised the academy as a ridiculous relic of outdated nationalism.

The row has highlighted how far France differs from other European countries in the defence of minority tongues. Unlike the UK, which has acted to protect languages such as Welsh and Scottish Gaelic, France is one of the few European states which refuses to ratify the European charter for minority languages and give legal status to its various language groups.

France boasts 75 regional languages, including those spoken in far-flung territories from the Indian Ocean to South America. Regional languages such as Alsatian, Occitan, Corse, Breton and Basque, and even smaller ones such as Béarnaise and Picard, have increasingly powerful and well-organised lobby groups…

Kimro kaj Eŭskio

...de la Western Mail:

The Welsh Affairs Select Committee is to travel to the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Bilbao to learn about globalization.

According to the committee’s chairman, Aberavon MP Hywel Francis, the proudly autonomous nations of northern Spain, Catalonia and the Basque country, of which the two cities are the capitals, have adapted far better to the modern world than Wales…

…“We are particularly interested in the Basque country,” Dr Francis said.

“We learned 25 years ago about developing co-operatives from Mondragon and we are going out there to see how they are developing and using the co-operatives to support and in order to serve the tide of globalisation.”..

…Caernarfon MP Hywel Williams, a committee member, said Wales could learn from the independent media of the Basque Country and Catalonia where he said many more people read a daily newspaper in their own language.

He said: “We will certainly be looking at the way the media are dealing with influences from outside.

“Eighty per cent of people in Wales read newspapers from England. Speaking for myself, I am worried that the reality of life in Wales is not being reflected for most Welsh people because they are not reading newspapers which do that job.”...