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05/14/2004: "Language Links"

I received [via email] a number of links to good articles by Davyth Hicks on the Eurolang website concerning some issues facing Europes minority tongues.
David calls English "the worst killer language" due to the way it can take over from a persons natural language in areas such as business: "there are already researchers, civil servants, who know certain things much better in English than in their own languages. Sometimes they are unable to discuss them or write about them in their own languages".



Comunn na Gàidhlig (CnaG), which works for the development of Scottish Gaelic, has called on the British Prime Minister to use the British-Irish Council as the co-ordinating mechanism for overseeing the implementation and monitoring of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

Thanks to the new Spanish Government, Europe’s minoritised languages will be on the agenda for the last leg of talks on the Draft Constituition.

Plaid Cymru call for Welsh to have official EU recognition, and Welsh language groups say small and lesser used languages must co-operate.