Clearly, these considerations are taken
from a study of situations that are "truly" peripheral to official discourses
base on presuppositions known because of peripheral sociolinguistics. If we re-think the
study of the language policies of the various nationalities in the Spain or Quebec, for
example, and compare these with cases in the so-called Third World, we could discover new
ways of thinking that could help to legitimise the rights of all speakers and embark on a
critical dialogue that would allow us to overcome the narrow definitions of some of the
concepts in our societies such as identity, nation or power.
3. Conclusion
"Je
nai quune langue, ce nest pas la mienne. (...) Or jamais cette langue,
la seule que je sois ainsi voué à parler tant que parler me sera possible, à la vie à
la mort, cette seule langue, vois-tu, jamais ce ne sera la mienne. Jamais elle ne le fut
en vérité" (Jacques DERRIDA. Le monolinguisme de lautre ou la prothèse
dorigine. 1996:1)
In the entry on
language in his critical dictionary on development, the Malgache journalist RIAKA, quotes
a 1948 text by Pierre Boiteau and another from 1969 by Gérard Althabe which openly
criticise the language policy carried out by France entirely in favour of the French
language and the consequences of this policy in the society of the new independent
republic. The author also adds the following:
"Ces textes
nous renvoient au passé, mais aussi à lactualité. Car entre temps, léchec
de la prétendue "malgachisation" fut celui dune politique à la
phraséologie nationaliste et démagogique qui na pas changé grand chose à des
choix linguistiques liés aux rapports de pouvoir entre lélite et le
peuple"(100).
He ends the
article by referring the reader to the entries on "Bilinguisme, Education et
enseignement, Elites, Francophonie, Nation, Pouvoir" (id), thus pointing directly at
the primary aims of peripheral sociolinguists whilst offering in this recent discourse a
memory exercise in assumptions that had been dealt with in previous times. In short, it is
the temporary step back in time that we propose for the worlds new situation, an
echo of the voices that try to make concepts that did not belong to them more flexible..
This is the thesis of Edward W. SAID (105), for whom culture, which can help societies
that are predisposed to being dominated by others, can also prepare societies to change
this notion of domination. To do this, he proposes a different type of analysis that goes
beyond those offered by national schools of systematic theories, "la logique en
contrepoint dune analyse planétaire, où lon voit fonctionner ensemble les
textes et les institutions mondiales (...). Les entreprises séparatistes et indigénistes
me paraissent clairement épuisées. Lécologie de la littérature en son sens
nouveau, élargi, ne saurait être conçue (comme létaient les conceptions
antérieurs de la littérature comparée) sur le modèle dune symphonie, mais de la
musique atonale. Nous devons prendre en compte toutes sortes de pratiques spatiales ou
géographiques et rhétoriques -accents, limites, contraintes, intrusions, inclusions,
interdits- qui toutes contribuent à élucider une topographie complexe et inégale"
(id:441).
CHAUDENSON has the
same idea in mind when he says that the language policies of Creole territories should
leave aside discussions about cultural identity, antiquated in a world where identities
live alongside and within each other. Sociolinguistics, in this sense, provides us with
great possibilities for these particular linguistic structures whose history and
sociolinguistic features are decisive: "de nos jours mêmes, les situations
créolophones demeurent des terrains très favorables, aussi bien pour létude de
lévolution des langues en contact que pour la mise en évidence des problématiques
de laménagement linguistique"(1995: 123). This is CALVETs
"modéré" point of view (1999:219) "qui semble le mieux correspondre aux
données linguistiques".
We are not
demanding a "polyglottic paradise" or the preservation of any status quo,
nor indeed are we harking back to a grievance that has been stagnated in time; on the
contrary, we believe that an objective and critical sociolinguistic analysis of realities
other than those that we can no longer avoid, could allow us to understand better the
relationship between language and society, i.e. of human beings themselves
considered in a global context, of course.
Mariano Asensio
Cermeño
University of Reunion Island
4. References
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de lingüística de la escuela española. Madrid: Editorial Gredos. (Prólogo de
Rafael Lapesa).
(1987): Literatura
e historia de las mentalidades. Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra. (Crítica y estudios
literatios).
-CALVET,
Louis-Jean (1974): Linguistique et colonialisme. Petit traité de glottophagie.
Paris: Payot.
(1996): Les
politiques linguistiques. 1ª edición. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France (Col.
"Que sais-je". Nº 3075).
(1998): La
sociolinguistique. 3ª edición. 1ª ed. 1993. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France
(Col. "Que sais-je". Nº 2731).
(1999): Pour
une écologie des langues du monde. Paris: Plon.
-CHAUDENSON,
Robert (1974): Le lexique du parler créole de la Réunion. 2 tomos. Paris: H.
Champion.
(1979): Les
créoles français. Paris: Fernand Nathan. (Col. "Langues en question").
(1995): Les
créoles. 1ª edición. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France (Col. "Que
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