Language Research

Updated (January 2003)

LINGUISTIC MINORITIES AGREE TO WORK TOGETHER TO IMPLEMENT THE LAW 482

On December 15, 2002 it was the third anniversary of the promulgation of the Law on the Protection of Historic Linguistic Minorities (the so-called Law 482). On this occasion the representatives of different linguistic minorities in Italy discussed the implementation of the law at their meeting in the Occitan area of Piedmont in northwestern Italy.

The President of the Italian Committee of Minorities (CONFEMILI) Domenico Morelli gave a global overview of the past three years. He explained that the Law 482 provides for protection "on request." Though all minority language communities handed in their requests for protection, the implementation of the law is slow and really partial. This is also caused by the fact that the central offices, and especially the Ministry for Regional Affairs does not have enough personnel.

"Law 482 initially created great expectations. Now it is a source of much disappointment," commented Fabrizio Geninatti, representing the Regional Administration of Piedmont, where Occitan, Francoprovençal and German minorities live.

The school director Pierino Donada illustrated how they implement the Law 482 in Friuli-Venezia Giulia for Friulan, Slovene and German speaking minorities. "There is still so much to do, but we go ahead, supported by families who are in favor of their children learning their mother tongue," he commented.

Jole Namor also came from the same region as he is a director of the Slovene paper "Novi Matajur." "Assimilation is the greatest danger for us and the Law 482 is really important as it is the first recognition of the Slovene communities in the Province of Udine," she said.

Various speeches underlined also how the law is not sufficiently applied to the media. Domenico Morelli and the representative of the Friulan Language Office of the Province of Udine, William Cisilino, referred specifically to a draft version of a new contract of service between the Italian state and the public broadcasting society RAI, which was to be signed before the end of 2002. This draft version has only general and ambiguous references to the minority languages and does not take into consideration the Law 482.

MINORITY LANGUAGE TEACHING IN FRIULI-VENEZIA GIULIA

The situation with the implementation of the Law on the Protection of Linguistic Minorities (Law 482) in the schools of the provinces of Udine, Pordenone and Gorizia was a subject for the research carried out by the trade union of teachers "CGIL Scuola'" in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

"At the beginning of the year 2002 more than 30,000 families, enrolling their children in nursery, primary or secondary schools, required for them education in their mother tongue (Friulan, Slovene or German)," explained Antonio Luongo, a regional leader of CGIL Scuola.

The survey showed that not all schools provide educational activities in the minority languages of the region. As for nursery schools, 20 percent of the children who requested to learn their mother tongue did not have a chance to do so. The numbers rose to 32 percent in primary and to 45 percent in secondary schools. In general, the great bulk of the institutes' activities in the Friulan, Slovene or German language are limited to only one hour per week.

At pre-school level, minority languages were used as a teaching medium even before the introduction of the Law 482. The true reason for this; however, was to help pupils learn Italian and not to support their multilingual knowledge and linguistic identity.

At primary and secondary school level, minority languages are less present but the situation seems to improve, as they are used as a teaching medium together with Italian. Nevertheless, this happens only in music, arts and crafts classes. Only in less than 5 percent of secondary schools it is possible to learn reading and writing in the minority languages.

Another problem is that a number of teachers want to work with minority languages, but they have to organize their training themselves. Their activities and professional training do not get any economic or formal recognition.

The survey indicated that the implementation of the Law 482 needs more funds and real cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the regional government. Protection of minority languages is an important issue and it has to be effectuated in a coherent way, with the right resources and in the right time.

According to Mr. Pup from the Committee 482, which gathers Friulan, Slovene and German-speaking minorities' associations and independent media in Friuli with the aim to support the correct implementation of the Minority Law, funds are too limited and are made available too late. In the year 2002, they were available only in December, while the school year had started in September.

Source: Eurolang News, Turin, December 16 and 18, 2002, by Marco Stolfo, http://217.136.252.147/webpub/eurolang/pajenn.asp?ID=4017 and http://217.136.252.147/webpub/eurolang/pajenn.asp?ID=4019

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Updated (February 2004)

A SOUTH TYROLEAN MINORITY MODEL INVESTIGATED BY THE COMMISSION

Louis Durnwalder, the leader of the trilingual autonomous Province of South Tyrol, has negotiated with Frits Bolkestein, the EU-Commissioner responsible for the internal market, a special minority model used in the province.

At present the Commission is considering a case against Italy at the European Court because according to it, the South Tyrolean model of minority protection is in conflict with the right of privacy.

Mr. Durnwalder has presented a draft in order to maintain the system of proportional distribution of public goods among the language groups of the province without violating the EU rules. The Commission will work on this draft and a decision whether it is satisfied with it or it will take Italy to court is expected before the end of March.

Since the 1970s the South Tyrolean system has been based on sharing social goods proportionally between the three language groups living in this north Italian province. According to the latest census of 2001, 26 percent of the population in the province are Italian speakers, 69 percent are German speakers, and 4 percent speak Ladin.

Every decade a census is held in which the citizens have to declare which language group they belong to. Based on this information they can apply for public goods like social housing or jobs in the public sector. The Commission's complaint is that these declarations are not anonymous. This practice is an infringement of privacy.

The South Tyrolean model has been for a long time described as one of the best in minority policies; however, an impulse for the Commission to start an investigation came from a mixed-language organization in the province. Criticism has been raised with calls for a more open-minded model from the former mountaineer and Green Party MP, Reinhold Messner.

Source: Eurolang News, Brigitte Alfter, Copenhagen, February 16, 2004, http://www.eurolang.net/

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Updated (April 2006)

ITALIAN ELECTION RESULT SHOULD LEAD TO IMPROVEMENTS FOR LANGUAGE COMMUNITIES

The parliamentary elections in Italy have brought a few changes to the number of representatives of language minorities in the Parliament. Although there has been little change on the surface from the political point of view, it is the fact that all of elected minority representatives take part in a new ruling coalition, led by Mr. Romano Prodi. This may be important for their future.

In Italy, there is still a lot to do for minorities because during Berlusconi's period most of the initiatives that have been put forward were blocked. One of the most crucial points is the non-ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages. Italy signed the Charter about six years ago, the ratification bill was passed by the Chamber of Deputies but the Senate had not approved it. At present, it is anticipated that the process will be restarted.

Secondly, Italy has been strongly pressed by the Council of Europe to improve the situation of Roma. While it is more of a social issue than a cultural one, it remains under the broad heading of minority affairs.

Finally, there is a need for implementation of legislation protecting the Slovene community in the region Friuli Venezia Giulia. The relevant protection bill was already approved in 2001 but the Berlusconi government refused to continue the implementation process.

Right-wing Italian politicians aimed to exclude the towns of Trieste and Gorizia, with their large Slovene speaking population, from the implementation area. Slovenes did not accept this proposal, as in both towns most Slovene organizations are located, including public schools, libraries, media, research institutes, theatres and many others. Just one week before the elections, on 30 March 2006, the government tried again to force its decision through. However, now it seems clear that the Slovene community will wait for the new government in order to make sure that the protection bill will be properly implemented.

Source: Eurolang News, April 14, 2006 by Bojan Brezigar http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2588&Itemid=1&lang=en

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