Close-up on the regional languages of France

News

Candidates to the French presidency are beginning to take position on the question of regional languages as the elections approach. Quite a delicate subject judging by the different declarations that were recently made…

We’ve issued two articles on where French political leaders stand on the matter: Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand on one side, and presidential candidate François Hollande on the other.

To each our own opinion!

Blog

Marie Jeanne Verny, senior lecturer in Montpellier, France, returns to trace back the history of Occitan – or langue d’Oc –, its decline before French, and its recent revival. An opportunity for her to question the place given to regional languages in France at times where different bills are being discussed in Parliament…

Soropedia

Delving further into the subject, refer to our detailed and rich description sheets on Occitan and two of its variants, Provençal and Aranese.

New video

Our cycle on Tamasheq, language of the Tuareg, ends this week with one last lesson of vocabulary: common words and expressions, introduced to us by poet and educator Mohamed Hamza… Some of these expressions obviously have no direct translation, so he tells us about one of his people’s most significant traits: speak less, do more!

See video

Agenda

September 25, 2011: World languages forum held in Lyon, France.

Read article

October 14, 2011: Charles Perkins Scholarships application deadline directed at Australian Indigenous postgraduates who have been accepted at Oxford or Cambridge universities.

Read article

Videos subtitled in Spanish

3 newly subtitled videos on the Benga language (Gabon) are now available for Spanish Sorolovers: an introduction to the language, a word from the children, and a short film on crab fishing…

Keep in mind…

A new word of the fortnight to “Mouth” in all languages…

And an updated Soroquiz available on our homepage…

A beautiful week to all of you,

The Sorosoro crew

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