Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Third-world language problems
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References: <elnaDpB5oq.5Mx@netcom.com> <4k3hmu$qqh@reznor.larc.nasa.gov> <Pine.SUN.3.92.960405200649.20826B-100000@access2.digex.net>
Date: Sat, 6 Apr 1996 03:13:46 GMT
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In article <Pine.SUN.3.92.960405200649.20826B-100000@access2.digex.net>,
Paul O Bartlett  <pobart@access.digex.net> wrote:

>    I cannot speak to the situation in the Peoples' Republic of China
>or elsewhere in Asia, but not very long ago, in the United States and
>Canada, aboriginal children, many of whom spoke only their ancestral
>tongues, were more or less forcibly removed from their families, sent
>to boarding schools, and punished -- sometimes with beatings -- if they
>spoke anything but English or French.  

How long ago is "not very long ago"?  I do not doubt that these things
happened (after all, my parents' generation were still regularly trained
out of left-handedness), but I wouldn't mind actual dates.

>I can believe that it might
>happen in other countries as well.  (I recall hearing that in Brittany,
>France, Breton children in public schools were _forbidden_ to speak
>their ancestral Breton.)

True, much as British schoolchildren were once forbidden to speak Welsh,
Irish, and Gaelic.  I believe that the practice of administering beatings
for using these languages died out before WWII, but I don't know for
sure.  I certainly wouldn't be surprised to meet people who still remem-
ber having to wear a "Welsh-not".


-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
