nationalists, languages and dialects

Am I the only one who thinks it is sad that nationalists in regions
like the Basque country and in Sardinia want to standardise their
languages? In Basque there are dialects that are not mutually
intelligible with the others and so I would count them as separate
languages. They are not being taught in schools, only an artificial
standardised language is, and so could easily become extinct.

It would be much better if people forgot about standardising languages
for reasons of petty nationalism and had local dialects/languages
taught in local schools. I know this would mean that Basque people,
Sardinians etc, from different areas would need to talk in another
language eg English or Spanish, but I don't see a problem with that.
Bilingulalism should be encouraged and if the nationalists don't like
Spanish then English would be good.

It is sad that dialects/languages that Franco tried to kill off could
be finished off by nationalists. Something similar seems to be
happening in Norway.

Another thing is that I don't understand why nationalists in Wales want
non-Welsh speaking children to have to learn Welsh. It seems to me that
if you had many Welsh speakers who learned Welsh at school and not at
home the language would change, losing many of its nuances.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: nationalists, languages and dialects
    ... > Am I the only one who thinks it is sad that nationalists in regions ... > like the Basque country and in Sardinia want to standardise their ... > languages. ... They are not being taught in schools, ...
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  • Re: nationalists, languages and dialects
    ... >> like the Basque country and in Sardinia want to standardise their ... >> languages? ... In Basque there are dialects that are not mutually ... degree of preservation of the distinctiveness of dialects. ...
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