Wednesday, January 30, 2008

About the use of language...

The Venezuelan congress recently approved 10 articles of a law who looks to promote indigenous languages in the country.

If you ask me, it sounds great from a cultural point of view, but I am not sure if economically it will viable to make so many languages official. That will depend on what the government is thinking, and the news is not too explicit on why they are making this a law. If the government have to print every single BS they approve on the National Assambly, all kinds of speeches of Hugo Chavez, and all kinds of official documents in so many languages, then the budget and the use of paper will be multiplied with no reason.

How many people in Venezuela speak kapón (akawayo), amarúa, añú, arahuaco, ayamán, baniva (baniwa), bare (barí), chaima, arekuna, taurepan, chase (piapoco), puinave, pumé, sáliva, sanemá, sapé, timote, uruak (urutani), piaroa, mopuoy (mapoyo), warekena, warao, wayuu, yanomami, yabarana y yukpa?

Probably the percentage is really small, since they are all indigenous languages.

What do you think about this news? Should we all unify our communications skills around one language, or instead, promote various so it will be harder for us all as a society to express our ideas and get on common grounds? After all, what is language for?

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