Face à la mondialisation, ne bradons pas nos langues!

Hommage d’un sociolinguiste «impliqué» aux combats pour l’identité linguistique au XXIe siècle

Abstract

After putting his speech in the university (interuniversity) context from which it came: the granting of an Honoris Causa Doctorate by the Ilia State University of Tbilisi and the usual reception conference, Professor Henri BOYER proposes a Tribute to «Combats» for linguistic identity in the 21st century. The first part of this Tribute concerns the Catalan people and their bi- secular struggle for the Catalan language to recover the prerogatives of a «national» language and particularly after the end of the dictatorship which had undermined the social uses of Catalan. The Tribute continues with the militant struggles in Aragon for the maintenance and promotion of the uses of various varieties of Aragonese. Occitan is then present in the praise of a dynamic patrimonialization which has revived, in a «promising» sector: agri- food, a nostalgic but nevertheless promising loyalty. Finally, this series of micro-tributes ends with a reference to the promotion of Galician in the Autonomous Community of Galicia.