Friday 30 May 2008

A call for more linguistic diversity

French-speaking Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists have joined forces in a common call for increasing linguistic diversity in the U+U world, particularly for those international languages other than English that are currently represented in the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU).

This joint statement follows the annual meeting of the Canadian Unitarian Council/Conseil Unitarien du Canada (CUC) in Ottawa, and it has been signed by representatives from associations in Canada, the French-speaking countries in Europe, Burundi, and Congo.

The statement acknowledges the work of the CUC and the ICUU is fostering diversity and the expansion of the Unitarian faith in cultural environments where English is not the primary language. It is hoped that this increasing diversity is also reflected in websites, worship resources, publications, and other written materials.

You can find the whole statement, in French and in English, in the blog of the Assemblée Fraternelle des Chrétiens Unitariens (AFCU).

(Note: Thanks to Jean-Claude Barbier from Correspondance Unitarienne for spreading the news about this.)

2 comments:

Obaasan said...

il y a beaucoup de francophones qui aimeraient connaitre le monde unitarien....mais, meme au Canada, on ne trouve guere de communications, depliants, publicites, etc. en francais. j'applaudis les efforts de ceux qui y travaillent pour "diversifier" le climat linguistique des UU.

Saturnalia said...

I couldn't agree more. In the European Union we have around 50 regional languages and yet the majority of websites fail to recognise them. Languages are dying because nobody bothers to support them. In Germany, for example, people still behave as if the 1933 Schreibverbot were still in place. Well, I have news for you - you Germans are now allowed to write and publish work in your OWN REGIONAL LANGUAGE. Even in the British Isles, we fail to provide services in Franco-Norman, for example, although we do provide information and some church services in Welsh, which is a start. As a French-speaker myself, I am constantly amazed at the lack of information in the French language produced in Europe. Much of the time, if I want to find out how to explain some idea in French, I have to seek advice from a Canadian website.