Post by Jens Voigt on Dec 15, 2008 10:52:41 GMT 1
This message has just been send to the United Nations:
Dear UN.
I have no idea if the UN can assist in anyway. But I do believe that you should be aware of the way the Danish state suppress minority languages.
I have before written to the Council of Europe’s Charter on Regional or Minority Languages. And made them aware of the issue.
They couldn't do much as long as the Danish state only recognise our language as a dialect.
I'm talking about the old language of Bornholmsk spoken on the island of Bornholm which you find in the Baltic Sea.
Here a copy of what I wrote:
"Dear Mr. Alexey Kozhemyakov.
I hope I’m addressing the correct person in this mail, if not I would be
grateful if you would forward the mail to the right person.
I am writing to “The Secretariat of the European Charter for Regional or
Minority Languages” on behalf of the survival of the Bornholm language.
By the Danish government and parliament Bornholmish is regarded as only a
dialect and not as a language. Therefore it is not protected by the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Well it is a language; it’s origin from the ancient East Danish which was
used in Skåne, Halland, Blekinge and Bornholm.
After the 1660 Roskilde peace treaty, both the Swedish and Danish
government has each worked on to eliminated the language in these areas.
In Skåne, Halland and Blekinge with Swedish, and on Bornholm with Danish.
One of the reasons Denmark so far haven’t been very successful is the
distance from Denmark to Bornholm.
The Bornholm language actually has 7 dialects, how can a dialect have
dialect’s? I ask! It has it’s own gramma. In Danish you have 2 verbs only,
male and female verbs. On Bornholmish you also have like in German non-sex
verbs.
Today this distance has been eliminated by modern transportation and
especially by the media.
On Bornholm today we have two main media’s. The local newspaper “Bornholms
Tidene” and “TV2-Bornholm”, last only a small part of the national TV2.
None of these uses the language, and the TV station is manned by Danish
speaking people only.
All signs and everything on the island is written in Danish, only a very
few store’s uses Bornholmish, talking about a handful here.
Due to the influence of the media’s the entire youth are not using it and
they are not even being teach it in primary school.
Today it is mainly being used by the elder people and properly will die
out within the next 50 years, if nothing is done to protect it.
Having our own language is an important part of our national feeling and
understanding for our historic roots.
We have words which is almost un-translatable to Danish and English for
that matter.
I can give you some examples…
Enjhelu means “a lot”
Toppa means “Pull someone’s hair”
Fægjes means, well this one is really difficult the closest I can get is
“A couple caress; fondle; lavish great care”.
Next words can easily be translated but you will see how far they are from
Danish…
Danish – Bornholmish – English:
Fodbold - Fobojl – Football
Frø - Pugga – Frog
Græde - Vræla – Cry
Hæslig - Ræli – Ugly
Mudder - Plødra – mud
Flue - Flâua – a Fly
And I could go on…
I know the Danish parliament will do nothing to prevent it from
disappearing, unless they are ordered by the EU to protect it.
That is why I write to you to help a language survive!
I apologise for the poor English but hope you understand fully what I have
written above.
You are of course welcome to write me anytime if you should have further
questions."
They told me to address the Danish Government, which I did.
However they never replied back.
If our language shall have a chance to survive, we need help from you to force Denmark to protect their minorities.
Best regards
Mr. Jens Voigt
Rønna, Bårrijnhålm.
I have no idea if the UN can assist in anyway. But I do believe that you should be aware of the way the Danish state suppress minority languages.
I have before written to the Council of Europe’s Charter on Regional or Minority Languages. And made them aware of the issue.
They couldn't do much as long as the Danish state only recognise our language as a dialect.
I'm talking about the old language of Bornholmsk spoken on the island of Bornholm which you find in the Baltic Sea.
Here a copy of what I wrote:
"Dear Mr. Alexey Kozhemyakov.
I hope I’m addressing the correct person in this mail, if not I would be
grateful if you would forward the mail to the right person.
I am writing to “The Secretariat of the European Charter for Regional or
Minority Languages” on behalf of the survival of the Bornholm language.
By the Danish government and parliament Bornholmish is regarded as only a
dialect and not as a language. Therefore it is not protected by the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Well it is a language; it’s origin from the ancient East Danish which was
used in Skåne, Halland, Blekinge and Bornholm.
After the 1660 Roskilde peace treaty, both the Swedish and Danish
government has each worked on to eliminated the language in these areas.
In Skåne, Halland and Blekinge with Swedish, and on Bornholm with Danish.
One of the reasons Denmark so far haven’t been very successful is the
distance from Denmark to Bornholm.
The Bornholm language actually has 7 dialects, how can a dialect have
dialect’s? I ask! It has it’s own gramma. In Danish you have 2 verbs only,
male and female verbs. On Bornholmish you also have like in German non-sex
verbs.
Today this distance has been eliminated by modern transportation and
especially by the media.
On Bornholm today we have two main media’s. The local newspaper “Bornholms
Tidene” and “TV2-Bornholm”, last only a small part of the national TV2.
None of these uses the language, and the TV station is manned by Danish
speaking people only.
All signs and everything on the island is written in Danish, only a very
few store’s uses Bornholmish, talking about a handful here.
Due to the influence of the media’s the entire youth are not using it and
they are not even being teach it in primary school.
Today it is mainly being used by the elder people and properly will die
out within the next 50 years, if nothing is done to protect it.
Having our own language is an important part of our national feeling and
understanding for our historic roots.
We have words which is almost un-translatable to Danish and English for
that matter.
I can give you some examples…
Enjhelu means “a lot”
Toppa means “Pull someone’s hair”
Fægjes means, well this one is really difficult the closest I can get is
“A couple caress; fondle; lavish great care”.
Next words can easily be translated but you will see how far they are from
Danish…
Danish – Bornholmish – English:
Fodbold - Fobojl – Football
Frø - Pugga – Frog
Græde - Vræla – Cry
Hæslig - Ræli – Ugly
Mudder - Plødra – mud
Flue - Flâua – a Fly
And I could go on…
I know the Danish parliament will do nothing to prevent it from
disappearing, unless they are ordered by the EU to protect it.
That is why I write to you to help a language survive!
I apologise for the poor English but hope you understand fully what I have
written above.
You are of course welcome to write me anytime if you should have further
questions."
They told me to address the Danish Government, which I did.
However they never replied back.
If our language shall have a chance to survive, we need help from you to force Denmark to protect their minorities.
Best regards
Mr. Jens Voigt
Rønna, Bårrijnhålm.