English: the new regional language of the Netherlands Part 1

(Me on Mount Scenery, Saba, 2003. This dormant Caribbean volcano is the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands)

English can be considered a minority language in the Netherlands. Who could argue with that statement? Lawyers, that's who.

The terms regional or minority languages are defined in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML), an initiative by the Council of Europe to protect and promote the use of historical regional and minority languages in Europe.

Article 1(a) of the charter:

"regional or minority languages" means languages that are:

1. traditionally used within a given territory of a State by nationals of that State who form a group numerically smaller than the rest of the State's population; and
2. different from the official language(s) of that State;

Languages used in Europe in the context of recent migratory movements are outside of the scope of ECRML. For example Arabic will almost certainly not become a minority and/or regional language in the UK due to the proposition that Arabic-speaking migration was not "traditionally used". The same would apply for English in the Netherlands regardless of how many Brits might make that country their home.

Following referenda in 2004-5 in each of the islands that make up the Netherlands Antilles, that country will be dissolved by July 2007 at the latest. Curacao and Sint Maarten will gain "country status" and the accompanying greater autonomy within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The smaller islands of Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius voted to become municipalities of the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, confusingly named the Netherlands. It is this constitutional shift which BoB suggests may lead to Dutch recognition of English as an official regional language.

English as the lingua franca of Saba and Statia (the other islands of the Netherlands Antilles use Papiamento) reflects the laissez-faire attitude prevalent in the days of Dutch colonialism: administrators didn't care what country the inhabitants were from as long as they were somehow useful and they behaved themselves. Many Sabans have Scottish blood - Johnson is a very common surname on the island. Unlike territories prized for their ability to produce, Statia was the "Golden Rock of the Caribbean" because of its international trade. Just as a Statian slave was more likely to toil in a warehouse than on a plantation, the warehouse owner was more likely to be non-Dutch. It might also have been relevant to Statia's linguistic history that the island's golden age was contemporaneous with massive trade with the United States.

This has resulted today in the fact that the primary language of instruction in schools on Saba is English, and has been since it took over from Dutch in 1986. Meanwhile although Dutch is taught in schools next door in Statia, the official Statian Government website is only available in English (Dutch has been "coming soon" for as long as I have been watching it), and islanders use English in daily life.

All of this leads to a situation where it may be relevant that although the ECMRL excludes protection and promotion of non-traditional migrant languages, it allows no exception for regional languages that are "new" to the country by way of the signatory extending its jurisdiction into additional territory. Furthermore the proposed status of the "kingdom islands" in European law - that of most remote region status (see Inforegio) - is the same as that of the French Caribbean islands, the languages of which were listed by the French government as potentially qualifying for ECMRL protection in a 1999 report (in French).

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Comments

[HH]

blinding picture old boy.

shamilly taktak...:)