Latin etc.

[Don McAllister]

Laferrier wrote:

>  In the French-speaking
> province of Quebec, Canada, the provincial government
> passed a law mandating not only that street signs must
> be bilingual in English and French, but that the French
> must be above the English. This was a source of major pride.
> Emotions about language run very high there as in many other
> places. People advocating English as the sole language must
> take these things into account.

Although born an anglophone my mother inculcated to her children as sense of value
and worth in French, which appreciation has expanded into different languages. For
my scientific papers I try to seek sources in different languages.  To ignore a
vital publication in another language is not worthy of science.  Is it not a sign
of narrowness when one advocates as the most important language, the one we happen
to speak?  Do we not acknowledge racism as evil?  What about prejudice against
other languages?

In the latest Global Biodiversity issue we published an article on the state of the
world's languages.  Languages are becoming extinct, just as species are.  And with
the extinction of each language dies knowledge of faunas, floras, ecosystems,
practical uses, and sustainable knowledge - and word for varieties or species that
are not yet recognized by science.  Linguistic diversity is a most valuable and
precious form of biodiversity.

Vive les langues libres!  Let us stretch our minds with additional languages. Each
has  unique nuances, expressions and words.   Those linguistic tools are valuable
to poetry and to science.

don
Don McAllister

>
>
> --
> Dr. Joseph E. Laferriere
> "Computito ergo sum ...  I link therefore I am."