BILINGUAL PEOPLES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 13, 20 July 1888, Page 5

BILINGUAL PEOPLES.

A writer in the Dublin Nation says : One of the favorite fallacies held by a great many Irishmen who themselves know no language but English, is that it is impossible for a whole people to be bilingual, and that therefore the Irish must choose between the English and Irish languages ; that knowine and using one precludes the knowledge and use of the other and as English has spread through the greater part of Ireland, the remaining portions may as well adopt it too. Now it is not true that a whole people cannot be bilingual. On the coutrary, there are many countries where the mass of the people speak two or even three languages. As one fact is worth more than a great many general statements, I shall adduce as an example the inhabitants of the Austrian empire. The number of languages spoken in that empire animals to about twenty. Formerly the only language having aa official recogniuou outside of the Lombardo-Veuedan provinces was German, but the efforts to force this tongue in the law courts and elsewhere on the Magyar and Slav iuhabitants weakened the central government by causing dissatisfaction and heartburnings. Since Hungary obtained Home Rule the Magyar tongue has been established as the ofhciai language of that kingdom, and Bohemia has received various concessi )ns to her national feelings in the more extended use of the Czech. The language in use in the Austrian Empire may be divided into four classes-vie, the Slavs, the Magyars, the Latin and the German. The Slavs are the most numerous section of the peoples of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Gallicia, a portion of the Grand Duchy of; Austria, of Hungary and of Dalmatia Styna, Caiinthia, Oarniola, Istria, Croatia, Slavonia and Austrian Servia. The languages of these peoples are divided into four principal ones— viz, the Czech, spoken by seven millions ; the Palish. spoken in Gallicia by three millions ; the Slovak, spoken by about a million, and the Illyrian, by about a million and a half. The next division is that ot the Magyars, who inhabit Bungary and Transylvania. The Roumanians of Transylvania, like their brethren of Koumania itself, speak a language derived from the Latin, as do the inhabitants of Trieste and its neighbourhood. Finally, the Germans inhabit Lower Austria and the Tyrol, and form communities in the eastern portion of the empire. Now, with very few exceptions, even the peasantry in the greater part of tbe Austrian Empire speak two and sometimes three langupges. While attached to the language of his own province, every native will generally understand and speak that of the neighbouring one. Every official, besides nig native tongue, speaks German and perhaps the language of some other province to which he may have been transferred. Officers in tde army must know the language of the district from which come the conscripts of their regiment, and either German or Hungarian besides. Most of the officers speak four or five different languages, la Dalmatia, where the official language is Italian, all the GovernmeDt officials must, of course, know that language. Even the bank notes are printed in two or three lauguages. The princes of the Imperial family all learn four or five languages from their childhood, and the Emperor in his speeches addresses Bohemians, Hungarians, Italians, and Poles, in their respective languages. E Jucated people everywhere all know German. And remark that while there was an effort to force this language on other nationalities, there was a continual danger of a revolution, while now that the national aspirations of the different races as regards their languages are respected by the government, things goon smoothly and well. Here is a lesson for those who would force the Irish-speaking inhabitants of Connaught and Munster to make use of English. Let us take anotner instance, that of Switzerland. Iv that country 75 per cent, of the people are German speaking, 23 per cent. French speaking, and 5 per cent. Italian speaking, while 2 per cent. speak Eomansch. The laws and general measures of the Federal Chancellery are printed and published in the three former tongues, and the Official Gazette in German and French. In the Federal Council each member uses any one of the three according to his choice, and in practice this does not cause the slightest inconvenience. The Swiss nation is just as united as if it used only one language. Ever} one knows the language of his own canton, and 99 out of every 100 one or more of the other languages of the confederation. I might multiply these instances from Schleswig, from Hindoßtan from the Turkish provinces, and from hundreds of other places. It is therefore evident that it is all nonsense affirming the impossibility of whole people being bilingual. The fact is that, as the case of the Irish-speaking Irish, the Highlanders of Scotland, and the Welsh, when a people are brought up speaking one language at home, and having the inducement and opportunity of learning another at school, it is the easiest and most natural thing in the world for them to be bilingual. If, in addition, they are taught both languages at school their education becomes far superior to that of a people knowing only one language, and they are benefited enormously. This is what I should desire to see in the case of our Irish speaking people, who, for want of a literary training in the language they best understand, are suffering a terrible loss and injury, both from an intellectual and a national point of view. Some of those Irishmen, who, by their own or their ancestor's fault, have lost the inestimable treasure of tbe national language, seem to take a pleasure in trying to deprive their Irish speaking brethren of their native tunguo. At the least the way some of them argue against the use, and preservation cf their Irish language would induce us to believe that such is their frame of mind. They are too lazy or too unpatriotic or they despair of their ability to learn Irish, and they consequently look upon their native language with dislike, and would bring those who use it into the same condition as themselves. In no other way, than by attributing ittoenvy, can I account for the efforts made by some Irishmen to decry the preservation of our native tongue, or the total indifference, real or assumed, towards it. There are cases of downright injustice perpetrated in the courts on account of suitors using the Irish language, I consider the National party is making a great mistake in not placing the Irish language more in the

forefront, and that no other nationality has neglected the question of the preservation of the national tongue as it has been neglected by the Irish. Other nations know better than to make such a blunder.