Giovanni:

I'm aborad at the moment and will sent a more considered reply to ICOM-L 
when I get home later in the week.

However, I want to say that I think that there are at least two flaws in 
the statistics etc. on which you have been basing your work.

First, I think that the consideration of the perhaps 3,000 seriously 
threatened traditional languages (see e.g. the SIL International Ethnologue 
Encyclopaedia which lists a total of 6,703 languages in the world, or 
Stephen Worms' Atlas of ther World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing) 
is not really a matter for this study of ICOM's use of languages. It is 
much more relevant to what I very much hope will be ICOM's future work in 
relation to the 2001 adoption of a commitment to the intangible heritage 
and cultural diversity, both in the Statutes and as the theme for ICOM 2004 
in Korea.

Second, and much more important, the crucial issue for international 
organisations in relation to official or working languages is NOT what 
might be termed the "birth language" of people, but the existence or 
otherwise of an acceptable level of competence - funtional literacy in both 
reading and speaking - in potential working languages.

This is generally defined at a minimum score of around 6.0 or 600 
(according to scheme) in the various internationally recognised language 
testing schemes used for e.g. international university entrance 
requirements and foreign employment, (implying the average acheivement 
after a minimum of five years of normal study in the language).

On the vital test of functional literacy therefore, the top eleven 
languages today are in fact as follows:

English 1,900m 
Mandarin Chinese  1,000m   
Hindi/Urdu 550m 
Spanish 450m 
Russian 290m 
Indonesian/Malaysian 200m 
Arabic 180m 
Portuguese 180m 
Bengali 175m 
Japanese 140m 
French 130m 


Note that though Mandarin is the first language of only 20% or so of 
Chinese speakers (as in your list below), it is understood by most educated 
native speakers of Cantonese and of China's many dozens of other native 
languages; similarly in terms of functional literacy, both Hindi and Urdu, 
and Malay and "official" Indonesian can be regarded as variants, hence the 
much higher scores of these than you get if you look solely at the birth 
language of their speakers.

(For more details and links see my submision "Traditional languages 
disappearing rapidly as half the world rely on just 11 languages", 29 May 
2002: on the World Bank's Development Gateway at:

http://www.developmentgateway.org/culture/

then use "search" for the title as above.)   

 

Patrick Boylan

===========================


On Apr 7 2003, Giovanni Pinna wrote:

> On the use of languages
> 
> The creation of a working group on the use of languages within ICOM was 
> decided by the Executive Council during its 99th Session held in 
> Barcelona in July 2001, · To investigate and make concrete 
> recommendations on the use of languages in ICOM’s meetings. · To evaluate 
> the financial consequences of the use of spanish as a third “official” or 
> “working” language. The financial consequences will take into account the 
> activities and the global working of our Organisation. · To examine 
> possibilities to recruit on a short or medium term a minimum of 
> trilingual members of personnel with a view to reinforcing the current 
> personnel of the Secretariat in order to assist in the drafting of 
> documents as well as communicating with members of ICOM anxious to get 
> information from the Secretariat through the phone. Estimate the cost of 
> this operation. · To think about the validity of the use of the other 
> languages “within any types of international meetings organised by ICOM 
> in order to ensure that any regions thoughout the world participate in 
> the work of the Organisation”.
> 
> The following preliminary report was written by Giovanni Pinna, Member of 
> the Executive Council, charged, together with Pascal Makambila, of the 
> Working Group on the use of Languages.
> The report is now sent to ICOM Members via ICOM List. The aims is to 
> collect informations concerning the different problems discussed in the 
> Report, and particularly on:
>          - the use of local languages by National Committees and respect 
> for linguistic minorities,
>          - the use of both official languages and local languages at 
> international meetings,
> 
> Preliminary Report Every language is a living museum, a monument to the 
> culture that has made use of it (D. Nettle and S. Romaine, Vanishing 
> Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages)
> 
> A - Foreword The use of languages within a multicultural and 
> multilingual organisation like ICOM gives rise to a number of problems 
> due to the fact that it involves the financial, organisational and 
> cultural aspects of the association. In particular, as far as the 
> cultural aspect is concerned, the two main objectives of ICOM - the 
> protection of cultural heritage, even immaterial, and technical-cultural 
> collaboration between members - as well as the need for a vast flow of 
> information, demand careful thought on the use of languages. The 
> diversity of languages is the cultural property of humankind; every 
> language should be protected and defended and, as far as possible, 
> stimulated in everyday life. At the same time, access to information is 
> the inalienable right of every human being. ICOM is therefore faced with 
> a conflicting position between two apparently irreconcilable demands: the 
> need for different nations and groups of mother tongues to communicate by 
> using a common language, and a moral obligation to protect languages as 
> part of the world cultural heritage. Furthermore, ICOM needs to ensure 
> that linguistic barriers do not hinder participation in the activities of 
> the organisation. ICOM bears great responsibility with respect to the use 
> of languages because its choice may determine the official language of 
> museum professionals and promote its dissemination.
> 
> B - The Goal and Organisation of the Working Group
> 
> The task of the Working Group on the use of languages should be to draw 
> up a proposal on the use of languages within ICOM that will improve its 
> communication capacities, protect languages and ensure that the 
> organisation is within the easy reach of everyone. At the same time, it 
> will have to carefully consider how its choices may effect the budget of 
> ICOM, as well as its available human resources, the operational 
> capabilities of the National and International Committees, and financial 
> resources. The final objective will be to prepare a Language Chart. 
> During the first phase of the work, it will be necessary to collect 
> information on the use of languages in all the sectors of ICOM; it will 
> therefore be necessary to acquire further knowledge on: * the use of 
> local languages by National Committees and respect for linguistic 
> minorities, * the use of local languages for activities organised by the 
> Secretariat, * the use of both official languages and local languages at 
> international meetings, * the languages used in ICOM publications 
> (official and local languages), * the production of dictionaries by 
> International Committees, and other eventual needs.
> 
> The working group is composed of the following ten members:
> 
> Pascal Makambila (EC Member)
> Giovanni Pinna (EC Member)
> Alda Costa
> An Laishun
> Ersy Philipopoulou-Michailidou
> Françoise Dumont
> Gurgen Grigorian
> Hildegard Vieregg
> Luis Repetto
> Siam Kim
> Slim Khosrof
> 
>          In view of the fact that certain aspects relating to the use of 
> languages involve the National and International Committees, as well as 
> the Regional Organisations, it is important for the working group on 
> languages to work in close liaison with the working groups responsible 
> for these sectors of ICOM.
> 
> C - The Current Situation
> 
>          At present, the linguistic situation within ICOM is as follows:
> 
> 1 - The official languages of ICOM
>          According to Article 4 of the Statutes: 1. English and French 
> are the official languages of ICOM; each of them has equal status and can 
> be used by a member at any international meeting of ICOM. 2. The General 
> Assembly can use other official languages provided the relevant expenses 
> are borne by the members.
>          The 20th General Assembly (Barcelona 2001) adopted Spanish as 
> the third official language of ICOM.
>          The statutes do not distinguish between official languages and 
> working languages.
>          According to statistics updated in 1996, the thirteen most 
> spoken languages in the world, in relation to the world population, are 
> the following (Nettle and Romaine 2000): 15% Chinese, Mandarin 2.1% 
> Japanese 5.4% English 1.6% German 4.5% Spanish 1.3% Chinese, Wu 3.2% 
> Bengali 1.2% Javanese 3% Hindi 1.2% Korean 2.8% Portuguese 1.1% French 
> 2.8% Russian
> 
>          According to these statistics, of the three official languages 
> of ICOM, English is the second most widespread language, Spanish is in 
> the third position and French in the thirteenth. Thus, the decision to 
> choose English, French and Spanish as the official languages was not 
> taken in relation to the number of people who speak them but were based 
> on different criteria. English is by far the most dominant language in 
> terms of politics, economics, the sciences and culture, especially since 
> the Second World War (English is the official language of more than 60 of 
> the 185 countries recognised by the United Nations). French benefits from 
> the reputation it enjoyed up to the beginning of the 20th century as the 
> language of culture and diplomacy (it should be noted that the official 
> publications of the International Office of Museums of the League of 
> Nations were written in French). And finally, the adoption of Spanish 
> reflects recognition not only of its widespread use but also the 
> particular attention paid by Spanish-speaking populations on the 
> development of museums and their related professions, as well as the 
> protection of cultural heritage.
>          Everything seems to indicate that English, French and Spanish 
> were chosen as official languages because they were associated with 
> cultural centres that have been, are, or will continue to be, dominant in 
> ICOM's main spheres of interest. As for their relationship with ICOM 
> (and, consequently, their importance within the association), they can be 
> defined as «metropolitan languages» in contrast to «peripheral 
> languages», as in the case of Russian, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese or 
> Greek, for example. This highlights the fact that the peripheral or 
> central role of a language is not due to the language itself or to the 
> number of people using it, but to the differences between the economies, 
> and the cultural economies, of the people who speak it.
> 
> 2 - The languages used by the Secretariat
> (Extract from the Report of the Secretary General of 15 March 2001 on the 
> adoption of Spanish as the third official language)
>          1. Of ICOM's Secretariat staff of thirteen all are bilingual in 
> French and English and two people speak Spanish in addition to French and 
> English. Other languages spoken at the Secretariat: German, Italian 
> andother languages depending on where people originally came from.
>          2. Working documents for the Executive Council are in English 
> and French. It sometimes happens that documents are in English only.
>          3. Simultaneous translation during the Executive Council 
> meetings is available in English and French. The last three meetings were 
> exceptional because Spanish was made available by ICOM 2001. The working 
> sessions of the Executive Council have no simultaneous translation and 
> are mostly in English. 4. The working documents for the Advisory 
> Committee are in English and French.
>          5. Simultaneous translation during the Advisory Committee 
> meetings is available in English and French, including the separate 
> meetings of the National and International Committees. 6. The financial 
> documents are all in English and French.
>          7. Official documents for members (Membership Brochure, Handbook 
> of Administrative Procedures, For More Information and yearly membership 
> Circulars) are all in English and French
>          8. Official messages from ICOM's leading bodies to its members, 
> partners or others are in English and French.
>          9. ICOM's basic documents "Code of Ethics" and "Statutes" are 
> in English, French, Spanish and Arabic. Various National Committees in 
> various languages translated the "Code of Ethics".
>          10. Daily contact with members by mail, telephone, fax or 
> e-mail is approximately for 80% in English, 16 % in French, 3% in Spanish 
> and 1 % in other languages.
>          11. The breakdown of the active membership's language 
> preference at 9 February 2001 is: English: 10 060, French: 4 112, 
> Spanish: 1 323 (As a supplementary remark: we have about 3 300 German 
> speaking members)
> 
> Publications 12. ICOM News is in English, French and Spanish Study 
> series is 50% in French and 50% in English (approximately); in the next 
> ICTOP Study Series there will be some content in Spanish as well.
>          13. Special publications are mostly in English and French, 
> however other languages may be used for a special purpose, like Italian, 
> Hungarian and Czech for the "One Hundred Missing Objects, looting in 
> Europe" or Arabic in the "Handbook of Standards, Documenting African 
> Collections". Spanish has been used for (I) "One Hundred Missing Objects, 
> looting in Latin America", (II)for the book that resulted from the 
> workshops/conference on Cultural Tourism in Latin America and the 
> Caribbean, held in Peru and Bolivia in 2000 and (III) for "Illicit 
> Traffic in Latin America" as a result of a workshop in Cuenca.
> 
> Website
>          14. ICOM's website is in English and French, but for the "Code of
> Ethics" that is also available in Spanish. The documents disseminated via 
> ICOM-L are in French and English.
> 
> PR
> 15. Press releases and press files are in English and French. In the case 
> of regional events other languages may be used as well.
>          16 The daily work in the Communication Sector is done in French 
> and English. Spanish is used, notably because ICOM News is also produced 
> in Spanish.
> 
> Special Projects
>          17 Language use in the Special Projects is about 50% English, 35%
> French, 8% Spanish, 2% Arabic and 5% other languages.
> 
> D - Current Problems
> 
> 1 - Guaranteeing communications
>          Guaranteeing smooth communications between members of ICOM, 
> whatever their culture and country of origin, is one of the principal 
> objectives of the Organisation.   This is obviously because smooth 
> communications permit the cultural exchanges that are so vital if ICOM is 
> to fulfil its functions.
>          The most reliable guarantee is obtained by using an official 
> language that is spoken by the largest possible number of members 
> belonging to the association. However, the choice of an official language 
> leads to a certain number of significant inconveniences. 1. t gives an 
> advantage to members whose mother tongue has been chosen as the official 
> language or to those who are bilingual and are therefore able to use the 
> official language as a second language. People who are required to use a 
> language that has been learned have to make greater mental efforts and 
> work for longer periods. They also find it difficult to express 
> themselves as clearly as in their mother tongue, and they risk not being 
> clearly understood or not being able to follow discussions closely. In 
> discussing the ability to read and write quickly, De Saussure has 
> demonstrated that for those with a perfect command of a language, their 
> writing moves from the phonetic to the ideographic. This implies that 
> words are read as ideographic signs and not as a succession of phonetic 
> signs. People with a good command of a language can therefore read much 
> faster than individuals who only have a phonetic knowledge. 2. very 
> language is the expression of a culture. People who are obliged to 
> express themselves in a language that is not their own see their culture 
> slipping into the culture of the other. This is why the adoption of a 
> single official language tends to erase cultural differences. This is the 
> premise of the linguistic theory known as relativist, so dear to Humboldt 
> and Heidegger, among others, who believe that the mind is inseparable 
> from the language. 3. it raises a linguistic barrier against those who 
> are able to speak and understand the single language adopted, a barrier 
> that is recurs in the participation of the association as a whole. An 
> example of this is provided by ICOM itself. One of the criteria for 
> selecting participants in the workshop «The Use of New Technologies for 
> Museums» (Willemstad, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, 22-25 August 2001), 
> organised by the Secretariat, was fluency in English, which obviously 
> excluded members speaking Spanish, French, Dutch, etc. 4. It imposes 
> bilingualism as a fundamental condition for participation in ICOM. 
> Encouraging linguistic plurality is certainly a way of ensuring broader 
> communications between members of ICOM, without undermining local 
> identities. However, it is difficult to see what means are available to 
> ICOM in this area. 5. It restricts the dissemination of ICOM's activities 
> outside the association, among populations with an average knowledge of 
> other languages, or among members not belonging to ICOM and unable to 
> speak the single language selected by the association. The adoption of 
> several languages reduces the number of difficulties that we have 
> described exclusively from the point of view of the percentage of people 
> concerned, but it does not solve the problem of the linguistic barrier 
> and its homogenising effects on of culture. Furthermore, the adoption of 
> several official languages inevitably entails expenses not only for the 
> management of the Secretariat and organisation of meetings but also for 
> the production of documents.
> 
> 2 - Protecting linguistic differences
>          Languages play an important role in the identity of 
> communities. We are what we speak, according to the English linguists 
> Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine. The Maori Chief, Sir James Henare, who 
> passed away in 1989, was fond of saying, Language is the vital force of 
> the Maori culture and our mana. If the language dies, as some people 
> predict, what will we have left? So I ask my people: who are we?. A Welsh 
> proverb expresses a similar notion, Heb iaith heb genedl, meaning «there 
> is no nation without language. Preserving languages implies preserving 
> cultural differences and saving the cultural autonomy of minorities. 
> Discouraging the use of a local language and imposing a different 
> language from the local one are some of the means adopted to destroy the 
> identities of communities. The French ethnologist Jean-Loup Amselle 
> wrote, among the rights of minorities there is also the one of 
> relinquishing their culture so that the dominant majority cannot choose 
> in their place the type of culture or the language they consider to be 
> the most appropriate.
>          The importance of languages as components of the world cultural 
> heritage has been noted in many places and circumstances.
>          UNESCO recently refocused on the importance of protecting 
> linguistic diversity in its Declaration on Cultural Differences, 
> submitted for discussion at the 31st Session of the General Conference 
> (October 2001). Article 5 of this Declaration states, Cultural rights are 
> an integral part of human rights. The flourishing of creative diversity 
> requires the full implementation of cultural rights as defined in Article 
> 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in Articles 13 and 15 
> of the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 
> All persons should therefore be able to express themselves and to create 
> and disseminate their work in the language of their choice, and 
> particularly in their mother tongue.
>          In the same document, UNESCO proposes to pursue objectives 
> relating to the rights to cultural diversity: *safeguarding the 
> linguistic heritage of humanity and giving support to expression, 
> creation and dissemination in the greatest possible number of languages 
> (point 5) *encouraging linguistic diversity at all levels of education 
> (point 6) ICOM is also involved in the protection of linguistic 
> differences. The fifth point cited by the Programme Committee and 
> included in the Report submitted to ICOM's 20th General Assembly says: 
> One of the modes of expression of a culture is its language. However, the 
> disappearance and transformation of numerous languages is in the process 
> of being accelerated. Everyone should recognise and tackle the 
> fundamental threat (constituted by the disappearance of language 
> diversity) to common heritage and to culture. The need to work towards 
> protecting linguistic diversity is therefore a duty that ICOM cannot 
> avoid.
> 
> E - Proposals
> 
> In order to ensure smooth communications within ICOM and at the same time 
> safeguard and protect linguistic diversity, without creating a financial 
> burden on the association, it is necessary to proceed in the following 
> directions.
> 1 - A distinction between official languages and working languages
>          In international organisations there is usually a clear 
> distinction between official languages and working languages. The 
> European Community has eleven official languages (the languages of its 
> twelve Member States) and three working languages (English, French and 
> German), while the United Nations has six official languages and two 
> working languages.
> 
>          The difference between official languages and working languages 
> lies mainly in the fact that the former must be used in documents and at 
> official meetings (plenary sessions, commissions, etc) while the latter 
> are used in preparatory documents and in the internal proceedings of the 
> organisation.
>          As has been pointed out, the ICOM Statutes do not make 
> provisions for working languages in addition to the official languages, 
> and according to the Secretary General's Report, the identification 
> between working languages and official languages is evident.
>          In view of the fact that working languages are also official 
> languages, it would appear that a new official language - as in the case 
> of Spanish - leads to higher management expenses and an additional 
> workload for the Secretariat, as stressed by the Secretary General in the 
> above-mentioned Report. It should be noted that in terms of simultaneous 
> translation, moving from two to three languages results in an increase in 
> language combinations from two to six. It is therefore necessary to 
> separate official languages from working languages within ICOM.
>          This would make it possible to retain English and French as 
> working languages, which would not create an additional burden on the 
> budget and organisation of the Secretariat or its available human 
> resources. At the same time, the impact of adopting three instead of two 
> official languages on the financial and human resources of ICOM would 
> probably only be insignificant. Finally, a distinction between official 
> languages and working languages would make it possible to adopt other 
> official languages in the future, if this should turn out to be 
> appropriate.
> 
> Official languages
>          In the case of ICOM, the use of three official languages - 
> English, French and Spanish - should be restricted to meetings of the 
> Advisory Committee, the discussions of the General Assembly, and the 
> plenary sessions of the General Conference. Only documents considered to 
> be fundamental should be translated into the three languages: the 
> Statutes, the Code of Ethics, the house organ (ICOM News), the triennial 
> Report of Activities, the Welcome Brochure for Members, the ICOM web 
> site, etc.
>          In the case of the General Assembly and the General Conference 
> plenary session, it is in any event desirable that the language (or 
> languages) of the host country should be included with the official 
> languages.
> 
> Working languages
>          English and French, considered as working languages, should be 
> used (together or separately) for the internal documents of the 
> Secretariat, verbatim reports, during meetings of the working groups and 
> in the documents produced by these bodies, etc.
> 
> Other languages
>          The use of unofficial or working languages (Russian, Arabic, 
> Portuguese, Italian, etc) should be possible for the proceedings and 
> publications relating to a specific linguistic segment of ICOM and which 
> therefore do not concern ICOM as a whole.
> 
> 2 - Possible action to guarantee smooth communications, accessibility and 
> the protection of linguistic diversity
>          The adoption of three official languages and two working 
> languages guarantees smooth communications between most members within 
> ICOM, but not between all members because some of them are unable to 
> understand or express themselves fluently in one of the official or 
> working languages. It is necessary for ICOM to ensure that these persons 
> have access to the contents, values and activities of the association. 
> ICOM cannot, for reasons connected with language, exclude even a fraction 
> of museum professionals from international debates on museums, museology 
> and heritage, or deprive these debates of the intellectual and 
> professional contributions of these experts.
>          Smooth communications, accessibility and the protection of 
> linguistic diversity can be encouraged by inviting the National and 
> International Committees to work in this direction.
> 
> Possible action by National Committees
>          National Committees should play an important role in improving 
> the accessibility of ICOM, removing linguistic barriers and at the same 
> time protecting local languages. They would be responsible for 
> disseminating information on ICOM at the local level and in the local 
> languages.
>          With this objective in mind, National Committees should be 
> requested to use local languages for their activities and to take into 
> account the linguistic differences existing within the country they 
> represent (for example, Castilian, Catalan and Basque in the case of 
> Spain), to avoid causing splits within the national community.
>          They should undertake to translate into the local language and 
> then circulate the basic ICOM documents (Statutes, Code of Ethics, 
> Presentation Brochure of ICOM, resolutions, programme documents, etc, as 
> well as publications such as the History of ICOM, and documents of 
> general interest relating to the activities and goals of ICOM, including 
> the 1979 UNESCO Convention and the 1998 Unidroit Convention on Illicit 
> Traffic. They should also cover the documents and publications of the 
> International Committees that are considered to be of great scientific or 
> general interest, such as the Thesaurus, which André Desvallée is in the 
> process of compiling for ICOFOM, and ICOM publications that are 
> particularly useful for the country in question, for example, the planned 
> manual on the Prevention of Natural Disasters and the volumes in the 
> series «One Hundred Missing Objects». As far as the latter are concerned, 
> I personally believe that it would be more effective to distribute them 
> to the actual victims of looting rather than the police, and that a 
> translation into the local languages is indispensable. Resources for 
> these activities will therefore have to be found in the areas concerned 
> by concluding agreements with the governments.
>          By carrying out these activities, the National Committees 
> should be able to provide more than management services for members. They 
> should serve as «genuine promotion, information and liaison agencies» 
> capable of linking the local professional communities with the entire 
> organisation and of playing a useful role in protecting local heritage, 
> both material and immaterial.
> 
> Possible action by International Committees
>          Since International Committees bring together specialists from 
> all over the world, they are obliged to work in a common language, but 
> not necessarily to use the three official languages. It would be 
> desirable if they were to use one or both of the working languages for 
> their working documents, at their official meetings and for scientific 
> publications. It would also be useful to use the local languages, in 
> addition to a working language, at scientific meetings to ensure maximum 
> accessibility and to permit access to peripheral languages. If a local 
> language were to be used, arrangements would have to be made for 
> simultaneous translation into the working language. The required funds 
> should not be the responsibility of ICOM but should either come from the 
> country in question or from the International Committee.
>          Scientific publications produced by the International 
> Committees, such as the Study Series, do not have to be translated into 
> the three official languages. However, even though one single language 
> may be convenient, the simultaneous use of two working languages in the 
> same publication should not be excluded.
>          The International Committees can have an important role in 
> facilitating communications as well as protecting local languages by 
> compiling, in collaboration with the National Committees concerned, 
> multilingual technical dictionaries, such as the Vocabulary of Museum 
> Security Terms, published by the ICMS Committee, or glossaries.
> 
> The role of the ICOM Secretariat
>          Even though it is felt that the Secretariat documents should be 
> written in the two working languages (English and French), the General 
> Secretariat should make sure that local languages are used in addition to 
> one of the working languages in the events it organises. The minutes of 
> these meetings should also be translated into the local language and 
> widely circulated in the area with the collaboration of the local 
> National Committee. This practice was, in fact, adopted for the Workshop 
> on the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Southern Asia (Hanoi, Vietnam, 
> 9-13 April 2001), Vietnamese being used as a working language along with 
> English. The Ministry of Culture and Information was requested to arrange 
> for the reports to be translated into Vietnamese.
> 
> The role of the Executive Council
>          The Executive Council can play an active role by encouraging 
> access to the values and contents of ICOM for all members.  On the one 
> hand, it should give importance to local languages in events organised by 
> the National Committees, International Committees and Secretariat, and on 
> the other, it could invite the International Committees to produce 
> multilingual dictionaries on themes that would clearly serve as an 
> important means of communication.
> 
> Bibliography Amselle J.L., 1990 - Logiques métisses. Anthropologie de 
> l'identité en Afrique et ailleurs.Èditions Payot, Paris. Chartier R., 
> Corsi P., 1996 - Sciences et langages en Europe. Centre Alexandre Koyré, 
> Paris De Saussure F., 1922 - Cours de linguistique générale. Èditions 
> Payot, Paris Nettle D., Romaine S., 2000 - Vanishing Voices: the 
> Extinction of the World's Languages. Oxford University Press, Oxford 
> Hagège C., 2000 - Halte à la mort de langues. Èditions Odile Jacob, 
> Paris. Giovanni Pinna Member of the Executive Council
> 
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