Scania
A Region in Europe

(Summary in English.)

The importance of the Language for cultural fellowship and personal self-confidence.
There exists a problem between the State and the Nation. The State has, almost everywhere, taken over - i.e. stolen - the vocabulary and ideology of the Nation. Oppression is a common consequence when language, culture and history come in conflict with the interests of the State.

National - i.e. cultural - languages are tied to territories: nations, regions and local communities. Often the languages are closely connected to the territories' culture, history and trade relations across the borders. It is difficut for the individual citizens to benefit from the support of the home languages when removed from their own language territory. The authority of the individual is reduced when people are forced to use another language than their own. A lack of equality is thereby created.

The position of the Scanian language in Sweden
Since the end of the 17th century the Scanian language has had considerable difficulties. Soon after the invasion in 1658 it was made an official policy of Sweden to eradicate the Scanian language and apply the Swedish language to the population. There is a unbroken line of this policy until the present time. The lingual pressure from Stockholm has in fact increased. The pressure on all regional languages in Sweden is considerable - on Gotland, in Jämtland and Bohuslän to take a few examples. The Scanian connection to Denmark has - however - made the situation in Scania particularly difficult which is the reason why the language issues are more emphasised here.

The situation for the small languages of Europe
The lingual diversity in Europe is considerable. Different states are dealing with this diversity in different ways. In multi-language states like Switzerland and Finland the multi-linguality has been accepted. In France, Great Britain and Sweden a state language has been forcefully created and maintained. Hitler and Franco prohibited the use of Low German and Catalan. The Flemish language was oppressed in Belgium. A new era is developing in Europe. The interest for the regional languages have increased in the regions. This could be the result of the accentuated cultural levelling in the global society. Both the European Union and the Council of Europe have reacted to this in a positive manner.

Sweden's problems in the Human Rights field
Sweden has followed the French example of allowing the state to take over the attributes of the nations. It is interesting to note that Sweden did not have a profound mono-cultural attitude in the 18th century although emerging ambitions of state "nation-building" manipulation are evident at that time in the attempts to give the region of Scania a new name - "Southern Götaland" The mono-cultural policy has, however, been systematically pursued until the present time. Neither linguistic, cultural and historical regional diversity is recognised in Sweden. Resistance by the central Swedish state against cultural diversity remains. This problem has, among other things, manifested itself in the regional division process presently taking place in Sweden. Centuries of State propaganda, with the general lack of history awareness this has created, has resulted in an inability to consider language, history and culture as part of the criteria for the regional division process.

The official view of history in Sweden.
The official view on Sweden's history does not correspond to reality. That is the reason for the difficulties the central government has in its relations to the various charters and conventions of Human Rights: It took almost 45 years for Sweden to incorporate Council of Europe's Convention on Human Rights of 1950 into Swedish legislation. The UN/ILO resolution 169 has been signed and ratified by neighbouring states but it is still creating problems for the Swedish Government. In a referendum in the UN in 1983, concerning the return of cultural properties to the countries of origin, Sweden abstained from voting. Instead of signing the Council of Europe's Charter on National and Regional Languages of 1992, the Swedish Government procrastinates by appointing a Commission to investigate the consequences of signing the Charter despite that all of Council of Europe's negotiators from Sweden supported the final text and the fact that most part of the states in Europe have already signed it.

The present situation of the Scanian Language.
The uniqueness of a language is based on a number of elements such as a specific vocabulary, a special grammar, a unique phonetics and a specific intonation.

The Scanian language has been divided into a number of dialects due to the lack of a standard written language. Such a written language has not been allowed to develop because of the policy of the State to eradicate the Scanian language and replace it by the official Swedish Standard Language.

However, despite the pressures from Stockholm the spoken language in Scania has survived. The Scanian language is grammatically related to the basic Nordic language stock and has only a limited number of totally unique words. There is, however, even today a considerable Scanian vocabulary, a number of phonetically unique expressions and a very accentuated intonation.

We are of the conviction that the question of weather or not a language is a language is a political issue not necessarily a scientific one. The basic question the Swedish Government and the Minority Language Commission should ask is if Sweden in the future will support the development of a multi-cultural society also as far as languages are concerned or if Sweden should continue on the road to cultural impoverishment by allowing the lingual diversity to be further reduced.

It is obvious, even in Scania, that the Scanian language and intonation is not socially accepted. The domination by Stockholm over Scanian culture is considerable. As a result the self-censorship is now wide-spread. This is, in our opinion, the most intricate and serious form of oppression.

Proposals
Both the Government and the Minority Language Commission must adopt a new perspective on Sweden's relations to the Human Cultural Rights. One reason for this is that the official picture of Sweden as one people, one history, one culture and one language is totally false. This is a myth which will not survive in the longer perspective. The question "if a language is a language" is a political issue and a more modern and comprehensive view on cultural policies and a revised official policy on human cultural rights must precede a political decision. Sweden must therefore create the pre-conditions for regional cultures and languages to develop, without interference from above. This policy is clearly expressed in the cultural section of the Maastricht Treaty as well as in the Charters and Conventions of the United Nations and the Council of Europe. Sweden must therefore:

• give the regional languages legal protection as well as additional and more generous resources, and
• postpone the question of the formal status of the regional languages until such time the regions have their own democratic political institutions.

Stiftelsen Skånsk Framtid proposes therefore that the Swedish Government takes the following immediate actions:

1. Sweden must immediately sign the Council of Europe's Charter for National and Regional Languages from 1992.
2. The regional languages in Sweden must be given official recognition and subsequent legal protection.
3. The Government Directives for the Minority Language Commission must be re-written to become a post-signing consequence analysis of the adoption of the above Charter.
4. The definitions and criteria must be more clearly defined in the new directives, in order to make the process more available to the general public.

Dated 24 April 1996
Signed by the Chairman of the SSF

© SSF

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