??原题：the struggle to preserve regional languages

go to the basque country of spain and, linguistically, you feel you are entering not just another country but perhaps another continent. familiar world languages—spanish and french—suddenly give way to the otherworldly-seeming basque, with its proliferation of x’s and k’s, and alien-looking words of tongue-twisting length. basque (also known as euskara) is unrelated to the indo-european family that includes almost all european languages.如果前往西班牙巴斯克地区，单从语言层面上讲，你就感觉来到了另一个国家，甚至可能是另一个大洲。在这里，像西班牙语和法语这样耳熟能详的全球通用语突然让位于完全不同的巴斯克语。巴斯克语单词中大多具有字母x和k，拼写看起来怪异，长度足以让舌头打结。大部分欧洲语言都属于印欧语系，但巴斯克语（basque，也被称作欧斯卡拉语euskara）却不在此范畴。its survival has not been assured. the dictatorship of francisco franco from 1939 to 1975 relentlessly centralised the state and insisted that citizens “speak christian”—that is, spanish. public use of basque was forbidden. when franco died, the basque-speaking population was mostly old and rural. for a language, this is usually a terminal diagnosis.巴斯克语的生存处境也并非安然无虞。1939年至1975年间，西班牙独裁者佛朗哥（francisco franco）对西班牙采取残酷的集权统治，命令公民“必须用基督教的语言说话”，即西班牙语。公众场合禁止使用巴斯克语。佛朗哥逝世时，讲巴斯克语的民众多为生活在农村的老年人。对一种语言来说，这无疑是“大期将至，命不久矣”的前兆了。

against all odds, since the 1980s the number of speakers has grown by almost 350,000, out of a regional population of 2.1m. education has been crucial. in 2017 two-thirds of pupils were studying in schools where basque was the language of instruction, up from around 14% in 1984; 87% of ten- to 14-year-olds are reckoned to know the language. this is why, in the most recent big survey, the basque-speaking population (41%) almost matched the non-basque-speakers (44%). the other 15% are said to understand basque but struggle to speak it.尽管困难重重，自20世纪80年代以来，讲巴斯克语的人数仍增加了近35万，而该地区总人口仅为210万。取得这一成果，教育功不可没。2017年，三分之二的小学生在以巴斯克语为教学语言的学校读书，而在1984年，这一比例仅为14%。人们预计10到14岁的儿童当中能说巴斯克语的人数约占87%。这也就解释了为什么最近的一次大规模调查显示巴斯克语人口（41%）与非巴斯克语人口（44%）的数量近乎旗鼓相当。剩下的15%的人能听懂但难以用巴斯克语表达。

for those who follow language revival, this is a galloping success. the world is filled with regional minority languages whose few fluent speakers are old. being able to halt a death spiral is considered a victory. to increase the number of speakers is a triumph.在关注语言复兴的人们看来，这已经是大跨越式的成功。区域性少数民族只剩少数老一辈还能流利地使用本族语言，这种情况在全球各地比比皆是。因此，若能停下语言消亡的脚步，便获得了初步胜利；若能增加该语言的使用人数，则是阶段性胜利。

but there is another side to the story. in the basque country just 376,000 people have the language as their first, transmitted to them in the home. basque is weakest in the three provincial capitals, where the population is dominated by people from spanish-speaking homes. as one basque parliamentarian puts it, even as the knowledge and prestige of the language are growing, outside schools actual usage still seems to be shrinking.但胜利背后亦有缺憾。巴斯克地区仅有37.6万人将巴斯克语作为第一语言，他们在家里便能学得此语言。而在（巴斯克地区所辖的）三个省会城市，由于绝大多数当地人来自说西班牙语的家庭，巴斯克语处于最弱势的地位。正如一位巴斯克地区的议员所言，虽然人们对于巴斯克语的认知和认可度都在提升，但其在校园外的实际使用率似乎仍在不断降低。

with different proportions, the outline of this narrative can be seen elsewhere. ireland’s constitution names irish as the national and first official language. a requirement that all youngsters study it has halted its decline: it is another great victory that 30% of the population claims to be able to speak it. the fact is, though, that few actually do—just 1.7% on a daily basis outside school, and only another 2.5% weekly. a similar tale could be told of welsh. rising numbers can speak it, and it has a prominent public presence on signs and in government. but daily use is mostly confined to small pockets of the country.尽管程度有所差异，但在其他地方也能看到与巴斯克语类似的情况。爱尔兰宪法中将爱尔兰语列为国语和第一官方语言，要求所有青少年都必须学习，这一做法止住了爱尔兰语下降的势头：全国30%的人口声称能讲爱尔兰语同样也是一场伟大的阶段性胜利。不过，现实却是当地人在实际生活中却很少使用爱尔兰语。在校园外每天都在使用爱尔兰语的人口比例仅为1.7%，每周使用的也不过2.5%。威尔士语的境况也大同小异。虽然能使用威尔士语的人数在增长，公共标识和政府机构也广泛使用威尔士语，但其在日常生活中的使用仍主要局限于威尔士的小部分区域。

such strategies are nonetheless being imitated. in new zealand, the decline in maori may be ending. the age groups most likely to speak it are the old (who learned it at home the traditional way) and the much younger, probably thanks to recent immersion programmes. the new zealand government aims to raise the number of speakers to 1m by 2040, out of a total current population of 5m. this will require many non-maori to learn it; increasing numbers are doing so. this is all to the good—but those who have learned it as a second language, maori and non-maori alike, are far less likely to use it in daily life.尽管如此，有些地区却仍在效仿这种策略。在新西兰，说毛利语的人数下降趋势可能得到遏制。说毛利语比例最高的人群要么是年事已高的老人（他们通过家庭这种传统方式习得），要么是年纪很小的学生——这可能要归功于最近的沉浸式（语言学习）计划。新西兰政府的目标是到2040年将毛利语使用人口增至100万，而目前新西兰总人口才500万。这就需要许多非毛利人学习该语言；而正在学习的人确实也越来越多。这固然是件好事——但无论是毛利人还是非毛利人，将其作为第二语言学习的人基本不可能在日常生活中说毛利语。

what would it take to get people to live in these languages, as opposed to merely acquiring them? some basques say ruefully that in a mixed group in which just one person is uncomfortable in basque, the rest quickly switch to spanish. they say that in cat

alonia, a similar group is more likely to insist on continuing in catalan (which, for this and unrelated historical reasons, is far more widely spoken in its territory than is basque). insisting on irish, meanwhile, would border on the absurd, as manchán magan showed in a television mini-series, “no béarla” (“no english”). in it he tries to carry out daily tasks—buying a bus ticket, finding a mechanic—in irish only, with comical results.如何才能让人们在生活中使用这些语言，而不仅仅只是学会就好呢？有些巴斯克人沮丧地说，在一群人当中，只要有一个人对巴斯克语不感冒，其他人很快就会转而说西班牙语。而在加泰罗尼亚，类似的群体更可能坚持继续说加泰罗尼亚语（由于某些不相关的历史原因，加泰罗尼亚语在其领土上的使用比巴斯克语在巴斯克地区的使用广泛得多）。与此同时，坚持说爱尔兰语则会显得有些怪诞，就如曼查?梅根（manchan magan）在迷你剧《no béarla》（即《拒绝英语》）中所表现的那样。在剧中，他试图在日常工作中只说爱尔兰语，比如买车票、找机修工，但结果却很滑稽可笑。

activists typically want their language to live, even predominate, not just survive. but that might mean shaming those who abjure it. governments might have to force shopkeepers to address customers in it. such coercion would be unpopular and illiberal.积极人士通常希望他们的语言能够延续下去，甚至占据主导，而不仅仅是存活下来。但这可能意味着要让那些放弃说这些语言的人自觉羞愧。政府也许还得下令规定让店主用这种语言与顾客交谈。但这种强制措施必将不得人心，也侵犯了人们的自由。

a rosy view is that basque-type situations are the best of all worlds. people can take advantage of the opportunities offered by a major language while keeping the traditional one going—an invaluable link to the past, preserved in adversity. that is success indeed, if bound by painful, possibly inevitable limits.一种比较乐观的观点是，像巴斯克语这类的情况是最好的结果了。人们既可以利用主要语言带来的机会，同时也保持传统语言的发展——这种与过去的联系堪称无价，其在逆境中得以保存下来。尽管可能仍然存在各种困难，有些问题也无法避免，但对于语言的延续能够做到这种程度，这已经是一种成功了。

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—— the economist

?文章来源：《经济学人》????????????????????????????????????????????????????????