[PASSED] Language Preservation

[Ile Royale]

Here's another one of my forays into cultural and heritage preservation. Since language is fairly innocuous, I hope it won't cause such a stir as my last proposal in this vein.

Category: Education and Creativity | Area of Effect: Cultural Heritage | Proposed by: Ile Royale

The General Assembly,

Recognising that the transmission of scientific knowledge, culture, and civilisation itself is almost impossible without language;

Saddened that many languages, and their attendant literature, are becoming extinct through various processes;

Mandates that nations shall conduct regular surveys to ascertain what native languages are spoken within their borders;

Requires nations, in the course of these language surveys, to–

1. record the alphabet of the language, or, if no written form of the language exists, to work with native speakers to create a standard transcription of the language,
2. describe the linguistics of the language, so as to ensure it may be understood fully by anthropologists,
3. record all notable works of fiction and non-fiction in the language if not otherwise recorded, and
4. deposit all information gathered with the Universal Library Coalition.

Establishes the International Language Research Centre, the main aim of which is to process and conduct research on the data gathered through language surveys;

Allows nations to request professional aid from the ILRC for the purpose of conducting language surveys;

Urges nations to support research into all aspects of languages native to their territories, beyond that required by this Resolution.

[Aligned Planets]

[Jaresh-Inyo, delegate for Aligned Planets rises to his feet.[/i]

We thank the honourable delegate for Ile Royale for the Bill currently on the floor for discussion. This Bill seems most sensible and we would welcome the opportunity to add our thoughts to the discussion. Whilst we have submitted the content to be reviewed by our dear leader President Roslin, and are awaiting her response, we do have some constructive suggestions for the operative language.

Mandates that nations shall conduct regular surveys to ascertain what native languages are spoken within their border

We would recommend this should read 'Encourages nations to conduct regular surveys [..]'.

Requires nations, in the course of these language surveys, to-

We would recommend this should read 'Further encourages nations, in the course [..].'

We support WA legislation that works with nations to implement international legislation rather than mandates that it should be just so. We feel that the change in language would allow a greater latitude for nations to find more innovative ways to fulfil the last clause in this Bill.

I will return with the President's remarks later this afternoon.

Thank-you.

Jaresh-Inyo seats himself fussily.

[Ile Royale]

I thank the delegate for his words; we certainly wish to maintain as much national sovereignty as possible. However, I'm not sure, even with the help that is provided, that there would be a large enough take-up of language surveys.

However, we certainly don't want to dismiss these suggestions out of hand. Perhaps the delegate could elaborate on how he believes his suggestions would allow for a greater latitude than currently provided for (we believe that "survey" is quite wide, and can be interpreted to mean a variety of data gathering methods).

(OOC, is there any problem if, under the suggested wording, the Resolution would not actually be doing anything, apart from recommendations and establishing a research body.)

[Frisbeeteria]

(OOC, is there any problem if, under the suggested wording, the Resolution would not actually be doing anything, apart from recommendations and establishing a research body.)

Yep. Proposals have to do more than set up a committee, which is all I see here.

Also, Education and Creativity proposals don't have Strengths, they have Areas of Effect.

[Potted Plants United]

A large potted plant suddenly comes to life, revealing a large leaf curled up to form a cone, from which a somewhat hissing voice can be heard:

"We do not have a language of our own. Our collective consciousness allows us to transmit information from one individual body to the other, without the need for anything as limiting as language. We only use language of any sort (spoken or written) when communicating with other sentient species, such as the WA nations. If you must have a record of our language, and have a sunny place on a windowsill somewhere, we could offer one of our selves to live there, as a living record. They would require occasional watering and more irregularly a small amount of fertilizer."

[Ile Royale]

(OOC, is there any problem if, under the suggested wording, the Resolution would not actually be doing anything, apart from recommendations and establishing a research body.)

Yep. Proposals have to do more than set up a committee, which is all I see here.

Also, Education and Creativity proposals don't have Strengths, they have Areas of Effect.

Thank you for informing me about the area of effect, the OP has been changed accordingly. Am I right in thinking that the resolution as it currently stands, which mandates language surveys for individual nations to carry out, is within in rules?

IC: I thank the, umm... delegate/people of Potted Plants United for their statement. I believe that perhaps the system through which you transfer information would be considered a "language" for the purposes of this resolution, however, I am no expert on collective consciousnesses.

[Araraukar]

IC: I thank the, umm... delegate/people of Potted Plants United for their statement. I believe that perhaps the system through which you transfer information would be considered a "language" for the purposes of this resolution, however, I am no expert on collective consciousnesses.

"You'd probably have to settle for "telepathy" or "magic" or "sentient resonance" or whatever flavour you prefer as your explanation. I'm not entirely certain I'd believe it either, if I hadn't seen with my own eyes just what they're capable of.

In case anyone's wondered why Araraukar has been absent from the recent debates, it's because we have been resolving matters with the aforementioned plants. The life of one of my aides seems pretty insignificant compared to some of the stuff this plant consciousness has been offering our nation as compensation. Just one word of caution, if you ever have dealings with them - never agree to letting them get rid of an ants' nest in your garden. Belive me, that was an experience I wish I could forget."

- Janis Leveret, personally, not in ambassadorial role

[Ile Royale]

I thank Miss Leveret for her explanation of sorts.

I also strongly urge any other delegate who have comments to make, to make them as soon as they can. I cannot improve the resolution without input from others.

[Kidlantis]

You know, the Umminite language is so rare, I might just vote for it.

Ambassador-general Nickelson

[Rallandaria]

We certainly applaud the effort to document language as an important part of national history and culture. The wording of the resolution, however, seems to place too much of an undue burden on nations to regularly conduct what looks to be costly surveys and catalog all of the research. Because of this fact, we will be voting no on this resolution as it stands.

[The Two Jerseys]

We certainly applaud the effort to document language as an important part of national history and culture. The wording of the resolution, however, seems to place too much of an undue burden on nations to regularly conduct what looks to be costly surveys and catalog all of the research. Because of this fact, we will be voting no on this resolution as it stands.

Given that the legislation does not specify how nations are to collect this information, we do not see why this survey cannot be delegated to various non-governmental organizations, which do not necessarily operate with taxpayer support (we, for example, intend to have the survey conducted by the Royal Academy of Science, which is an non-governmental academic body supported mainly by donations). With this in mind, we respectfully ask you to reconsider your vote.

As for our vote, we consider this language survey to be a noble endeavor, and we support this proposal.

[Zarkanians]

Zarkanians would like to know who's planning to pay for all of this. If this goes through, it will outsource this task to corporations. These corporations will not be given any limiters on how loose they are allowed to be with the translation.

[United Timelines Outpost Number 99999999]

*The large brick of metamaterials standing in for the United Timelines delegate suddenly starts making a sound reminiscent of a dial-up modem arguing with R2D2, had both of them been quantum computers.*
"Sorry. I was demonstrating Neuronese if it were based on vibration of the atmosphere to generate sound waves as opposed to the traditional neutrino broadcasting. Needless to say, there are languages that are too complex to record on devices most nations have. The trans-sensory representation of all neurological activity does not translate well to Maxtopian. Don't even get me started on the language of the Matrioshka brains. However, the potential application in the continued development of modern languages as well as the breaking down of language barriers is great. You have our approval."
*The metamaterial brick changes color to something roughly green-like before bending the light around it until it ceased to be.*

[Honkong]

My Government cant see neither sense nor benefits in this proposal
Why can't the task to care for their own language not simply remainin the hands of national Governments ?
We see no need to address the WA which such relatively trivial proposals

voted for: AGAINST

[Maklohi Vai]

Maklohi Vai, believing in the necessity to preserve language in all forms, votes FOR this excellent proposal.

[Great Niagara]

"We care about all of our citizens, including the ones that were here before the white man. Native Americans cannot afford to lose their language, and that is why we vote in favor of Language Preservation."

-President Mark White

[Zarkanians]

"Furthermore," the ambassador for Zarkanians said, returning to his feet. "Does this mean that banned literature, such as hate-speech, must be translated and printed if it has even once been written in another language? What about legends of how a minority will commit mass genocide upon the majority, or upon another minority for that matter? I see no mention of such items in this abomination, so they would have to be allowed. In its current form, Zarkanians cannot, and will not, support this proposal."

[Ossitania]

My Government cant see neither sense nor benefits in this proposal
Why can't the task to care for their own language not simply remainin the hands of national Governments ?
We see no need to address the WA which such relatively trivial proposals

voted for: AGAINST

We think the ambassador from Honkong is making the very weak assumption that all national governments want to preserve all languages present within their nation. We believe this is a falsehood and a fallacy, given the numerous cases in which (1) governments hostile to certain ethnic groups within the nations they rule and (2) colonial powers attempting to force their culture on the people of their colonies have taken active measures to destroy languages as part of acts of sustained cultural warfare. Ossitania itself has previously been subject to such hostilities during the time in which we were colonies by the Pilarian Empire and are more than happy to vote FOR this proposal to ensure that, at the very least, where such atrocities cannot be prevented, they will not be allowed to ever truly succeed.

[The Two Jerseys]

"Furthermore," the ambassador for Zarkanians said, returning to his feet. "Does this mean that banned literature, such as hate-speech, must be translated and printed if it has even once been written in another language? What about legends of how a minority will commit mass genocide upon the majority, or upon another minority for that matter? I see no mention of such items in this abomination, so they would have to be allowed. In its current form, Zarkanians cannot, and will not, support this proposal."

Methinks the learned gentleman from Zarkanians is reading too much into this resolution. The resolution merely requires that the vocabulary of native languages and notable literary works in those languages be recorded. It doesn't state that any of this material must be published, it must merely be archived. Also, the fact that this act makes no provision for what might be viewed as hate speech means that the power to regulate it automatically belongs to individual nations.

[Talonis]

As we have already converted all of our documents to text for use on dataslates, we of Talonis will give the WA technology for the library as needed (we have way too much tech just sitting around to fit the weapons we want) and at no cost to them, up to 5 QYB of space per year, so long as we of Talonis can access any material in the library at any time, and at no cost to us.

[Discoveria]

My Government cant see neither sense nor benefits in this proposal
Why can't the task to care for their own language not simply remainin the hands of national Governments ?
We see no need to address the WA which such relatively trivial proposals

voted for: AGAINST

"I share the sentiment of the Honkong delegation," said Matthew. "My question is, 'Why should we preserve all languages?' Sure, it is sad to see languages become extinct, but that is history taking the most likely course. It is not something that necessarily needs to be prevented, and certainly not at an international level. Can someone persuade me that this proposal is worthy of support?"

[Ossitania]

My Government cant see neither sense nor benefits in this proposal
Why can't the task to care for their own language not simply remainin the hands of national Governments ?
We see no need to address the WA which such relatively trivial proposals

voted for: AGAINST

"I share the sentiment of the Honkong delegation," said Matthew. "My question is, 'Why should we preserve all languages?' Sure, it is sad to see languages become extinct, but that is history taking the most likely course. It is not something that necessarily needs to be prevented, and certainly not at an international level. Can someone persuade me that this proposal is worthy of support?"

Our reasons are threefold, the first, as we have already outlined, is when a culture is dying not because "history is taking the most likely course" but due to active attempts to obliterate a culture. This is not a complete solution, but it is a measure that can provide some help as part of what we hope will be wider efforts by the international community to prevent such things. Our second reason pertains to the fact that languages are not mere methods of communication, that within many of them them exist unique and untranslatable concepts, ideas which should be preserved because any idea may yet be utile and allowing an idea to cease to exist damages discourse and knowledge. Our third reason pertains to the fact that the study of certain subjects, such as history, sociology and literature, will be unnecessarily impeded if a language is allowed to disappear completely from the world, which is bad because these subjects are important to informing the moral, social and political discourse that changes societies and political destinies. And even did we not think all of these things, we think it is just generally absurd to assume that because a language is dying out, it therefore has no use, or that is somehow deserves to die. Perhaps in a world of fair competition, that would hold true, but languages often die due to cultural hostility, due to economic inutility and other practical factors that can disincentivise speakers of a language from continuing to do so even when that language actually has great worth and beauty that is being lost as a result.

[Kidlantis]

My Government cant see neither sense nor benefits in this proposal
Why can't the task to care for their own language not simply remainin the hands of national Governments ?
We see no need to address the WA which such relatively trivial proposals

voted for: AGAINST

"I share the sentiment of the Honkong delegation," said Matthew. "My question is, 'Why should we preserve all languages?' Sure, it is sad to see languages become extinct, but that is history taking the most likely course. It is not something that necessarily needs to be prevented, and certainly not at an international level. Can someone persuade me that this proposal is worthy of support?"

Perhaps I can convince you. When languages become extinct, culture is lost. Otherwise important artifacts will become useless scribbles. Take the Umminite language. There are only 1,000 speakers, including me, that speak the language. Now, outside of Xerntevis, a city on the Southern Coast region of Kidlantis, there is a giant 40-story statue. Xerntevis was the center of Umminite civilization, by the way. So, this statue is called Mucga Mucga, and is made out of something like iron. Now, because of recent metal analysis, some archaeologists back home have discovered that it is not iron, but some other metal that was previously unknown. Because of its strange shape, there has been speculation that it is a giant alien robot that froze a few thousand years ago that attacked the Umminites. But there are no texts to prove it! If they are found that proves that it is a giant alien robot, they may have a date that tells us when and if these aliens return. But if there are no speakers left, we will understand them. I would rather not get attacked by aliens. Is this enough to convince you, ambassador, other then the lost cultural heritage?

[Frisbeeteria]

Ubja ubja ubja seryure gyerw wqua yert wolk quatru crus tranet !

That meme died with the defeat of International Auxiliary Language. Please stop using it.

[Mengsk]

Completely disagree with this proposal.

Language, in the view of Mengsk, is a tool first, an art second. Trying to preserve useless languages is just going to eat up government money