The main address for this site is http://expat.silvert.org. All other sites are mirrors and may be out-of-date.

Nossa cultura e nossa lingua

Usually I find it easy to ignore Alan Thomas' diatribes in the News, but his latest (Nossa cultura e nossa lingua, 2 June 2001) is too offensive to let pass. Aside from the observation that it is gauche (Don't worry Alan, it will be translated into English within the next fifty years) to attack the culture of the country where one is living, to make such a big deal of just the musical aspect of culture is very myopic (who was the greatest composer in the history of your country Alan, perhaps Georg Friedrich Händel?). Next time you are in an art museum, admiring the works of Rembrandt and Reubens, try to remember the Dutch/Flemish musical heritage - if you can, you probably also appreciate the early Portuguese contribution to polyphonic music, but this is more esoteric than most of us care to discuss. (But if you are into early music, I think you have to admit that D. Dinis probably wrote more of the music attributed to him than did Henry VIII.)

It is ironic that Alan wrote his letter at about the same time that the American critic Harold Bloom, a great Shakespearian scholar, was here praising the literary tradition of Portugal and extolling the virtues of Saramago, Pessoa and Camões. It is worth noting that as languages evolve, the number of Portuguese who can read and understand Camões is probably greater than the number of English speakers who can read and understand Shakespeare (Alan may disagree, that is a fardel he shall have to bear), and who can dig Chaucer without a translation? For that matter, how many readers of this paper can translate the Lord's Prayer into modern English?

These are not trivial matters. I lived in Canada through the NAFTA negotiations (North American Free Trade Altercation) and recall the constant refusal by the US negotiators to accept measures to defend Canadian cultural industries on the grounds that Canada had no culture to protect - the impact on Canadian publishers, writers, and the film industry has been enormous. It would be a great irony if Portugal, after withstanding encroachment from the East for hundreds of years, should lose the battle on such weak grounds.

Finally, I doubt that we will all be speaking English in fifty years - the language that is making the heaviest inroads is American. It seems that every time I write a paper for a scientific journal, some editor tries to translate it into American, and I have a devil of a time getting it out in English. Also, some countries, most notably Germany, are taking umbrage at the swing to English and are reasserting their own linguistic traditions. The English skills of Germans are certainly less than they were ten years ago, partially due to the integration of the DDR, but also due to German dubbing of American films and other actions to reject foreign cultural inroads. Of course what is happening in Portugal is similar, except that everyone will end up speaking Brasilian, but - to quote a famous English phrase - Honi soit qui mal y pense.

This site is maintained by William Silvert, to whom all questions, comments and complaints should be addressed. You are also welcome to record your visit on the guestmap.