Minorities not Minority 1: Poets from Sardinia

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The globalized world speaks English, the Latin of today. The writers in this innovative series are Italian and the Italian language is not such a minority, but it is not the contrary either. With the fall of the Roman Empire the function of Latin as a unique language finished. In the Middle Ages it was still the language of high culture, but what we call ‘nations’ also began to form. In each of these territories a battle for the primacy of language happened. With the passing of the centuries each territory became a nation, a closed place with an imaginary Chinese Wall as its border. Within each are minority cultures and languages. The battle was won by French in France, Italian in Italy, Spanish in Spain, English in the United Kingdom and so on; but in France there is also Breton and Provençal; in Italy, Sardinian and Friulian and regional languages like Romagnolo; in Spain, Catalan and Basque; in the United Kingdom, Welsh and Scottish …

It would seem the Empire has come back in the form of ‘globalisation’. Here and there the walls are falling to pieces, under blows from the Internet. And the new Latin upsets all linguistic monarchies (except English). Ironically, globalisation and its language have also broken through the chains of the linguistic minorities. Not that this makes globalisation a good thing in itself, but the dominance of English has the spin off of providing a symbiotic relationship in which minority languages can find a global reach, while English can provide a window to the world. This series is built – by two Italians and a Celt – in that window, making it an important literary contribution to dialogues about regional languages, nationhood, identity and globalisation.