For the first time in centuries, the Corsican language is growing again
Reflections on International Mother Language Day
If you’re new here, welcome! I’m the co-founder and director of Wikitongues, where we give grants, training, and in-kind support to the leaders of new mother-tongue projects.
Last week, I had the privilege of celebrating UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day in Corsica, where I spoke to a gathering of language activists about our work at Wikitongues and the global movement for linguistic diversity. The Corsican people are at a pivotal moment in the history of their language which, though endangered, is reawakening.
For the uninitiated, Corsica is a ruggedly beautiful Mediterranean island, just seven miles north of Sardinia at the nexus of mainland Italy, France, and Spain. Its ancestral language Corsican (natively, Corsu) is of Latin origin, a close cousin of Italian and, like most of the world’s languages, decimated by decades of forced assimilation — in this case, into French.
Originally Genovese subjects, the Corsican people enjoyed a brief period of political independence until 1769, when France annexed their island and with it, their cultural sovereignty. In the coming decades, French language politics would erode their mother tongue. In 1794, French revolutionary leader Henri Grégoire urged the National Convention to “annihilate” linguistic diversity in France, arguing that the “degenerate language” of Corsica, the “patois” dialects of mainland France, and the “poor Negroe idioms” of the French Caribbean threatened the integrity of their republic. The National Convention concurred. Today, virtually all of France’s regional languages are endangered.
As in the rest of the world, language diversity in France was violently attacked in schools. Not only was French the sole vehicle of public education, but children could be beaten if overhead speaking their mother tongues, creating an association between their ancestral languages and shame. By the turn of the 21st century, fewer than half of all Corsicans spoke their ancestral language, even fewer used it daily, and children rarely learned it at all.
But language extinction is not inevitable. With the right resources, anyone can reclaim their ancestral language, keeping their culture alive. In two decades, Corsican language activists made tremendous progress in the relative absence of institutional support. They safeguarded mother-tongue music, organized cultural events, and taught children in private. Step by step, manu a manu, the language is growing again.
Now, after two centuries of repression, Corsican is back in the public sphere. There are immersion schools for children, all of which are at full enrollment. Some even have waiting lists, a sign of increased demand for bilingual education; and Corsica’s regional parliament, now in the hands of leaders who support greater autonomy from Paris, has begun directing resources to new mother-tongue projects.
Late last year, the Corsican city of Bastia opened Casa di e Lingue to cultivate immersion programs, support the development of Corsican-language content, and provide a public space for speakers and learners to gather. Their team celebrated the launch with a weekend-long event, which included a raucous night of Corsican music and a mid-day discussion about the practical process of language revitalization. Here, I was lucky enough to participate.
One of the hardest things about language revitalization is its generational timescale. Progress is slow and often hard to measure. Yet, over time, an endangered or dormant language can be measurably reawakened — as adults reclaim their mother tongue and more children are raised as native speakers. Corsican is stronger now than it was thirty years ago. The patience and diligent optimism of language activists have paid off.
In 1990, the First Peoples’ Cultural Council was founded to support the revitalization of First Nations languages in what is now called British Columbia; languages which, like Corsican, were decimated by forced assimilation. Three decades later, a comprehensive survey has found that, for the first time in two centuries, dozens of First Nations languages are growing again, with record numbers of children learning their languages at home.
Around the world, from the Mediterranean to the Salish Sea, people are rising up and rebuilding their cultures, safeguarding centuries of knowledge—and the promise of getting the future right.
At Wikitongues, we’re on a mission to make language revitalization accessible to all who want it. Follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more stories like this.
