0:00:04 > 0:00:08Language is one of the most amazing things we humans do.
0:00:10 > 0:00:11It separates us from the animals.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14Gives us theatre, poetry and song.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19It can make us laugh, it can make us cry.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23In this episode, I'm going to look at how our language and our accents
0:00:23 > 0:00:26define and shape our identity...
0:00:26 > 0:00:28HE SPEAKS HIS OWN LANGUAGE
0:00:28 > 0:00:33..and how thousands of languages are now threatened with the rise of the global village.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49I've always believed that my language, English,
0:00:49 > 0:00:52does the most to define what makes me me.
0:00:52 > 0:00:57But my English is wildly different from many other people's across Britain.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00The accent we speak in may seem trivial,
0:01:00 > 0:01:03but, in fact, it is a vital element of our identity.
0:01:03 > 0:01:08Our small country boasts a bewildering and beautiful array of accents and dialects.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12I'm going to see just what one county of England, Yorkshire, can offer.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16- Well, Ian McMillan, hello. - Stephen, how are you?
0:01:16 > 0:01:20Delighted to be in Yorkshire, home of the famous Yorkshire accent.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24- The Yorkshire accent, which is a many varied thing, as you can see. I've got a map here.- Oh, yes.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29Just about every Yorkshire town. Each of these has got their own accent.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33From right over here in the east with Hull, where they talk about,
0:01:33 > 0:01:36"I'm gonna have a PARNT o' MARLD at FARV to FARV."
0:01:36 > 0:01:40- And I've got all the STERN RERSES albums.- Stern Rerses!
0:01:40 > 0:01:44You go west to Leeds and Bradford, where we are now, and where they don't say their T's.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47They go, "I GO'A GO A Bradford, GO'A GO A Batley."
0:01:47 > 0:01:51And when you go across to Leeds, somehow the E gets lengthened
0:01:51 > 0:01:54and they go, "We don't EER accent in LEEEDS."
0:01:54 > 0:01:56Oh, that's so Alan BENNEEET.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59- Yeah, that's right, very slow. - It's attenuated.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02Then you go down here, through Wakefield to Barnsley, where I live,
0:02:02 > 0:02:05which is a very kinda harsh, "Now then, now then."
0:02:05 > 0:02:06I think of Geoff Boycott.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10Yes, and, "That's proper cricket is that," and it's like that.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13I do generally think it's to do with the harsh winds of Yorkshire.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16- Really?- That make your mouth a bit like that.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18You don't wanna open your mouth too far!
0:02:18 > 0:02:21Then you go further south, to Sheffield.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24There's a fantastic difference between Barnsley and Sheffield.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29We say, "Now then, now then". As you approach Sheffield, your vowels go, "Nar den, nar den."
0:02:29 > 0:02:34They go deep. So we call them deedars, cos they go, "Now den, what dar doin' darn 'ere?"
0:02:34 > 0:02:39That's a bit like in the south in America where they say BIDNESS instead of "business", don't they?
0:02:39 > 0:02:41Havin' the old biddness.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44- How extraordinary.- Now den. Now den... Chesterfield,
0:02:44 > 0:02:46where they call their house their arse!
0:02:46 > 0:02:49My Aunty Mabel, who was from Chesterfield, would say things like,
0:02:49 > 0:02:52"I've just had double glazing fitted in my arse".
0:02:52 > 0:02:57She'd say, "I've got a detached arse." Have you really?! The thing is, they don't think it's funny!
0:02:57 > 0:03:00And you go... And they say, "Why you laughing?"
0:03:03 > 0:03:07Our accents are shaped by where we were born and raised.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10Ian McMillan is a poet,
0:03:10 > 0:03:14his language moulded by the area of Yorkshire he has always lived in.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19As a poet, do you think there's Yorkshire in your lines?
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Obviously, when you read them, there clearly is.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24In the end, Barnsley's what I think with.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27I think with its history, I think with its culture,
0:03:27 > 0:03:30- I think with its hills that you walk up and get out of breath.- Yes!
0:03:30 > 0:03:35I think with its wind that stops me talking in big words, big mouth openings.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38I think, in the end, no matter how I write on the page,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41it'll always come out with Barnsley cos Barnsley's what I think with.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47They used to till the fields
0:03:47 > 0:03:49Horses pulled the plough
0:03:49 > 0:03:51Corn grew in Barnsley accents
0:03:51 > 0:03:52And me father milked a cow
0:03:52 > 0:03:54Fool's gold
0:03:54 > 0:03:55They used to harvest crops
0:03:55 > 0:03:57They used to grind the corn
0:03:57 > 0:03:59Fed the bairns turnip tops
0:03:59 > 0:04:01"Mine's nesh - how's yourn?"
0:04:01 > 0:04:03Fool's gold.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11Well, let's have our accent forecast for the British Isles.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15It's a small enough country, isn't it, Britain, the UK?
0:04:15 > 0:04:20And yet it's rich with teeming micro-climates of accent.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24Let's start all the way here in Belfast, now, here it is.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27- BELFAST ACCENTS:- Belfast! There's types of Belfast
0:04:27 > 0:04:30and there's the lighter type, too, which is beautiful.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33It's a lovely accent - there's nothing wrong with it.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35It's beautiful, so it is.
0:04:35 > 0:04:40And then move across, a lot of influence comes all the way up from Glasgow, aye.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44- SCOTTISH ACCENTS:- I don't want to be insulting to anybody who comes from these places
0:04:44 > 0:04:47but we know there are all kinds of Scottish accents.
0:04:47 > 0:04:52And some are very, very refined and some of them slightly less so.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56And they're all beautiful and they're different and they're fantastic.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01And they're rich. It's like a stew - England's like a stew.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04I'm sounding like Billy Connolly, now!
0:05:04 > 0:05:06No, no, stop it!
0:05:06 > 0:05:10Let's go down to... Well, I guess we'll go down here.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13- GEORDIE ACCENT:- Why aye - what's down here?
0:05:13 > 0:05:15It's the Geordies, isn't it?
0:05:20 > 0:05:23Traditionally, Geordie has been regarded as the accent of coal pits,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26poverty and little fishes on little dishes.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31About ten years ago, all that started to change.
0:05:31 > 0:05:36and now Geordie tops the polls as one of the most desirable accents around.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40I've got your account information here.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44You actually made a redemption on the 26th of October...
0:05:44 > 0:05:50In popular entertainment, I suppose three of the biggest names you could mention
0:05:50 > 0:05:54are Ant and Dec, if you counted that as two names, and Cheryl Cole.
0:05:54 > 0:05:55I've heard of those.
0:05:55 > 0:06:00They've got very proud, obvious, very clear North Eastern accents.
0:06:00 > 0:06:05I couldn't say they were exactly Newcastle or whatever, but they're certainly from round these parts.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09And they quite clearly don't try to hide that, and that comes through. Why should they hide it?
0:06:09 > 0:06:15Everybody in this centre will be very proud of where they're from and their heritage.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20They speak the way they do to their friends as they will to customers. And it goes down very, very well.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23It might've been a problem with the time. Would you like me to investigate?
0:06:23 > 0:06:28As I say, it's a household account. They're going into the same pool, so to speak, you know?
0:06:28 > 0:06:32At this Newcastle call centre, reassuring Geordie voices
0:06:32 > 0:06:37deal with thousands of customer calls a day, with remarkably successful results.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40In the recent survey that we had commissioned,
0:06:40 > 0:06:45it came out that it was the accent most likely to give that feel-good factor to people,
0:06:45 > 0:06:47and make people feel happy.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49It was very trustworthy.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52In addition to that, it was deemed as being very helpful, as well.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56OK, put the lady back on.
0:06:56 > 0:07:01The human ear is a marvel at detecting the minutest nuances of language
0:07:01 > 0:07:07and the differences can have a profound emotional, financial and psychological effect.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Accents are probably one of the most vital parts
0:07:10 > 0:07:12of the sensory experience that we have
0:07:12 > 0:07:15with speech processing, in particular.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18That is why places like this, a contact centre,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21are really stuck between a rock and a hard place
0:07:21 > 0:07:24in terms of trying to delight a customer that calls in.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Because they have no other aspect of sensory experience.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29They don't have visual clues, or anything at all.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33They don't know the person they're speaking to on the telephone.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36What surprised me most is that when a customer complains,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40the call centre falls back on a more traditional English accent.
0:07:40 > 0:07:45If it needs to be escalated, we want someone speaking like you speak.
0:07:45 > 0:07:50That's an air of authority and it is almost wired into our brain.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52That perception that we have.
0:07:52 > 0:07:57That's scary. Basically, they make a call to a busy room like this - this one's offline at the moment.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01And they get the nice Geordie saying, "Oh, I'm sorry about that.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03"We'll try and work it out, I'm sure it'll be fine".
0:08:03 > 0:08:06Then there IS a problem - they say, "I'll pass you to the manager."
0:08:06 > 0:08:11And then I go, "Hello, how may I help you? I'm so sorry."
0:08:11 > 0:08:17The study has shown that is perfect for a resolution - a positive resolution.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21Even if you're stating exactly what the call centre operative was stating,
0:08:21 > 0:08:23it is much better coming from you.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29Moving on, as you see, a slew of accents.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32South, we go down.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34This used to be so popular in the '60s.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37- SCOUSE ACCENT:- Liverpool. Like that, you know?
0:08:37 > 0:08:42The Beatles. The "Beeeea-tles". It's bipolar, Liverpool, isn't it?
0:08:42 > 0:08:47- DEEP VOICE:- There's a sort of Michael Angelis one that's rather depressed all the time.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50- HIGH VOICE:- And there's the perky one. Perky! Like that.
0:08:50 > 0:08:51It's really livley.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53It's lovely. What a country we live in.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55How rich it is.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58So many dialects, accents, brogues.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00They're all rather wonderful.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04- WELSH ACCENT:- Haven't even touched Wales, have I? Haven't even touched it.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07But you've got your own, I've got mine.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11Never let it be thought that a BBC accent like mine isn't an accent.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15It's just as stupid, just as odd, and, I hope, just as lovable as everybody else's.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20So, within our own small nation state,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23there is an extraordinary variety in the way we all speak English.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28And this determines so much about our perceptions of each other.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36Language, of course, is a kind of cocktail, isn't it?
0:09:38 > 0:09:42If your accent can have such an impact on your identity,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46imagine what a difference the language you speak has!
0:09:47 > 0:09:51We commonly say how there are 100 Eskimo words for "snow".
0:09:51 > 0:09:56Well, that story sadly turns out not to be true, but it does lead one to think -
0:09:56 > 0:10:02does the language we speak actually alter the way we see, interpret and engage with the world?
0:10:02 > 0:10:05If I spoke an Inuit language or French, for example,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08would I think differently?
0:10:10 > 0:10:13All right. Hello.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15Sssh.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Lera Boroditsky, Professor of Linguistics
0:10:18 > 0:10:21at Stanford University, believes exactly that...
0:10:21 > 0:10:24Today we'll be talking about how the languages we speak
0:10:24 > 0:10:25shape the way we think.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28One of the oldest experiments on this was done a long time ago
0:10:28 > 0:10:31by Roman Jakobson, a Russian linguist,
0:10:31 > 0:10:34and he asked students at Moscow State University, 1915,
0:10:34 > 0:10:37he asked them to personify different days of the week.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41So different days of the week have different grammatical genders
0:10:41 > 0:10:44in Russian, and so he would tell people, "Act like Monday,
0:10:44 > 0:10:48"act like Wednesday." And what he found was these students, these Russian-speaking students,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51would act like a man if they're acting like Monday,
0:10:51 > 0:10:55but they would act like a woman if they're acting like Wednesday,
0:10:55 > 0:10:59because Monday's grammatically masculine and Wednesday's grammatically feminine.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05This is a pretty mind-boggling idea. Variations in the languages we speak
0:11:05 > 0:11:08affect not only the way we describe the world,
0:11:08 > 0:11:10but the way we experience it.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13There have been lots of other demonstrations showing...
0:11:13 > 0:11:17Oh, yes, le pont, la puento, whatever it was, or is it something similar?
0:11:17 > 0:11:19- The...for bridge, yes... - Yeah.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23The word for bridge is different genders in Spanish and German.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25- Die Brucke. - That's right.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28And so German speakers, because it's grammatically feminine,
0:11:28 > 0:11:31will give more feminine descriptions of bridges.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35They'll say things like bridges are beautiful or they're elegant,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38or they're fragile, whereas Spanish speakers will say
0:11:38 > 0:11:41bridges are strong and they're long and they're towering.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45'So how does being bi-lingual affect your view of the world?
0:11:45 > 0:11:48'Surely things get very confusing indeed?'
0:11:48 > 0:11:50You are bilingual,
0:11:50 > 0:11:55so you can perhaps at least swap languages sometimes, cos you must ask yourself,
0:11:55 > 0:12:00"Am I thinking this because I'm thinking in English or because I'm thinking in Russian
0:12:00 > 0:12:02"or can I rationally think this
0:12:02 > 0:12:06"in a pure, almost machine-like, way that is outside language?"
0:12:06 > 0:12:09I, of course, think about everything very rationally.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12- HE LAUGHS - You have the best of the Russian side
0:12:12 > 0:12:14- and the best of the English. - That's right.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19Actually it's very difficult for me to design experiments comparing English and Russian.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24Because I speak both, it seems to me perfectly natural to have both those ideas in mind.
0:12:24 > 0:12:30And then when we do the experiment and we find that actually English speakers see it one way
0:12:30 > 0:12:33and Russian speakers see it another way, I'm just shocked.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37As someone who speaks both, what is there that is
0:12:37 > 0:12:42characteristically Russian in the way you feel and experience when you're thinking in a Russian way?
0:12:42 > 0:12:46Russian speakers express much more collectivist ideas when they're speaking Russian.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48They espouse more collectivist values,
0:12:48 > 0:12:52- and they espouse more individualistic values when they're speaking English.- Gosh.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56Even though they're giving an explanation for the same kind of phenomena,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59when they do it in one language, they have a different perspective on it
0:12:59 > 0:13:02than when they do it in another language. So, it kind of...
0:13:02 > 0:13:08- Language serves as a cue to the cultural values that...- So it's not a miserable, oppressed Russian,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11dark Russian soul sort of way of looking at the world then?
0:13:11 > 0:13:17- Well, yeah, that's a very English way of looking at the Russian souls. - THEY LAUGH
0:13:17 > 0:13:20I think of that fabulous Chekhov short story, Misery!
0:13:20 > 0:13:25Russians love being miserable. They revel in it.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27It's the only way to be an intelligent person
0:13:27 > 0:13:30in the world - to really appreciate the misery
0:13:30 > 0:13:32and the horror that the world has to offer.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38I've often wondered if I was a Hungarian like my grandfather,
0:13:38 > 0:13:41would I think differently, would I still be me?
0:13:41 > 0:13:45If a word doesn't exist in a language, does that imply
0:13:45 > 0:13:49the feeling or concept doesn't exist?
0:13:49 > 0:13:51So if you don't have a word for evil, does it vanish?
0:13:51 > 0:13:55While I understand Lera's position I also agree with the Chomskian view
0:13:55 > 0:13:58that all languages have intrinsically the same structures.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00But that doesn't mean they're all the same,
0:14:00 > 0:14:03especially when it comes to humour.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07If Hitler had been British, would we, under similar circumstances,
0:14:07 > 0:14:10have been moved, charged up, fired up
0:14:10 > 0:14:13by his inflammatory speeches or would we simply have laughed?
0:14:13 > 0:14:17Is English too ironic to sustain Hitlerian styles?
0:14:17 > 0:14:22Would his language simply run false in our ears?
0:14:22 > 0:14:25My own admittedly unscientific research has led me to believe
0:14:25 > 0:14:29that some languages are simply intrinsically funnier than others.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32My own personal favourite is Yiddish, that marvellous
0:14:32 > 0:14:36Jewish mish-mash of German, Russian, Polish, Hebrew words.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39You're probably familiar with Yiddish humour
0:14:39 > 0:14:41if you know the work of Woody Allen or Mel Brooks
0:14:41 > 0:14:46or Larry David in Seinfeld or Ben Stiller or Krusty the Clown.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49Their work is deeply rooted in Yiddish tradition.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53It's more a mindset than a language, despite the kitsch
0:14:53 > 0:14:57and the schmaltz and the shlongs and the schmucks or schmier,
0:14:57 > 0:15:02a joke can be Yiddish even when it's told in English.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20Guy went to the doctor and said, "I have trouble peeing."
0:15:20 > 0:15:22The doc says, "How old are you?" And he says, "I'm 80."
0:15:22 > 0:15:25He says, "Well, you peed enough." That's a joke.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28The boy's an actor, he's gone to an audition, he comes back,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31his mother says, "Well?" He said, "I got the part." She said, "What part?"
0:15:31 > 0:15:36He said, "It's the husband." She said, "Go back and insist on a speaking part."
0:15:36 > 0:15:37That's funny. THEY LAUGH
0:15:37 > 0:15:41- But that's so Jewish - you know what I mean?- Exactly.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44Every... Yhis is like a competition.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48- You have a bunch of old Jews sitting around a table telling jokes. - That's what we do.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51But there's no new Yiddish jokes, so it just becomes a competition.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54Who'll call the punchline before you get to it?
0:15:54 > 0:15:56"It's a schmuck! I know, all right, next."
0:15:56 > 0:16:00- Because in the end...- And it's always the schmuck.- It is the same joke, isn't it?
0:16:00 > 0:16:03A typical Jewish joke and it's so typically Jewish
0:16:03 > 0:16:05and Alan King did it here.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09An old man passes out in the street and somebody comes and they open his
0:16:09 > 0:16:13collar and they pick up his head and they said, "Are you comfortable?"
0:16:13 > 0:16:16And he says, "I make a living." STEPHEN LAUGHS
0:16:16 > 0:16:19And Alan King got sick and he passed out at the bar,
0:16:19 > 0:16:22right before he passed away.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25And they opened his collar, the Maitre d', Frank, and they said,
0:16:25 > 0:16:29"Alan, are you comfortable?" And Alan said, "I make a living."
0:16:29 > 0:16:34- And he said, "I've been waiting 40 years to do that joke." - Oh, that's bliss, isn't it?
0:16:34 > 0:16:39But in a serious sense, you might argue that Yiddish was,
0:16:39 > 0:16:44as it were, you travelled light, all of us, our ancestors
0:16:44 > 0:16:47travelled light, because their property would be taken.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51But their language, their wit, their learning, they could travel with them.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55I always said that Judaism is not a religion, it's a way of life.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57It's a way of living your life.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00And Yiddish is a way of feeling your life.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03I grew up and I was bar mitzvahed, but we didn't talk Hebrew.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06We never thought of talking Hebrew.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09- Cos Hebrew was a language of the Temple.- It was a language of the Temple,
0:17:09 > 0:17:13it was something we had to learn, where Yiddish,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17I would hear my grandparents and my parents talk Yiddish.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21But they didn't want me... HE SPEAKS YIDDISH ..the kids are listening.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24And we would try and translate what they were saying.
0:17:24 > 0:17:30- Because Yiddish is the language of emotion and of sex...- Emotion. - ..and of failure and hilarity.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33Hebrew was the language of seriousness and ceremony and solemnity.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37There's plenty of failure in Hebrew. Let's not belittle the accomplishment of the Hebrew.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41I don't know if you've read the Bible, but we lose a lot. It's mostly failure.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44It's mostly failure and guilt and a lot of cursing.
0:17:44 > 0:17:49Hebrew comes from the vocal cords and Yiddish comes from the heart.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54Well, Yiddish is now on the UNESCO endangered languages list and when
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Stewie Stone and other comedians of his generation
0:17:57 > 0:18:02are plonked like kneidlach into the great vat of chicken soup in the sky,
0:18:02 > 0:18:04Yiddish will pass into oblivion.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07There are around 7,000 languages spoken on this planet
0:18:07 > 0:18:11and many more thousands of dialects, but it's estimated by some
0:18:11 > 0:18:15that by the end of the century there'll barely be a thousand left.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19I would argue that linguicide, the death of language,
0:18:19 > 0:18:25poses as great a threat to our culture and history as species extinction.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29And why is this rich linguistic stew of ours being threatened?
0:18:29 > 0:18:33Well, it's to do with globalisation and the rise of the lingua franca,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36those national and transnational languages like English
0:18:36 > 0:18:41and Mandarin Chinese, which gobble up every language in their path.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47The fortunes of small and struggling languages
0:18:47 > 0:18:52ebb and flow with the tides of history. I'm off now to find out
0:18:52 > 0:18:55about one that survives not far from our own shores.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02THEY SPEAK IRISH
0:19:07 > 0:19:13I'm here in the beautiful, bracing and chilly Connemara on the west coast of Ireland.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16This is what they call the, um, I'll try and get this right...
0:19:16 > 0:19:18the Gaeltacht Curraghrua,
0:19:18 > 0:19:23one of the central areas for the speaking of the ancient language of Ireland - Irish.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26They don't call it Gaelic very often - just Irish.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29About 80,000 people still speak this language.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33It's taught in school and they have very proud Irish speakers
0:19:33 > 0:19:37all around us and in Donegal and in Cork.
0:19:37 > 0:19:42But it's here in Connemara, Galway, that we find probably the majority of Irish speakers.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49Irish, being a very old language, it doesn't have as many words
0:19:49 > 0:19:55as the English language, but its descriptions are very good.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58There's a thing called a smugairle roin.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00A smugairle roin is a jellyfish.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04And jellyfish is, direct
0:20:04 > 0:20:08translation smugairle roin into English, is a seal's spit.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10Oh, very good.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14So you can imagine somebody comes... "What are these things all
0:20:14 > 0:20:16"over the...they must be seal spits."
0:20:16 > 0:20:19You know, "We'll call them smugairle roins," and that is
0:20:19 > 0:20:22one of the beauties of the Irish language is that it has this.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24And it would be such a shame to lose.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39Would you say you're optimistic for his future as an Irish speaker?
0:20:39 > 0:20:42I would be very optimistic for the future of the Irish language.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46There was a spell there where it fell out of favour mainly due
0:20:46 > 0:20:49to the way it was taught in schools.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52- It wasn't given the excitement.- Yeah.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55And nowadays, it's become much more fashionable to speak Irish.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58You'll hear, especially if you go to the pubs,
0:20:58 > 0:21:00you'll hear people speaking Irish,
0:21:00 > 0:21:02young people on the streets speaking Irish,
0:21:02 > 0:21:07and it's very important as well because it is our heritage.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18SHE SPEAKS IRISH
0:21:23 > 0:21:27The English ruled Ireland for centuries.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29At the height of their colonial ambitions,
0:21:29 > 0:21:34they attempted to suppress Irish culture and identity entirely.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39An 1831 act forbade the teaching of Irish in schools.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43'This coincided with An Gorta Mor, the Irish potato famine
0:21:43 > 0:21:49'of the mid-19th century that killed over a million of the population.'
0:21:49 > 0:21:53It was very nearly the death knell of the Irish language.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56Thankfully, all that has changed now.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00The schools that were the site of linguistic oppression
0:22:00 > 0:22:02in Ireland are now the place of the language's revival.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06THEY SING IN IRISH
0:22:14 > 0:22:16Nowadays at the Connemara Golf Course,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19every one of the golfers speaks Irish...
0:22:19 > 0:22:23HE SPEAKS IRISH
0:22:28 > 0:22:32As well as negotiating the perilous task of keeping their language alive,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35they are also dealing with what must be
0:22:35 > 0:22:37one of the world's hardest courses...
0:22:37 > 0:22:40the holes are literally on different islands!
0:22:46 > 0:22:49- This is a heck of a place to have a golf course, isn't it?- Incredible.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52You must just blink your eyes on long June days
0:22:52 > 0:22:55when you can be playing till ten at night...
0:22:55 > 0:22:57'Imperialist Brit that I am,
0:22:57 > 0:23:00'they are kind enough to speak English to me,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03'which, given the history, is quite an ask.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07'This part of Connemara suffered as much as any,
0:23:07 > 0:23:11'but its utter remoteness helped preserve the language.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16'History is never forgotten in Ireland
0:23:16 > 0:23:20'and this sense of storytelling, be it national or personal,
0:23:20 > 0:23:22'the gift of the gab, I suppose you could say,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25'is one of the things I love about the country.'
0:23:25 > 0:23:28Are there things you could say in Irish that you
0:23:28 > 0:23:31- couldn't really say in English and vice versa?- Absolutely.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35I think everybody here thinks through Irish.
0:23:35 > 0:23:37And do you find Irish more accurate?
0:23:37 > 0:23:39It hits the nail on the head more often,
0:23:39 > 0:23:41you use fewer words,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44it's cleaner, more poetic? Is there some qualities to it that...
0:23:44 > 0:23:46Far more ways of saying the same thing.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49- There are more ways? - It depends who you're addressing...
0:23:49 > 0:23:53- Oh, so it has a social... - Oh, it has.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57- Your interlocutor... - ..Or undressing.- Oh, right!
0:23:57 > 0:24:03Because you can say it's a fine day
0:24:03 > 0:24:04in about four different ways
0:24:04 > 0:24:07- depending on who you're...- Four? - ..even more.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09Depending on whether you're like,
0:24:09 > 0:24:12"I hope to God it rains on that fucker."
0:24:12 > 0:24:14You know. Or, "she's a lovely girl".
0:24:14 > 0:24:18You know, "I hope the sun shines". You know?
0:24:18 > 0:24:22But it depends totally on who you're addressing.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26So you find when you switch to English, you're slightly more...
0:24:26 > 0:24:28Oh, you have to say, "Well, it's raining.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31"It's going to rain," or, you know, "there's rain on the way".
0:24:31 > 0:24:32That's about the three way...
0:24:32 > 0:24:35You know, if it's raining, it's raining. You know?
0:24:35 > 0:24:37But there's rain on the way as well.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41But there's 50 different types of rain, John, and you can describe every one of them.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45And that description, that wealth of description,
0:24:45 > 0:24:49that descriptive quality of the language is something that we
0:24:49 > 0:24:51would treasure here particularly.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57On behalf of the club here and its manager and director of the company,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00we offer you life membership in this golf club.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02Oh, what an honour! Thank you so...
0:25:02 > 0:25:05You haven't seen me play! You've seen me swing or try to!
0:25:05 > 0:25:08That's so kind. You offer me... Oh, that is a fabulous thing.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11Thank you so much. This is a truly great honour.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16- This is one of the most remarkable golf clubs in the world. - It is, it's an amazing place.
0:25:16 > 0:25:18Going to cost me a lot of balls, because not many of them
0:25:18 > 0:25:21- will hit land, but it's still fantastic!- We'll follow you closely
0:25:21 > 0:25:25- to see if we can pick up a few! - Thank you so much!
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Oh, dear! I think I've lost my moment now!
0:25:29 > 0:25:31I don't want to waste any more balls!
0:25:31 > 0:25:34Agus, action!
0:25:35 > 0:25:37How better to get inside a language
0:25:37 > 0:25:40than to act in its favourite soap opera?
0:25:40 > 0:25:42Action!
0:25:42 > 0:25:48THEY SPEAK IRISH
0:25:48 > 0:25:52Like the Welsh, Ireland has a TV station in its own language.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55The most popular soap is called Ros na Run,
0:25:55 > 0:25:58a Connemara version of Coronation Street.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05'So I'm about to embark on a daunting task...
0:26:05 > 0:26:08'speaking in Irish...'
0:26:08 > 0:26:13HE SPEAKS IRISH
0:26:13 > 0:26:18Erm...you look hungry. HE CONTINUES IN IRISH
0:26:18 > 0:26:22It's here, it's here somewhere. Nil aon ocras orm!
0:26:24 > 0:26:28Er...racaigh me go Gallimh.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31Huh?
0:26:31 > 0:26:34Go raibh maith agat agus slan go fail...
0:26:34 > 0:26:38- Go foil!- That's right! I always get that bit wrong!
0:26:38 > 0:26:42THEY ALL TALK AT ONCE
0:26:47 > 0:26:49'Our brief is to be as popular as possible.'
0:26:49 > 0:26:53We are probably quite important in terms of drawing in
0:26:53 > 0:26:57the hesitant Irish speaker as well as the fluent Irish speaker.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02THEY SPEAK IRISH
0:27:05 > 0:27:07To some people, the creation of TG4
0:27:07 > 0:27:10was a kind of a white elephant.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13A sop to the Irish language community.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17But if you can imagine that when I was growing up, the only cultural
0:27:17 > 0:27:20resources in the Irish language that were available to me was
0:27:20 > 0:27:24Victorian literature which was about peasant life on the Aran Islands.
0:27:24 > 0:27:30- Yes, quite.- Now for my children, they can watch cartoons dubbed into Irish,
0:27:30 > 0:27:34they can grow up and watch a variety of programmes,
0:27:34 > 0:27:37which are about Ireland today.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42And we've embraced the internet as a way of trying to draw in a new audience.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46That's why we've created a Facebook site and a Twitter site,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50and we're going to do webisodes next season,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53which will be all about a younger generation in the town
0:27:53 > 0:27:55of Ros na Run and they will gradually
0:27:55 > 0:27:59interact in the broadcast programme and try to draw them across.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06Irish might well survive here, but these children
0:28:06 > 0:28:11and their children will always need a global language.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14- So you just change between the two very happily?- Yes.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18- But you think of yourself as an Irish speaker first?- Yeah.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20- Is that true of everybody? - ALL: Yes.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23Goodness. If you erm, if you text each other, do...
0:28:23 > 0:28:25do you do it in Irish or in English?
0:28:25 > 0:28:26ALL: English.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29Ah, that's interesting, so things like the internet or whatever,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32- are you on Facebook and things like that?- ALL: Yes.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34- And do you do that in English? - ALL: Yes.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37So do you think of English as the language of the internet,
0:28:37 > 0:28:40but Irish the language of the playground and talking
0:28:40 > 0:28:43- and friendship and things, when you're with people?- ALL: Yes.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47- You couldn't imagine yourselves only speaking Irish?- ALL: No.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51- You wouldn't cope in the world if you didn't speak English?- ALL: Yes.
0:28:51 > 0:28:56Yeah. Thank goodness you do speak English, or we would be having an embarrassing time when I...
0:28:56 > 0:28:58- THEY LAUGH - Well, thank you very much.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02Mustn't disturb any more of your lessons, thank you.
0:29:02 > 0:29:04Was that...go raibh... thank you?
0:29:04 > 0:29:07ALL: Go raibh maith agat.
0:29:07 > 0:29:12I can't get the pronunciation right! Thank you very much.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21Another small language that has battled
0:29:21 > 0:29:25to preserve its identity in the modern world is found here in Spain.
0:29:27 > 0:29:32One of most remarkable languages in Europe is Basque.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35Somewhere between France and Spain lies the Basque region
0:29:35 > 0:29:38and has done for thousands of years.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40It's been a long and extraordinary struggle to
0:29:40 > 0:29:44keep their language alive and their culture and their cuisine...
0:29:44 > 0:29:48all the things that make them Basque.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53The people here are passionate about their food.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56The language is in the DNA of Basque cooking
0:29:56 > 0:30:01and preparation techniques, handed down over many hundreds of years.
0:30:05 > 0:30:07Wow! Star Trek!
0:30:10 > 0:30:14'Juan Marie Arzak and his daughter Elena run one of the finest
0:30:14 > 0:30:16'restaurants in the world here in Donostia,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19'or what we know as San Sebastian.'
0:30:19 > 0:30:23- We renovate recently.- Really? It's very lovely.
0:30:23 > 0:30:25HE SPEAKS BASQUE
0:30:25 > 0:30:31Because this restaurant is dated from 1897.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34His grandfather, my great grandfather.
0:30:34 > 0:30:36HE SPEAKS BASQUE
0:30:40 > 0:30:43He's a third generation and me the fourth generation.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46Always here in this restaurant.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50So this is the tasting menu and this is the a la carte here, is that right?
0:30:50 > 0:30:53Would you say that to be Basque is to speak the language
0:30:53 > 0:30:56and to eat the food?
0:30:56 > 0:31:01Those are the two things that make you Basque, the language and the food?
0:31:01 > 0:31:03HE SPEAKS BASQUE
0:31:03 > 0:31:07When people ask what type of food do you make?
0:31:07 > 0:31:11Now we say Basque with Basque spirit,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14because we think in Basque, the taste is from here.
0:31:14 > 0:31:20It's the result of our taste cultural that is in our minds,
0:31:20 > 0:31:24and that we cook with, with this, with this result...
0:31:24 > 0:31:28The Basques defiantly defended their language for 40 years
0:31:28 > 0:31:31against the fascist General Franco.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34But now there are more than half a million Basque speakers
0:31:34 > 0:31:37here in Spain. The language, like this restaurant,
0:31:37 > 0:31:42is now confident enough to absorb new elements from outside,
0:31:42 > 0:31:45Arzak is the Heston Blumenthal of Basque country,
0:31:45 > 0:31:50exuberantly fusing traditional Basque ingredients such as gooseneck,
0:31:50 > 0:31:55barnacle, eel and spider crab with cutting edge molecular cuisine.
0:31:55 > 0:32:00We are very open to the world and we can accept foods...
0:32:00 > 0:32:03- Influences from... - ..all over the world.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09It's an exchange of cultures, of other cultures.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12So in the same way that the Basque language can have
0:32:12 > 0:32:17words from other languages, so the Basque food can have dishes
0:32:17 > 0:32:20and ingredients from other places. That's very good.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22- It's very curious, yeah.- Yeah.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25I think it's interesting how the language and the cuisine are,
0:32:25 > 0:32:28- are similar, in some ways. - Yes, it's very similar, yeah.
0:32:28 > 0:32:32And the cuisine is there, literally, in the kitchen. Shall we go to the kitchen?
0:32:32 > 0:32:35- OK, I'll follow you, thank you. OK. - You're cooking, eh?!
0:32:35 > 0:32:37I'll help you! If you trust me!
0:32:47 > 0:32:50- It's called lichen. - Ah, it's lichen!- Yes.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55- Some fruit sauce. - ARZAK SPEAKS BASQUE
0:32:57 > 0:32:59Like so. It's so beautiful.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04Maybe I should do it better to be symmetrical!
0:33:04 > 0:33:06- It's very well. Very well. - A little oil.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09- This is olive oil. - Ah, of course.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15- It's beautiful. - And a little salt.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17Can I just take a little broken bit here?
0:33:17 > 0:33:19Oh, a little salt on it.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22Ah, this doesn't work, hey, this is for the guest.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24So this is not for the guests,
0:33:24 > 0:33:26this would not be good enough for the guests.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29- This is once done... - Very good, very well, so...
0:33:29 > 0:33:32I feel like someone on MasterChef: The Professionals
0:33:32 > 0:33:35who's made his... erm, who's plated up.
0:33:35 > 0:33:37It is very lovely, I love the colours.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40And so this is made to look like stone is the idea, the rock.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42Si, it's the, the...
0:33:42 > 0:33:48When you go to the mountains, here you can find this type of...
0:33:48 > 0:33:50Ancient Basque Cromlechs, yeah,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53or Dolmens we call them sometimes don't we, yeah?
0:33:53 > 0:33:56- And this was the inspiration for the plate.- Fantastic.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02Cuisine and language may well be so entwined,
0:34:02 > 0:34:08because traditionally recipes were passed on by word of mouth...
0:34:08 > 0:34:09It's an oral tradition.
0:34:09 > 0:34:12In the Basque history it's more from spoken
0:34:12 > 0:34:14from one generation to other than written.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18I think the first Basque book was in 1545? I believe.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22Very well, very well!
0:34:22 > 0:34:26Why do you think the Basque language has survived in a way that
0:34:26 > 0:34:31so many other languages haven't? Breton, Cornish...
0:34:31 > 0:34:33HE SPEAKS BASQUE
0:34:45 > 0:34:48We are very proud of being the people here,
0:34:48 > 0:34:54this is why things have survived the, the, the language so, so much.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04In neighbouring France, it's far harder to preserve
0:35:04 > 0:35:06the struggling local language.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09We're moving from the Basque country
0:35:09 > 0:35:12to the more or less neighbouring Occitan country.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16Occitan is the language spoken in the south of France principally in the Langue d'Oc...
0:35:16 > 0:35:19they reckon about seven million people
0:35:19 > 0:35:22have a smattering of it at least, yet nonetheless,
0:35:22 > 0:35:25because of its variations and because it isn't supported
0:35:25 > 0:35:28in the way that Basque is, many people fear
0:35:28 > 0:35:32it will suffer from linguicide... it will die.
0:35:32 > 0:35:34like so many of the world's languages,
0:35:34 > 0:35:36it's on the endangered list.
0:35:43 > 0:35:48SHE SINGS
0:35:52 > 0:35:56Liza Occitan, as she is known, sings in Provencale,
0:35:56 > 0:35:59one of the six dialects of Oc.
0:36:04 > 0:36:09She also presents French TV's regional Occitan news program
0:36:09 > 0:36:12and has a devoted following of Occitan sympathisers.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18The Occitanian language is very beautiful to listen to.
0:36:18 > 0:36:23The sounds are beautiful. It's a Mediterranean language. It's a Latin based language.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26It's much nicer to sing, for instance, than French, like...
0:36:26 > 0:36:28I've made the choice to sing in Occitan,
0:36:28 > 0:36:31because it actually has beautiful sounds.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39The language of Oc is a romance language
0:36:39 > 0:36:43but also a distinctly romantic one.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46It was the language of the Troubadours, it was spoken by Dante
0:36:46 > 0:36:49and sung by the minstrel Blondel in his desperate search
0:36:49 > 0:36:52to find his king, Richard the Lionheart...
0:37:02 > 0:37:04Many governments have given up attempting to repress
0:37:04 > 0:37:08regional languages, and now support and promote them -
0:37:08 > 0:37:10the notoriously centralised French state
0:37:10 > 0:37:14continues its policy of linguistic imperialism.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17It's had a pretty tough history though, hasn't it, Occitan?
0:37:17 > 0:37:21The French state decided that they would try and centralise everything
0:37:21 > 0:37:24and eradicate differences. Around the whole of France
0:37:24 > 0:37:26would have one single version of French,
0:37:26 > 0:37:30and therefore any of the other languages that were spoken across the whole of France,
0:37:30 > 0:37:35any of the Languedoc, any of the Occitan dialects, had to be forbidden.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39So children were beaten in schools, so they wouldn't speak it.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42It's so interesting, this, cos it's a story we come across again
0:37:42 > 0:37:44and again, with minority languages.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48With the Irish under British rule and their language.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51With the Basques under Franco and their language.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54And also with you with Occitan, the...
0:37:54 > 0:37:57A less vicious regime perhaps, than Franco, but nonetheless
0:37:57 > 0:38:01it was a... Homogeneity was the idea, there must be one French.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04I would ask you, are you essentially optimistic
0:38:04 > 0:38:07or pessimistic about the future of Occitan?
0:38:07 > 0:38:12We are forced to be optimistic, in our situation -
0:38:12 > 0:38:16if we become pessimistic, it's over.
0:38:16 > 0:38:21This forced optimism is a stark contrast to the genuine confidence
0:38:21 > 0:38:25of Basques in Spain, but is it just a case of nostalgia,
0:38:25 > 0:38:27does it really matter?
0:38:27 > 0:38:30Liza thinks Marcel, one of the few shepherds
0:38:30 > 0:38:33traditionally working in the Alpille, the hills beyond Marseille,
0:38:33 > 0:38:34will prove a point.
0:38:34 > 0:38:36Little lambs!
0:38:39 > 0:38:40This is wonderful.
0:38:40 > 0:38:46Is he hopeful that the language will survive for the next 100 years?
0:38:46 > 0:38:48SPEAKS DIALECT
0:39:07 > 0:39:10He thinks these languages should live because it's part linked
0:39:10 > 0:39:13to the identity and the culture of the land.
0:39:13 > 0:39:18So he thinks the languages should definitely continue to exist.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22D'accord. So, it's a matter of pride and identity
0:39:22 > 0:39:25to speak the language. It makes him belong more to the land
0:39:25 > 0:39:27and to this region?
0:39:27 > 0:39:31SPEAKS DIALECT
0:39:59 > 0:40:02France has yet to sign up for the 1992 Charter
0:40:02 > 0:40:06to protect and promote minority languages.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08France's constitution forbids it,
0:40:08 > 0:40:11as it enshrines French as the official language.
0:40:11 > 0:40:16Occitan and other French dialects have struggled for centuries
0:40:16 > 0:40:20with one of France's most powerful and secretive institutions.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26This is the French Academy
0:40:26 > 0:40:31where the 40 so-called Immortals meet regularly to rule on which
0:40:31 > 0:40:34words may or may not be officially included in the French language.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38It was set up by Cardinal Richelieu in the 1630s, and since then
0:40:38 > 0:40:41it's survived everything from revolution to Nazi occupation.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53The Academy members are drawn from the creme de la creme of French society.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56They are writers, politicians, scientists and philosophers.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05You could argue that the Academy has been partly
0:41:05 > 0:41:09responsible for homogeneity of French.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12That, for example, Occitan and Basque have not been given
0:41:12 > 0:41:16a full minority status like Welsh is or, or other...
0:41:16 > 0:41:22But, you know, what they, they have lost is not too much
0:41:22 > 0:41:27and in compensation they have been participated to one
0:41:27 > 0:41:31of the most wonderful conversation possible, the conversation
0:41:31 > 0:41:36in Paris, the conversation in the great towns of France.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40For Academy members, it is their own, French language
0:41:40 > 0:41:42and identity that is in peril, from an influx
0:41:42 > 0:41:47of languages from around the world, primarily English.
0:41:48 > 0:41:55In a period where the "Globish" English is so invading,
0:41:55 > 0:42:03it is superfluous I think to take care so much of these local languages
0:42:03 > 0:42:06that are not leading anywhere.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10So that is very much your position, there is an official language,
0:42:10 > 0:42:14- if you like, that is... - Not an official language,
0:42:14 > 0:42:19but an agreed language that is agreed, by cultured people.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22If one speaks rap, the other one speaks Maroc, Moroccan,
0:42:22 > 0:42:28and the third, I don't know, a language from les banlieues,
0:42:28 > 0:42:31there is no possibility of discussion.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37Although the Academy has no legal authority of its own,
0:42:37 > 0:42:40its decisions exert a huge influence.
0:42:40 > 0:42:42Over the years, the Academy
0:42:42 > 0:42:47has ruled on new French words to replace a host of imported ones.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Among them, balader for Walkman, courriel for email,
0:42:50 > 0:42:54in an attempt to hold back the constant deluge of globish.
0:43:00 > 0:43:01Merci.
0:43:07 > 0:43:12Well, it's closed to mortals like me but what the Immortals are now
0:43:12 > 0:43:16going to decide "in camera," must be off camera.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19They're going to decide which unpleasant "Franglais"
0:43:19 > 0:43:23and other interloping words will be accepted and which rejected,
0:43:23 > 0:43:26and admitted into the French language.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28400 years, the best part of, this has been going on.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32It's a very strange and very French system.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40Hmm. They're playing Boules.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48Some might say that the Academy is a typically French relic
0:43:48 > 0:43:51of a bygone age, spitting into the wind.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54And as much as they try, it's impossible to stem
0:43:54 > 0:43:59the inevitable mutability and inventiveness of language.
0:44:03 > 0:44:09FRENCH RAP SONG
0:44:09 > 0:44:14English may not be the greatest challenge to the purity of French.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17A more potent threat is much closer to home,
0:44:17 > 0:44:20in music made by the immigrants of the Maghreb,
0:44:20 > 0:44:22the ex-colonies of North Africa.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25They are reinventing the language of Racine and Corneille
0:44:25 > 0:44:29to reflect their own identities, a new kind of French citizen.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36I've come to Marseilles to meet one of the genre's maestros,
0:44:36 > 0:44:39rapper and producer DJ Sya Styles.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46Do you think that rap language
0:44:46 > 0:44:49has changed the French language generally?
0:44:49 > 0:44:52TRANSLATION:
0:45:22 > 0:45:26New Maghrebi additions to standard French include "brelle,"
0:45:26 > 0:45:29meaning useless or powerless, and "kiffer," derived from
0:45:29 > 0:45:34the Arabic word for hashish, which has come to mean, "to love."
0:45:34 > 0:45:36TRANSLATION:
0:46:50 > 0:46:54'It's hard enough to transform a language a word at a time.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58'All the more extraordinary is to resurrect an entire language from the dead,
0:46:58 > 0:47:03'as an act of political will, to gift an identity to a whole nation.'
0:47:06 > 0:47:10Israel had a difficult birth, a tricky childhood and a stormy adolescence.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13Whatever one's views of the current political situation here
0:47:13 > 0:47:15it was a remarkable journey to statehood,
0:47:15 > 0:47:17and language was at the centre of it.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21Hebrew was the language spoken here, centuries before
0:47:21 > 0:47:24a man called Jesus Christ walked these streets.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27But after the Diaspora, the dispersal of the Jews throughout Europe
0:47:27 > 0:47:30and 2,000 years of persecution,
0:47:30 > 0:47:32Hebrew died out as a spoken language,
0:47:32 > 0:47:34remembered only in the Torah,
0:47:34 > 0:47:35in rabbinical tradition
0:47:35 > 0:47:38and in Friday night suppers in Jewish homes.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43Fast forward to the creation of the state of Israel
0:47:43 > 0:47:46in the aftermath of the Second World War and the Holocaust.
0:47:46 > 0:47:51The most crucial question facing them was what language do we speak?
0:47:51 > 0:47:55Yiddish, the lingua franca of the Middle European Jew,
0:47:55 > 0:48:01was polluted, tainted by the shtetl, by pogroms and by the death camps.
0:48:01 > 0:48:02Russian was too limited,
0:48:02 > 0:48:06so they made the bold decision to reinvent Hebrew
0:48:06 > 0:48:08as a modern living language.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21Israeli linguist Ghilad Zuckermann is taking me
0:48:21 > 0:48:26to Rishon LeZion where the first Hebrew school was built in 1889.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31Stopping off in a garage for some mechanical problem solving
0:48:31 > 0:48:34exposes an intriguing linguistic problem...
0:48:34 > 0:48:39how do you describe things that simply didn't exist in the Bible?
0:48:39 > 0:48:40HE SPEAKS HEBREW
0:48:45 > 0:48:49- Stephen.- Shalom. How are you?
0:48:49 > 0:48:52HE SPEAKS HEBREW
0:48:58 > 0:49:01Handbrakes, did you say? Handbrakes.
0:49:01 > 0:49:02THEY SPEAK HEBREW
0:49:05 > 0:49:09I got that. You said it's the carburettor and you said, no it's fuel injected.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12- Yes.- Yeah. A lot of English words in there.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17'Well, they did create Hebrew words for carburettors, etc,
0:49:17 > 0:49:19'but not all of them caught on.'
0:49:19 > 0:49:22There are a lot of English words.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25Are there any biblical Hebrew words in there that you can see?
0:49:25 > 0:49:27HE SPEAKS HEBREW
0:49:28 > 0:49:30Battery is...
0:49:30 > 0:49:35- It's not... It's a Hebrew-based word.- Right.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38But obviously it's a new word because it's a new concept.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41- Quite, so wouldn't exist in the Bible.- Right.
0:49:41 > 0:49:45It means to collect and to store.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48So it's collects like this energy.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51- Well, that's also known as a capacitor.- Capacitor.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54Isn't it, so it's capacitor - exactly the same idea.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57And, and, I mean, they're all, this bottle here, I mean obviously
0:49:57 > 0:50:01there would be Hebrew words in the Bible for bottles and jars.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05The coolant inside, but the container, the receptacle?
0:50:05 > 0:50:09THEY SPEAK HEBREW
0:50:09 > 0:50:11It is a Hebrew word which means container.
0:50:11 > 0:50:13That's what I wondered.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16That you would find in the Bible, women carrying pots and all kinds of...
0:50:16 > 0:50:19You know, pots, and lots of words like that in the Bible.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22Potters' vessel.
0:50:22 > 0:50:28You'll see modernisation of ancient terms.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32But usually when it comes to cars, the English wins.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35For example, if you have a puncture.
0:50:35 > 0:50:36HE SPEAKS HEBREW
0:50:36 > 0:50:39- Puncture.- Puncture. - You call it a puncture.
0:50:39 > 0:50:43You see, he knows the Academy of the Hebrew language word,
0:50:43 > 0:50:46but actually people say puncture.
0:50:46 > 0:50:48'Ah!
0:50:48 > 0:50:51'So Hebrew has an Academy as well!
0:50:51 > 0:50:56'Not so surprising, I suppose, when they started a language from scratch.
0:50:56 > 0:51:01'Car duly fixed, we're off now to visit the place where it all began.'
0:51:01 > 0:51:03HE SPEAKS HEBREW
0:51:07 > 0:51:12'When Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the prime force behind the revival of Hebrew,
0:51:12 > 0:51:16'began to teach here, Palestine was still part of the Ottoman Empire
0:51:16 > 0:51:20'and his students would have been dressed as these children have today.
0:51:20 > 0:51:24'The slow process of re-inventing modern Hebrew had begun.
0:51:24 > 0:51:28'Ironically, the Yiddish language, sturdy enough to survive
0:51:28 > 0:51:32'the Holocaust, was now facing a more serious threat...
0:51:32 > 0:51:33'from the state of Israel.'
0:51:33 > 0:51:37In this classroom these were the young pioneers, whatever you
0:51:37 > 0:51:41call them, the early Zionists, which was not then necessarily
0:51:41 > 0:51:44a coloured political word, it just meant they wanted to live here.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46They were being taught what kind of Hebrew?
0:51:46 > 0:51:49Because the Hebrew you speak, which you call Israeli,
0:51:49 > 0:51:51which seems a sensible idea,
0:51:51 > 0:51:55presumably was not the same as the one that was being developed?
0:51:55 > 0:51:58They were taught in the best Hebrew,
0:51:58 > 0:52:01which was available for their teachers.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05Let us remember that the teachers were not Hebrew speakers.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08- Wasn't their first language. - It was not their first language.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12- They were not native Hebrew speakers. - There were none.- They were mostly Yiddish speakers.
0:52:12 > 0:52:17They could not in fact rid themselves from the structures of Yiddish.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21But modern Israeli Hebrew has been an enormous success.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24It is a first language for most of the population of the country.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28And how is it that this engineered language managed to succeed?
0:52:28 > 0:52:33I think that at the end of the day there was a lot of ideology for,
0:52:33 > 0:52:37and the wish to, have a language for the future state.
0:52:37 > 0:52:39And the other thing was to have a language
0:52:39 > 0:52:41which was a unifying tongue for all the Jews
0:52:41 > 0:52:44because Jews came from all over the world.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46Right. Speaking different languages.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50So in a sense it was political will, and it was identity that drove it?
0:52:50 > 0:52:55Right. Definitely identity. But the important thing to realise is
0:52:55 > 0:53:00the success of Israeli, of course, is not only the revival of Hebrew,
0:53:00 > 0:53:04but rather the survival of all the other languages like Yiddish, etc.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07Israeli, if you want, is on the one hand a phoenix
0:53:07 > 0:53:10rising from the ashes, Hebrew.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14On the other hand it's a cuckoo, laying its eggs in the nest
0:53:14 > 0:53:18of another bird, tricking it to believe that it is its own bird. This is Yiddish.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22On the other hand it's a magpie stealing from America
0:53:22 > 0:53:25and then Polish. So it's a phoenix-cuckoo hybrid.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28- Three birds.- Well, with some magpie characteristics.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30And in fact I would argue that Israeli is not
0:53:30 > 0:53:34the murder of Yiddish, but rather Yiddish... HE SPEAKS HEBREW
0:53:34 > 0:53:36So, Yiddish...
0:53:36 > 0:53:41speaks itself within Israeli and this is the irony of history.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44Ben-Yehuda and many other revivalists wanted very much
0:53:44 > 0:53:47to reject Yiddish, but history tells us,
0:53:47 > 0:53:50"No, Yiddish survives beneath Israeli."
0:53:50 > 0:53:55So Israeli is a story of revival and survival.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57The only thing I'd say is that if Yiddish was chosen
0:53:57 > 0:54:01as the language for Israel, it would have been a funnier country.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03It just would have been funnier.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06- Don't you think? Oy! - But we, but we keep...
0:54:06 > 0:54:09Schlep your bag for you, sir?!
0:54:14 > 0:54:19In our globalised world, this kind of phoenix-cuckoo hybrid
0:54:19 > 0:54:22may be the most workable way of keeping local languages alive.
0:54:23 > 0:54:29Here in Africa, Kenya alone has 69 languages.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32The mother tongue of the Turkana people only has
0:54:32 > 0:54:35anything in common with two of those.
0:54:35 > 0:54:40This fierce warrior tribe of pastoral nomads are, like the Jews,
0:54:40 > 0:54:44attempting their own journey of survival and revival,
0:54:44 > 0:54:45involving three languages.
0:54:47 > 0:54:52'Turkana children learn English in the mission schools they attend.'
0:54:52 > 0:54:55Four times 14. Do we have any division?
0:54:55 > 0:54:58The official state language, Swahili,
0:54:58 > 0:55:03is spoken in the towns for everyday activities such as shopping.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07'And, in their own communities, Turkana teachers are passing on
0:55:07 > 0:55:10'the mother tongue to the next generation.'
0:55:14 > 0:55:16HE SPEAKS NATIVE LANGUAGE
0:55:20 > 0:55:23So while the purity of the language may be lost,
0:55:23 > 0:55:25hopefully Turkana, along with all the other
0:55:25 > 0:55:30languages we have explored, will survive in a new and hybrid form.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33I really do hope so.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36Because, in the end, our attachment to our language
0:55:36 > 0:55:39is about emotion not intellect.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43Our identity is all about feelings.
0:55:50 > 0:55:55What better way to celebrate the end of my travels than a game
0:55:55 > 0:55:59'at Carrow Road, the home ground of my beloved Norwich City Football Club.'
0:55:59 > 0:56:05On The Ball, City, the oldest football song in the world.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10All the tribal identity issues we have as human beings,
0:56:10 > 0:56:12and we would be foolish to deny,
0:56:12 > 0:56:16are allowed to take place on the football field.
0:56:19 > 0:56:21Against the run of play.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27Come on. OK, we score back.
0:56:27 > 0:56:29Come on, you Yellows!
0:56:31 > 0:56:35Aaaagh!
0:56:35 > 0:56:37Oh, no!
0:56:40 > 0:56:44Oh, my lordy!
0:56:46 > 0:56:47We're doomed!
0:56:54 > 0:56:57There are those who say, it doesn't matter to me,
0:56:57 > 0:57:00I have no sense of identity, it doesn't matter that I'm British,
0:57:00 > 0:57:03it doesn't matter that I'm English, it doesn't matter that I'm from
0:57:03 > 0:57:06Shropshire, or Yorkshire, or Norfolk.
0:57:06 > 0:57:08Maybe they're right, but I can't feel like that.
0:57:08 > 0:57:13I have this... I can't help but belong.
0:57:13 > 0:57:18And, I think it was Clemenceau, the French prime minister
0:57:18 > 0:57:19in the early part of the 20th century,
0:57:19 > 0:57:23who said that he was a patriot but he wasn't a nationalist.
0:57:23 > 0:57:26And they said to him, what do you mean by that?
0:57:26 > 0:57:30He said, well, I think a patriot loves his country,
0:57:30 > 0:57:34but a nationalist hates everybody else's country.
0:57:34 > 0:57:38And I think a good football team to support is you love
0:57:38 > 0:57:40your football team, you love your region,
0:57:40 > 0:57:44you love your city, you love your county,
0:57:44 > 0:57:47but it doesn't mean you hate everybody else's.
0:57:47 > 0:57:53And the best of belonging is that embracing of who you are
0:57:53 > 0:57:55and it's just like an extra dimension in your life.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58An extra feeling. It's a sort of hugging feeling,
0:57:58 > 0:58:02of belonging. I find it very important in my life,
0:58:02 > 0:58:04and without it, I think my life would be poorer.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07Oh, too much. Come on! Come on!
0:58:07 > 0:58:11'Football terraces are a cauldron of passion,
0:58:11 > 0:58:14'bad language and, surprisingly, wit.
0:58:14 > 0:58:18'The way we use, and, of course, abuse language with new ways
0:58:18 > 0:58:22'of swearing, or jargon, or slang are a testament to our creativity
0:58:22 > 0:58:26'but also give us a deeper insight into the workings of the mind.
0:58:26 > 0:58:28'And this is what I'll be looking at next time.
0:58:28 > 0:58:31'So you'd better sodding well tune in.'
0:58:54 > 0:58:56Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:56 > 0:58:58E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk