And Now . . .

For something completely different!

A while back, I wrote and extensive post on language policy. This weekend, I had the time to catch up on my Economist magazines, and I found an excellent example of language policy in action, supported by the marketplace.

Quechua is a language spoken by Indians in the Peruvian Andes and is one of Peru's official, but neglected, langauges. It was the language of the Inca Empire as it thought to be spoken by 3-4 million people in Peru and over 10 million in South America. Recently, a primary speaker of this language joined the Peruvian parliament. Despite speaking fluent Spanish, she insisted on speaking her first language, Quechua, thus requiring parliament to supply her with a translator. This has raised the language's profile. Now Google and Microsoft are localizing their software by translating it into Quechua! Google's site isn't totally operational. But it is a start. Way cool!

And this month, the new Peruvian president signed a law making discrimination on the basis of language a criminal offense. Not a bad way to start your administration! By doing this, he has acknowledge the ethnic inequalities that have long existed in Peru. What I hope is that this will make it more possible to teach Quechua more widely in Peruvian schools. The legislation for doing so has existed since the 1960s, but has not really been properly enforced, funded, or staffed with trained teachers.

I think this is very cool, and very nice to hear when so much other news is bad.