The (French) professor who teaches Sardinian to students in America: «A living and international language»

Teaching Sardinian to American students on the other side of the world and conveying to them the importance of "bridge" languages in learning to read even what one does not know. A challenge that Marc Démont, a professor born in Lille (France) 45 years ago, carries on at a private university in Kentucky, the "Centre College", through a learning method centered on Romance languages. «Usually – he explains to L'Unione Sarda – we focus on “national” ones such as French, Spanish, Portuguese or Italian, but in this current course the kids also learn to read Sardinian. I integrated several Limba texts into the teaching material as well as a study of the most salient syntactic and phonetic characteristics».

Then, at the end of the semester, students will read a translation of "Su Printzipeddu" ("Le Petit Prince" by Saint-Exupéry) into Sardinian. An innovative approach for a language that the professor describes as "very lively and international".

Where does your interest in languages come from?

“I grew up in a middle-class household and neighborhood where "ch'ti", a variant of the Picard language, was regularly spoken. Obviously, my interest in the preservation of regional identities and languages stems from this specific background. Then I got a masters degree in anthropology and a masters degree in psychology. Despite this rich background, I had professional difficulties and I decided to move to the United States for a PhD in Comparative Literature and Linguistics. This allowed me to find a job in American academia and to develop this course on intercomprehension and Romance linguistics in Kentucky».

What is the program of his course?

“As you know, the American academic world is very different from yours. It has many problems, but it is certainly more flexible than the European one. I have the opportunity to work for an institution that strongly supports interdisciplinarity in research and teaching and as a result I am engaged on various fronts: horror cinema and French cinema, different languages and phonetics for our French program, and interunderstanding and Romance linguistics for our linguistics programme. My institution also has an extensive study abroad program and with my colleague, Dr Christian Wood, we have developed an annual language program in Tahiti with courses in Tahitian, and I am currently developing a study abroad program in Italy ».

Why do you speak Italian?

«My grandfather was Sicilian and my brother and I grew up surrounded by old Italian songs and various household items, food and toys that my grandmother brought back from her travels in Sicily. I never realized how deep these memories of my childhood were until a recent trip to that land. All these visual, gustatory, olfactory and tactile sensations came back to me. It was an "aesthetic" psychoanalysis, in a sense. Anyway, I've always wanted to learn Italian but never found the time or patience until, two years ago, I applied for an academic scholarship to spend some time in Rome and Florence and learn Italian . The best summer I've ever had. I continued to practice with online courses to improve my speaking skills. And then I discovered Sardinia and its people».

So you've already been to the island?

“Yes, and many times. Last year it was easier because I was teaching in Strasbourg and as soon as I could I escaped the cold to go to Cagliari. I have visited quite a bit of the south and southeast coast. And now I would like to find out more about the northern part. This summer I plan to divide my time between Sardinia and Sicily, another fascinating island. Maybe I'll find the time to finally travel the Selvaggio Blu in Ogliastra and take the little green train. And next year I'll be teaching again in Strasbourg, so more getaways to Sardinia are on my agenda».

How did you "met" the Sardinian in your life?

«Let's say that falling in love is probably the best motivation for learning languages and, in my case, it's a very effective linguistic method. More seriously, I heard about the Sardinian language because of its very specific situation in the family tree of the Romance languages and, as soon as I had the opportunity, I immediately became interested in its phonetic and syntactic characteristics. From this first "encounter" with Sardinian, I return regularly to Sardinia and have learned to read it quite well. However, this summer I intend to develop my language skills thanks to another scholarship from the University».

What method do you use to teach Sardinian?

«It's a good question, because this is where the originality of the course which is entitled "Intercomprehension and Romance Linguistics" lies and it's not just about learning to read in Sardinian, but also in French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Catalan. Intercomprehension, as a skill, simply describes the ability of speakers of the same language family to spontaneously understand something from each other thanks to the greater number of related words and the familiarity of the syntax. Well, like any skill, it can be worked on and improved with practice and meta-linguistic reflection.

A modern approach?  

  «Intercomprehension as a field of research dates back to the 1970s, but has developed since the 1990s, when a number of methods and projects - most of them supported by the European Union - were launched with the aim to develop this skill. There are several methods available today, and most of them focus on so-called passive language skills, such as listening or reading. Personally I rely on reading and using EuRom5, but Zanichelli recently published "PanromanIC", which is also excellent».

Methods and projects that have something in common?

«Yes, some characteristics: the attention to understanding, the multilingual approach, the use of partial skills and the development of meta-linguistic reflections and strategies. Without going into details that might be boring, this means that instead of looking at languages in isolation, like "the French language" or "the Spanish language", we look at them in their interconnection and develop techniques to identify this interconnection. From this point of view, a francophone already knows something about Spanish, Italian and even Sardinian just because they share the same linguistic history».

How is the student approach?

“I give them a series of language placement tests. French speakers are always amazed to see that they usually get an A2 level (advanced beginner) in Italian, even if they have never formally studied it. So, this is our starting point, a "bridge" language (French, for example), and we build on the knowledge of this Romance language to build bridges to other Romance languages. It's a very pragmatic method, less scary, and it's really rooted in the values associated with 'multilingualism'.'

Tell us something more about your knowledge of Sardinian.

«The interesting part of the method I use is that all languages are perceived as equal from an educational point of view. They are different variants of a mother tongue (Vulgar Latin) and each of them can be used as a "bridge" language and teach something about the other "sister" languages. And I think this is a fantastic opportunity for our regional languages to be incorporated into national curricula regardless of the economic or practical 'utility' of the language. In this sense, learning or relearning Sardinian is as useful as learning Spanish and should be used as a first experience of a "foreign" language, to understand one's linguistic universe and the originality of one's culture, to help students develop language learning and to better prepare them to learn more linguistically and culturally distant languages".

What are the biggest difficulties?

«I always start the study of a text with a recording by a native speaker. I think it is important for students to have an idea of the pronunciation and melody of a specific language. Americans are exposed to Spanish fairly regularly and somewhat less to French and Italian. Sardinian sounds very foreign to them, as much as Portuguese, so they are rather taken aback and amused by the high number of fricatives and affricates, which is probably the most salient phonetic distinguishing feature of Sardinian for foreigners. After a quick overview of the Sardinian specificities of vowel changes, consonant weakening and strengthening, and syntax, students usually have all the keys to start reading and making connections with their knowledge of the Romance languages. Soon the language loses its strangeness and they begin to see Romanity under the "exotic" characteristics. After a session or two, they have developed enough strategies and a basic vocabulary to comprehensively understand texts that I would classify as A2 (advanced beginner). The project is to make them read "Su Printzipeddu", which is far from a simple text, and Sardinian will be one of the languages on which their reading ability will be tested with intercomprehension».

Which version of Sardinian do you use?

«It is precisely here that the method helps to highlight the problems of regional language policy. At the risk of seeming ignorant and probably a bit provocative, I reply that from an educational point of view I don't care which Sardinian we read, as long as it is "Sardinian". In other words, what matters to me is the development of practical skills and the fact that my students have read a text in Limba Sarda Comuna and can see for themselves the similarities between the Sardinian variants and understand the content of the text. So they know that there are more Sardinians and not just one, but what interests us in class, taking different sources, is to discern the structural unit in order to understand its manifest variations».

And the political problem?

«Very often, and this has also been seen with Breton in France, when it comes to setting up a policy of conservation of regional languages, one comes up against parochial disputes, and this in a rather literal way, in which each country defends its vocabulary, its pronunciation, its writing and its particular syntax. If this type of reflection on the richness of a linguistic group is sound enough from a theoretical point of view, on the other hand it prevents a standardization of the language and therefore the implementation of a solid policy of conservation of regional languages. Detractors are often too quick to point fingers and say 'you see, they want a regional language policy but they can't even agree on what language to speak'. I think the profound plurilingualism of interunderstanding and the fact that she is more interested in the big picture than in the details is a nice metaphorical solution to a political problem».

Going back to Sardinian, do you think it is a living language?

«This is a certainty for those who have had the opportunity to spend some time in the many villages of the island, I remember for example Orune, in the Nuoro area, where I noticed that children and young adults play and discuss in Sardinian. However, at the same time, the fact that it is unfortunately also an endangered language and that it is classified as "permanently endangered" by Unesco should be enough to alarm the competent authorities. That language belongs to its speakers - not to administration, not to schools, not to linguists, not to grammarians - is in my opinion the fundamental conclusion of sociolinguistics. Sure, a state can support, an organization can finance, a linguist can suggest and normalize, but in the end, if there is no interest in speaking the language, if there is no real effort to be creative and to give energy to the relationship between Sardinian identity and its languages, I'm afraid I can say that the language is destined to disappear».

However, there is some attempt at recovery.

«Yes, fortunately it seems that in recent years there has been a real effort to reintroduce the language in schools and administration. There are also innovative associations and projects such as "Academia de su sardu" and its interesting lemONS project. All of this indicates that there may be a popular 'rebirth' of Sardinian, and I look forward to seeing it."