von Raman Salah

Eine Auswirkung von Linguizid - der kalkulierten Auslöschung einer Sprache - besteht darin, dass in Zeiten von Katastrophen und Notfällen staatliche Reaktions- und Hilfsmaßnahmen wie wichtige Informationen und Hilfsangebote nicht jener Sprache zugänglich sind, ...

von Leila Lorenzo, Raman Salah

Die kurdische Sprache ist die 40. meistgesprochene Sprache unter den 7.000 Sprachen der Welt.

Kurdisch sprechende Menschen sind über Grenzen hinweg verstreut, was zu verschiedenen sprachlichen Umfeldern führt, die durch unterschiedliche staatliche Maßnahmen geprägt sind.

von Raman Salah

Für viele Menschen, mit denen Respond gesprochen hat, ist die kurdische Sprache ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der kurdischen Identität.

„Wie wir auf Kurdisch sagen… unsere Sprache ist unsere Identität.“ - Gordyaen Jermayi (Betonung hinzugefügt)

von Raman Salah

„Diese Sprache ist meine Sprache. Als jemand, dessen Sprache eingeschränkt, verboten und untersagt wurde, und viele Menschen ins Gefängnis kamen oder bestraft wurden, weil sie in ihrer Sprache sprachen oder schrieben, weil sie in ihr veröffentlichten - ja, ich fühle definitiv eine persönliche Verbindung zum Konzept der Sprachgewalt.“ - Berivan*, Sorani-Sprecherin aus Bashur

von Raman Salah

Obwohl sprachliche Gewalt in vielen Bereichen vorkommt, von Katastrophenhilfe über humanitäre Hilfe bis hin zu rechtlicher, medizinischer und psychologischer Unterstützung, ist das Schulsystem einer der heimtückischsten und generationenübergreifend bedeutsamsten Schauplätze institutionalisierter sprachlicher Gewalt.

von Raman Salah

„Ich kann meine Sprache vor dem Vergessen bewahren, indem ich lese und schreibe und mit meinen Freund*innen und meiner Familie in meiner Muttersprache kommuniziere.“ - Tavge*, eine Lehrerin, Übersetzerin und Kurmandschi-Sprecherin aus Rojav

By Raman Salah

One effect of linguicide – the calculated destruction of a language – is that during times of disaster and emergency, government response and relief measures like critical information and outreach are not accessible in a language that many of the people most affected by the crisis can understand.

By Leila Lorenzo, Raman Salah

The Kurdish language is the 40th most spoken language among the world’s 7,000 languages.

Kurdish speakers are dispersed across borders, leading to diverse linguistic environments shaped by different state policies. There are an estimated 35 million Kurdish speakers representing linguistic minorities spread across five different countries …

By Raman Salah

Kurdish language is part and parcel of Kurdish identity, for many of the people with whom Respond spoke.

“As we say in Kurdish… our language is our identity.” – Gordyaen Jermayi (emphasis added)

By Raman Salah

“This language is my language. As someone whose language has been restricted, banned, prohibited, and many people went to jail and got punished for speaking or writing in, for publishing in it – yeah, definitely, I feel a personal connection to the concept of language violence.” – Berivan*, Sorani speaker in Bashur

By Raman Salah

While language violence occurs in many contexts, from disaster relief and humanitarian aid to legal, medical, and psychological support, one of the most insidious and intergenerationally significant sites of institutional language violence is the school system.

By Raman Salah

“I can protect my language from being forgotten by reading and writing, communicating with friends and family in my mother tongue.” Tavge*, a teacher, translator, and Kurmanji speaker from Rojava

Kurdish people in their daily lives and in their relationship with their stories, communities, and dialect, are at the forefront of the fight for language justice across Kurdistan.

By Valentina Callari Lewis
In addition to responding to the post-earthquake emergency, our Turkish and Kurdish teams continue their everyday work providing language support for asylum seekers.

“Machine translations of Pashto and Dari, in particular, are riddled with errors that have introduced confusion into already complex immigration processes, and led to the rejected asylum claim of at least one Afghan refugee.”

Today on #ChineseLanguageDay 2023, 中文日, the Respond team recommits to the fight to dismantle systemic language violence and celebrates all of our dedicated Chinese translators and interpreters and our incredible team lead, Lirong Shi. Their work is tireless and essential.

By Kate Goldman.
When this photograph of families detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas from 2019 appeared in the New York Times last week (on March 6, 2023), my heart sank. I was immediately taken back to 2018 and 2019, to the previous times, when I volunteered on the ground and remotely at Dilley as an interpreter and …

This asylum ban is yet another example of the government weaponizing language to limit freedom of mobility.  Under the proposed ban, asylum seekers must undergo their process via the CBP One mobile app. The app is only available in English and Spanish, in spite of the fact that dozens of languages are spoken by asylum seekers at the border. 

Our incredible team has been mobilizing to support victims of the devastating earthquake, translating resources and services into Kurdish Kurmanji, Sorani, Arabic, Armenian, and Turkish, as highlighted in this powerful piece written by Respond community member Leila Lorenzo.

“Immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are particularly vulnerable to a range of human rights violations, including violations of the right to adequate housing. Displaced persons are also particularly vulnerable to discrimination, racism, and xenophobia, which can further interfere with their ability to secure sustainable and adequate living conditions.”

Language is an access and social justice issue. And there are so many challenges that emerge around it. I’ve already talked about the importance of humane and sensitive translation. But another is the constantly changing nature of fieldwork. To this end, I am deeply grateful for …