Out of France: Sceptics turn deaf ear to a dying tongue

Ajaccio, Corsica - The yellow Canadairs dipped into the Mediterranean, scooping up thousands of litres of sea-water which they dumped minutes later on fires in the maquis. The authorities reckoned that most of the forest fires since the beginning of August were started by arsonists.

The media recounted the latest of 28 gangland killings on the island this year or tales of tourists set upon by robbers. But 'Corsica is not Sicily', reassured the island's main politician, Emile Zuccarelli, the French post and telecommunications minister.

The intellectuals, meanwhile, mused over the cultural future of Corsica 'in the Europe of tomorrow . . . on the ruins of today's nation states'. They pondered the damage to the Corsican language which is likely to come from the mainland. Was it conceivable, asked Pascal Marchetti, a commentator for the daily Corse-Matin, that instead of avernu (we have) - one day Corsicans might say abbiamo?

For the mainland which worries the intellectuals in post- Maastricht Europe is not France but Italy. With emphasis of the Europe of tomorrow on the regions, Genoa, which ruled Corsica until France took it over in the 18th century, could become once again the natural focus for Corsicans.

The Corsican language, incomprehensible to the untutored French ear, is undergoing a revival. Now, those who used to have their knuckles rapped for speaking Corsican rather than French in school are being sought out by scholars.

In some cases, they are scholars themselves and have been recruited by French universities. The language is heard in shops and on the streets. In restaurants and cafes, old men sometimes break spontaneously into song, reminding their compatriots and the visitors of their local culture.

Linguistically, Corsican is already close to Italian and the two languages' syntax are almost identical. With the French island a popular holiday destination for visitors from Milan and Turin, especially now that resorts in the former Yugoslavia are inaccessible, Italian is easily the most common foreign language on the island. Italians use their native tongue and have little difficulty in understanding the Corsican replies.

Mr Marchetti, writing under the headline 'If we don't take care . . .', concluded that 'anti- Italianising' campaigners were exaggerating the dangers of Corsican being subjected to an Italian, particularly Tuscan, 'uniformisation'.

Pierre Antonetti, a lecturer at the University of Provence, also minimised the dangers in a reply in the same newspaper. 'Only a straightforward annexation could prompt an assimilation of the Corsican language with the Italian language.' He said the Italian spoken in the east of Italy, although the standard language, had had little influence on other Italian dialects and was unlikely ever to swamp Corsican.

Only full independence for Corsica, he said, would have a profound affect on the language, since it would imply a rejection of French but would still not 'protect the Corsican language from external influences. The most obvious would certainly be Italian.'

With the free circulation of EC residents, Corsica can expect to see Italians settling on the island, bring their culture with them, he said. 'By radio, television and the press, the Italian language would exert pressure and . . . Corsica would fall into Italy's zone of influence. The linguistic result . . . would be a contamination of Corsican by Italian, encouraged and hastened by their common linguistic roots.'

Stressing that languages were destined like all else to change with time, Mr Antonetti said, in terms likely to cause a shudder to the opponents of Maastricht, 'In the Europe of tomorrow, when, on the ruins of today's nation states, regional sub-units are formed, the linguistic contamination of Corsican by Italian will be inevitable and irresistible. That is the way of the world and we have to live with it.'