DRC-UNIKIN: “Celebration of the 85th anniversary of the inclusion of the Romansh language among the four official languages of Switzerland”
2023-02-22 11:58DRC-UNIKIN: “Celebration of the 85th anniversary of the inclusion of the Romansh language among the four official languages of Switzerland”
DRC-UNIKIN: “Celebration of the 85th anniversary of the inclusion of the Romansh language among the four official languages of Switzerland”
On the morning of Tuesday, February 21, 2023, the University of Kinshasa received His Excellency CHASPER SAROTT, Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter, welcomed by Professor Bruno LAPIKA, Administrative Secretary General and Representative of the Rector, the Deputy Coordinator of the Management and International Relations Unit and the Decanal Office of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, came to present the Romansh language to the scientific community.
In fact, it was on February 20, 1938 that this language was registered as one of the four Swiss languages and is celebrated every year.
On this 85th Anniversary, the Swiss Ambassador to the DRC celebrated with the Unikin University community.
Apart from the welcome address from the Dean of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Professor Pamphile MABIALA MANTUBA-NGOMA, and the address from the Rector, delivered by his Representative, this day of exchange on the Romansh language included two magnificent presentations:
“The importance of language studies”, by the Vice-Dean of Research of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Professor Marie-Philomène BABONGISILA, followed by a presentation of the Romansh language by His Excellency CHASPER SAROTT, Ambassador of Switzerland.
His presentation focused on two main points: the mapping of Swiss languages and Romansh as the fourth language of the Canton.
His Excellency stressed several strategies that contributed to the persistence and survival of this language, including its use as a language of instruction at the primary level. However, due to its semantic complexity and the fact that it represents only 0.5% of spoken language, and this by a tiny fraction of the Swiss community, it is disappearing.
This is why this celebration and so many others around the world are organized and are seen as a call for its survival.
This presentation sparked discussions, which led to a visit to one of the language laboratories in the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences.
The family photo in front of the e-reader, symbol of the thinker-writer, concluded this day.
