Abstract
The globalization of communication in ‘major’ languages has become incompatible with the claims made by the other languages. Many minor, ‘lesser used’ languages were formerly marginalized and ignored because of their incompatibility with national policies; more recently, while acknowledged by specialists, they still have had to struggle to be more publicly recognized as vehicles for important literature, and also in some cases as actually existing. Having the Nobel Prize for Literature awarded is not necessarily effective: within years of Frédéric Mistral’s Nobel prize few people would have acknowledged the existence of Provençal as a language. One potentially more profitable means of achieving recognition is through being translated into better-known languages. The paper will look at two examples.
 
 
 
 First: Slovene, the language of just 2 million people in Europe; a language with an established literature; officially a national language; but not generally known. Promotion through translation has been extraordinarily active: great efforts have been made to translate all the major works of literature into ‘major’ languages. Among the results: an enormous translation factory, where sometimes quality is sacrificed to quantity; and very high pay for translators.
 
 
 
 Second, at the other end of the ‘status-as-a-language’ spectrum: Lakhian, which very few people recognize as a ‘language’ rather than a dialect; and yet one that received huge (if temporary) recognition when the one person who wrote what is recognized as ‘serious’ literature in Lakhian, Ondra Lysohorsky, had his poetry translated by Boris Pasternak and W.H. Auden.
Highlights
‚Lesser used‛ languages were traditionally marginalized and ignored because of their incompatibility with national policies
Before considering Slovene, a state standard language that is not well known and and may be considered ‚lesser used‛, let us first look at three European cultural figures, each one very well-known in his day, the less well-known languages they used for their works: Frédéric Mistral and Provençal; Pier Paolo Pasolini and Friulian; and Óndra Lysohorsky and Lachian
Conciosiacosa che ciascuno, o Francese, o Fiamingo, o Guascone, o Borgognone, o altramente di queue nationi che egli si fosse, it quale bene scrivere e specialmente verseggiar volesse, quantunque egli Provenzale no fosse, lo faceva Provenzalmente.‛2 Its use and renown declined over the centuries, but there was a renaissance of Provençal cultural activity in the 1850s and thereafter, led by the young Frédéric Mistral (1830-1914) and ‚Les félibres‛, his circle of fellow-poets
Summary
‚Lesser used‛ (or, ‚minor‛) languages were traditionally marginalized and ignored because of their incompatibility with national policies. Before considering Slovene, a state standard language that is not well known and and may be considered ‚lesser used‛, let us first look at three European cultural figures, each one very well-known in his day, the less well-known languages they used for (some or all of) their works: Frédéric Mistral and Provençal; Pier Paolo Pasolini and Friulian; and Óndra Lysohorsky and Lachian. In each of these three instances, translation into betterknown, ‚major‛ languages brought some recognition, but in each case that recognition was short-lived
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