Resumo

ANZOLA, Myriam. Minority languages: A challenge for linguistic majorities. Educere [online]. 2008, vol.12, n.42, pp.447-453. ISSN 1316-4910.

The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela states since 1999 in its Article 81 that: "Deaf or mute people are recognized as having the right to express and communicate through sign language", and in Article 119: "The State shall recognize the existence of indigenous towns and communities, their social, political and economical organization, their cultures, uses and costumes, languages and religion, as well as their habitat and originary rights over the lands they inhabit ancestrally and traditionally that are necessary to develop and guarantee their ways of living." The following paper aims to recognize the rights expressed on these articles about Venezuelans with identical rights to ours, which could not have been exercised in a permanent and natural way because, without intending it, we kept them in an authentic social silence. It is intended to illustrate, in a very general analysis, the challenge it represents for most of Venezuelan Spanish speakers to understand that we live next to fellow Venezuelans who have a particular way of seeing, understanding and naming life; Venezuelans who have a particular biological and cultural mark which above those differences, share the same country and the same moral patrimony with the rest of the population.

Palavras-chave : linguistic minorities; Venezuelan Sign Language; indigenous ethnics.

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