The Committee on Education, Culture, Science, Technology and Sports of the Mercosul Parliament approved on Tuesday (10) a recommendation of the Council of the Common Market (CMC), that Guarani be considered an official language of Mercosul and becomes the working language in that regional bloc, such as Spanish and English. The author of the bill, the Paraguayan congressman Héctor Lacognata said that there are around 15 million Guarani-speaking people who live in Paraguay and in regions of Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil.

The decision of the committee will still be submitted to the House. If it is confirmed by the whole Parliament and adopted by the council, all documents of the bloc and also the speeches in different events of Mercosul will have to be translated to Guarani.

Héctor Lacognata defended the bill at the meeting. He said that the initiative was the result of the work of important sectors in Paraguay and that the education in his country is offered in Guarani and in Spanish. Also according to the author, there are Paraguayan congresspeople who probably would express themselves much better in Guarani.

Historical language
At the justification of the recommendation, Héctor Lacognata reminds that, in August 1995, the ministries of Education and Culture of the member countries of Mercosul – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – declared Guarani as the historical language of the bloc. He also reminds that CMC, in 2006, considered Guarani as one of the languages of Mercosul.

The Paraguayan congressman highlights that Guarani is the official language in Paraguay since 1992 and that 85% of the population in that country speak the language, in an exclusive way or in combination with Spanish. He registers that the Argentinean province of Corrientes declared, at the end of 2005, Guarani as the official language, besides Spanish. Guarani, says also Lacognata, is the autochthon language which is the most spoken in Latin America.

From the newsroom/NN
With information from Agência Senado
Translation – Positive Idiomas Ltda