The official language of SCI

by Philipp Rodriguez (Sep 9, 2006)

I remember, that I was several times asked if French is or was an official language of our movement. Maybe this due the fact, that 20 years ago the minutes of international meetings usualy were translated to French.

4th International Delegates Meeting (IDM) in Bièvres (France) 1949

Well this is a difficult request for SCI archives. A such "official" document could be found all over the 85 years of SCI history and it might be that it simply does not exist. In addition it would be necessary to check if this decision is still valide. Honestly I even doubt, if this would help in a discussion nowadays.

4th International Delegates Meeting (IDM) in Bièvres (France) 1949

I limited my investigation on minutes of the period 1945 - 1950, when the international coordination of SCI was established. A summary of my investigation

• The first constitution was adopted by the 4th IDM at Bièvres near Paris in 1949. It is in English and French.
• The drafting process was in English, French and German and started in 1945.
• In the minutes between 1945-1950 the language of the constitution was not a topic. In 1946 SCI France proposed to use Esperanto in the international SCI Bulletin and other documents (but not in the constitution) in order to promote a future international language. This was considered as suggestion.
• I didn't find any information, whether English nor any other language is defined as the "SCI language" or in a similar way. However English was widely used in newsletters and correspondence. Minutes and the constitution were usually translated to French, rarely in German. This habit can be observed till the 80s.

What is the conclusion? It might be possible that "offical" language(s) were adopted in a another period. Probably it was never defined - but it was common to translate minutes and constitutions into French till the 80s for sure.

It could be concluded, that our SCI friends in the past did forget to define offical language(s) and there's a need to clarify this now. But I have the impression it's a fashion of SCI nowadays to discuss such topics in extensive ways. Our SCI friends in 1949, who adopted the first international constitution, had other priorities. They discussed intensly, if SCI should be an international organisation and have executive body with a president.