walneria Can a law be signed?

[Walneria]

 

"[...] This is some major red flag, you are in Walneria, you gotta speak Walnerian. Speak is the key word here. This is how it was and how it should be! If you can't speak, you should sing in Walnerian, not something that has little to do with us speaking." refused the leader of opposition Stefan Lukinec the proposal to equate the Walnerian Sign Language as an official language in the Walerian Confederacy, "And even if you wish to give the deaf some rights, why not use Sign Walnerian instead? Of course it should not be equated to the level of our spoken language, but it is way agreeable. Giving something, that is hardly a language, and is maybe understood by a couple of thousands of people scattered across the country is, in my opinion, completely absurd. Those people deserve accomodation, but forcing everybody else to follow them is something akin to oppression by minority."

"Thank you, mister deputy" interjected the house president Dítmar Fissŕ his rant after the clocks finally ticked to zero, having gotten nothing than bored stares from the audience for the prescribed two minutes on opinion giving, "I feel it is important to repeat, that Sign Walnerian was a project from the 1970's, which was designed to bring the Walnerian Sign Language to sync with the grammar of spoken colloquial Walnerian. The deaf community is using their own language, which is different and does not follow the written grammar of the spoken language, having its own syntax. If you excuse me, I would once again ask our linguist expert and honorary guest for this meeting to repeat the point and explain it once again."

A small old woman climbed to the speaking table. "Thank you mister. I believe it is important to understand, that our deaf community, numbering about 12 thousand people, are being not only underrepresented, but they usually can not even have their voices heard in the most grave of cases. I have had a conflict with the court over them not allowing testimonies in the sign language, only Sign Walnerian. Sign Walnerian is something like if I asked you to use Walnerian words using for example Ustokan grammar. It is completely unnatural to the native speaker and was devised only as a plan to make it easier for a bunch of old commissioners to talk to deaf people, disregarding the fact it is hurtful to the deaf community as a whole. As stipulated in the final draft from the second reading, I believe that Walnerian Sign Language, or WSL for short, should be equated to the spoken Walnerian and should be legally accepted in all places in administrative communication as if it was spoken. This draft, as you know, also includes the Ustokan Sign Language to be given the same rights as spoken Ustokan, given it is mostly used in Malenik and Ustokan communities in the Settlement areas. Now that we have heard all the opinions and I was asked to make a closing statement as a counterpoint to mr. deputy Lukinec, I would ask all who have not made their mind, think of the people who have no other option than to sign and ask yourself, if you would like your language to be in the same position theirs is in."

[...]

It was not a close vote. Out of 103 present, 65 voted in favor of the proposal, only 29 voted against, the rest either abstaining or leaving the room when the vote was held. And just like that, a law came into effect. The very next day, for the first time in decades, the evening news for the deaf, airing on TV channel "TV-3" used Walnerian Sign Language instead of Sign Walnerian. People in universities and high schools discovered, that there is a new voluntary participation seminar, where anyone can join to learn the new official language of the country they live in.