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Language, ethnicity and the State
Chapter 1, Minority languages, ethnicity and the state in the European Union
● The political and social disorder of the 1990’s have had significant implications for the minority languages of Western Europe. Still, developments within the EU have been largely positive → ethnicity and nationalisms had become the primary political idioms. ● During the last 100 years we have become all too familiar with the destructive potential of ethnic nationalism. We must know everyone has an ethnic identity as an integral and “primordial” aspect of our sense of individual self and group membership. ● A dominant political theme is that all identities must be respected and understood in their own terms. In the politics of ethnicity, culture is untouchable, and incorporated into a hegemonic discourse of identity. The rise of identity politics has been accompanied by three concepts: culture, ethnicity and nation. ● Ethnicity: key aspect of identity, which, along with gender, sexual identity and social class, is central to the construction of status and power in state. An ethnic group generally exhibits six main features to varying degrees: ○ a common proper name ○ a myth of common ancestry or imaginary relations ○ shared historical memories ○ one or more elements of a common culture, usually including religion, customs or languages ○ a link with a homeland, whether or not the ethnic group still occupies the territory ○ a sense of solidarity on the part of at least some of the group ● Ethnicity is perceived as a “natural” part of being human. Three approaches, not necessarily mutually exclusive: ○ primordialist, emphasize depth and “givenness” of ethnic ties (in popular usage primordialist view dominates) ○ instrumentalists, see ethnicity as a social and political resource that can be used in the competition for wealth, power and status (we should resist the temptation to see ethnicity in overly instrumental terms. Ethnic identity can be politicized; indeed, it can be consciously created for expressly political purposes in some instances, but this does not necessarily mean that ethnic identity is without significance for members of the group in question) ○ constructivists, emphasize the modernity of ethnic groups and highlight how they are constructed through social interaction. ● It is quite common for people to categorize themselves into two distinct ethnic groups: ethnic identification is also a form of classification, implying the exclusion of those who are not members of the group. Ethnics and linguistics revival are sometimes associated with nationalism: the association is strong and nationalism is a prominent feature of minority language movements, as with Catalan, Corsican and the Irish language in Northern Ireland. ● It is important to clarify the difference between the terms “state and “nation”:
○ state = territory, preferably coherent and demarcated by frontier lines from its neighbours, within which all citizens without exception come under the exclusive rule of the territorial government and the rules under which it operates ○ nation = it has become the single basis of political community in the modern period. ■ It is common, also, to highlight two aspects of nationalism, the civic and the ethnic. Nationalism is a modern ideology that has developed along with the dramatic socio-economic, cultural and political changes wrought by industrialization. After the horrors of the second world war, nationalism as a political ideology took on a certain negative status. But, on the contrary of what people may think, there are ethnic movements with a nationalist element which have successfully used nonviolent means to pursue their goals. ● According to Gellner it is possible to distinguish 4 zones of Europe: ○ Zone one consists of the societies spread out along the Atlantic coast, including the strong dynastic states centred around Lisbon, Madrid, Paris and London; the most significant cultural differences were to be found between social strata rather than between regions. When nationalism came into existence, no great changes were required. ○ Zone two lies immediately to the east and corresponds roughly to the territory of the Holy Roman Empire. While a “high” culture existed in Italy and Germany that might form the basis of nationalism, there was no pre-existing state because of the region’s history of political fragmentation. In this zone, unification became a central issue. ● There is no room for stateless languages in this scenario: the label “minority” language is a political construct, the product of nationalist ideology and the process of state formation. The primary issue is minority languages are “minor” in relation to what is considered the national language. Some have suggested that the term minority is oppressive, implying deviance from the norm or inadequacy. The term “lesser used language” occasionally appears as an alternative. Minority language groups are very often located on the periphery of states, and are marginalized not just symbolically and politically, but in material terms as well. Anyway, geographical and economic isolation does not protect minority languages. The most isolated language groups are the most under threat. Whether or not this happens successfully depends very much on the relationship between the minority language and the state. ● One of the truly significant developments in relation to minority languages in the post-war decades has been the formation and development of the European Union. The EU has provided both a new forum for minority language groups to voice their demands and concerns and new institutional structures through which to pursue their objective s. It has also allowed for an increased degree of collaboration between minority language groups across state borders. The EU has come out strongly in support of multilingualism, paradoxically because of the strong monolingualism of its member states. ● The most significant statement on minority language rights continues to be the Council of Europe’s Charter on Regional or Minority Languages: individual states
German is most certainly a minority language in Belgium but its is the most widely spoken language as L1 (Language 1) in the European Union today. ● The term regional is widely used in France and in Italy and does not offend many people but try calling a Welsh a regional language of Britain and wait for the reaction! The Welsh people are a nation you will be told and Welsh is their national language. ● The term lesser used conveys the concept that the language in question is “lesser used” in the context of the sovereign state in question and thorny issues as to whether or not the language is somehow less important or less worthy than the majority language of the state. ● Regarding what is a language and what is a dialect, the Bureau’s position has been pragmatic rather than ideological. It has a list of languages which it includes in its membership but no list of “dialects” which it rejects. Attempts have been made to agree criteria but these have not succeeded. One must accept that the status of any given dialect variety can vary because of a range of sociological, political and even financial considerations. No one disputes the existence of a considerable number of Romance languages. However, if one goes back in history one sees that these originated as dialects of Latin. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, these dialects had different and independent developments. So one must accept that at some point they ceased to be dialects and became what we know today as languages. ● The Bureau has followed six main strategies in advancing its work: it provides a European forum for those working for the conservation and advancement of lesser used languages; it seeks political and legal support for them; it facilitates an exchange of information and experiences among language activists; it seeks funding and other resources for lesser used language projects; it supports the establishment of ancillary support structures, and it provides a back-up advice and support service for many small linguistic communities. ● It also coordinates the work of official language promotional agencies, the value of this in countries like Italy, where there are at least 12 lesser used language communities, or France, where there are 8. The Bureau has also assisted other international organizations in advancing measures to promote lesser used languages. No two languages situations are the same but most share common experiences or problems.: finding out how others have addressed certain issues or overcome certain difficulties can not only be of practical use but can lead to a sense of solidarity and mutual strength. ● The Bureau published a newsletter, Contact Bulletin , budgetary constraints forced the Bureau to reduce this to one bilingual (French/English) version. It carries reports, not only on the activities of the Bureau, but also on developments in lesser used language circles in general, including book reviews and reports on conferences. ● The Bureau has organized, usually in association with other bodies, a number of conferences at European,national and regional level. It has always been the policy of the organization to give preference to topics which lend themselves to follow through action. Subject areas covered included various aspects of education, children’s publishing as well as newspapers and TV production in lesser used languages. ● Everyday the Bureau receives requests for advice, information and practical assistance (for example, providing speakers for conferences, contributing articles for
journals). These are dealt with as fully and as promptly as the limited human resources of the Bureau allow. ● The Bureau sent a draft charter to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for an opinion, they gave a very favourable opinion and the document then faced the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The committee opted to establish an expert ad hoc committee, known as Comité ad hoc langues régionales: CAHLR to use its acronym. The Charter defines “regional or minority languages” as being languages which are: ○ traditionally used within a given territory of a state by nationals of that state who form a group numerically smaller than the rest of the state’s population; and ○ different from the official languages of that state. The Charter may also be applied to an official language which is less widely used on the whole or part of the territory of the contracting state. This provision neatly covers the application of the Charter to Italian in Switzerland and Swedish in Finland, both of which are defined as national and official languages but which undoubtedly occupy a minority position. Part II of the Charter deals with non-territorial languages, such as the languages of Gypsies and Jews. The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is unique und unparalleled in that it is a legal instrument solely dedicated to the conservation and promotion of lesser used languages. Its warm reception by a majority of independent European States augurs well for the future.
Chapter 3, State language ideology and the shifting nature of minority
language planning on Corsica
● The French nation is well-known for its long history of centralized language policy, and for a language ideology in which French is both symbol of national, civic and cultural identity. ● French language policy has both devalued local and regional languages and offered powerful economic and cultural rewards for learning French, the only language taught and recognised in France’s schools for a good part of the 20th century. ● In regions like Corsica, this has resulted in a rapid “language shift” away from the minority language, Corsican. The spread of French and the decline of Corsican was precipitated by a combination of factors: ○ the availability of French education, beginning in the late 1800s ○ the economic opportunities French offered. ● At the same time as children learned French, they were also schooled in French-language ideologies. First, there was the link between language and citizenship: in order to be a good citizen, one had to speak French → these ideologies made the dominance of French both practical and symbolic: ○ practical because French was the language of the government, schools and public life. French became, as people said, la langue du pain , figuratively, the language with economic value ○ symbolic because language hierarchy was absorbed by Corsican speakers. ■ This combination of symbolic and practical domination can be called “diglossia”.
● According to some, languages planning is anything but a “natural” outgrowth of nationalism. Since national languages and literatures both require and demonstrate time depth and historical continuity, Catalans proudly point to the earliest surviving texts in Catalan: the Homilies d’Organya, a collection of sermons that dates to the 12th century. Historical linguistics places the emergence of spoken Catalan at about 800 AD, roughly the same time that the other Romance languages were forming as a result of contact between Latin and local languages. ● The Catalan nationalist movement of the mid-nineteenth century initially took the form of a literary revival that ended three centuries of disuse ( la decadencia ) → the urban aristocracy differentiated itself from its social inferiors by adopting Castilian. By the 17th century, Castilian had become an instrument of political domination in the hands of absolutist Spanish monarchs and the final blow came in 1714, at the end of the Spanish War of Succession. For the educated classes of the time, Catalan had become degenerate and plebeian, a language of illiterate peasants, servants and artisans. Catalan remained not only the spoken language of local society but its written language as well. ● The rediscovery of Catalonia’s national literary heritage is dated to 1833, when Bonaventura Carles Aribau’s ode “La Pàtria” was published. In 1860, the Catalan playwright Frederic Soler and a group of colleagues publicly pronounced themselves in favour of a literary language as close as possible to “The Catalan we speak now”. ● In 1914, the four provincial administrations of Catalonia were consolidated into a single administrative unit called the Mancomunitat, embarked on a broad range of social, cultural and infrastructural programmes that included educational reforms. Under the authority of the Mancomunitat, the Institut d’ESTUDIS Catalans published Fabra’s Orthographic Dictionary (1917) and his Catalan Grammar (1918). These elevated Fabra the philologist to Fabra the nationalist hero and they constitute a kind of textual monument to the nation. ● In 1932 Catalonia’s political institutions were restored through the Statue of Autonomy under the Second Spanish Republic. This process was cut short after four years, with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, and after Franco’s victory in 1939 the dictatorship made every effort to erase all traces of Catalan not only from public life, but from many aspects of private life as well. The Franco regime lasted until 1975, although by the late 1960’s the laws against the public use of Catalan were no longer being enforced as thoroughly as they had been during the previous two decades. Two generations of Catalans had grown up in a society in which the language of school, workplace, commerce, the mass media and government was Castilian. Catalan society had changed radically since the war. Hundreds of thousands of people fled the poverty of rural southern Spain to seek a living in the industrial north. By 1970, the Franco regime prohibition on the public use of Catalan ensured that these “immigrants” had few opportunities to learn Catalan (Catalan-speaking were middle-class and Castilian-speaking were working-class). ● Catalan nationalist parties emphasized the equality of citizenship implied in equality of access to the national language, and the collective right of Catalans to redress of the linguistic genocide attempted against them by the Franco regime. Both sides were attempting to balance a difficult equation whose terms are otherness and authenticity:
○ the Catalan socialists sought to deny that there was any otherness at all (“one community that speaks two languages”), and ended by calling attention to difference ○ their nationalist opponents began by calling to otherness and its historical sources in order to advocate its absorption and assimilation into what is authentically Catalan: an effort constantly undetermined by the fact that all Catalans also speak Castilian. ● The Catalan parliament, elected in the spring of 1980, began drafting a language normalization law establishing the rights of Catalans to use their language for all official purposes, in education and in the media. The law was passed in April 1983, and it was preceded by a public campaign to sensitize people to the need for broad social acceptance and support of the new law: there was a cartoon figure of a ten-year-old girl called “Norma”, holding her school notebook and proclaiming “Catalan is everyone’s thing”. ● By the early 1980’s, language planners were now becoming equally concerned about what kind of Catalan people should be learning and speaking. ● There is a considerable body of opinion favouring the acceptance of spoken Catalan. The defenders of “heavy” and “light” Catalan: those in favour of “light” Catalan are generally located on the left wing of the political spectrum. Yet they have returned in a way to Prat de la Riba’s notion of language as a natural phenomenon. Formal instruction in Catalan is viewed by language planners as one of the principal means through which linguistic will take place. Castilian continues to “occupy” the social space of the Catalan language class so the teaching of Catalan relies on the students’ familiarity with Castilian.
Chapter 8, “Old” and “new” lesser-used languages of Europe: common cause?
● There is concern in Europe about resurgent nationalisms taking “cultural-racist” turns in response both to immigration, and to aspects of globalization including efforts to create a common, supranational European civic culture. The politics of these developments are complex, and mobilizations around lesser-used languages are inescapably involved in them. ● There is discussion in the European Union today of the possibility of a European identity transcending the identity of nation states → it faces the problem of the resistance arising from the nationalisms of member states. It seeks to define itself through a contrast with extra-European entities and to emphasize the elements which the European states have in common. ○ Non-white and non-christians minorities who suffer disadvantage because of their race, colour or religion have been grouped together with migrant workers, even though they are politically full citizens, in an organization called the Migrant Forum. It unites all these minorities outside the main political framework and gives them a separate identity. The minorities may use this forum to negotiate more effectively with their own nation states. ● The European Charter expressly excludes “languages of migrants”, this means that only those languages which are spoken by citizens or nationals of signatory states are appropriately protected by those states. Dialects of official language, and the
○ Turkish: 3 millions Turkish speakers reside in EU, one third of them were born in the EU, but in many cases they are not EU citizens. Turkish bilingual people are creating culturally specific media and education infrastructures in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and other countries, but with extremely limited EU support. ● Europe’s linguistic diversity is set to increase. New diaspora language communities will be responsible for bringing forth bilinguals who are committed to maintaining them as transnational cultural communities. Four main factors contribute to a new trend towards post-migration language maintenance: ○ globalization of communication facilitates the maintenance of languages in diaspora. ○ economic globalization means that “heritage bilinguals” have real advantages in the global economy. They are equipped to access multiple markets, relying on networks sustained by co-ethnic trust. This means growing incentives for individuals to cultivate any languages they can call their own, and not only globally, or regionally dominant languages, but other besides. ○ general educational, psychological and social benefits can be conferred by bilingual backgrounds, when supported by formal education encouraging balanced bilingualism. This is now very widely recognized. As a result, wherever there are significant numbers of users of non-official or unrecognized languages, pressures for their maintenance and development, at least in the educational sphere, are certain to mount. ○ state policy markers in some western countries are beginning to view minority language skills as a valuable economic resource. ● Charles Taylor, a supporter of Quebec’s Bill 101 which provides resources and incentives for immigrants to Quebec to learn French rather than English as a public language (some say that Bill 101 discriminates against all languages except French), envisages the fostering of bilingual diversity leading to multilingual diversity, with migrant communities maintaining distinct cultures, including languages. ● Migrants are in the forefront of learning languages for mobility and opportunity. However, it is risky to generalize across migrant or regional communities, and about different groups within such communities → people and groups adopt different strategies at different moments. ● One of Taylor’s admirers, Ry Conlogue, said that “i mmigrants do not wish to perpetuate” their own languages: they long to integrate themselves and their children, they prefer bilingualism , certainly where issues of race and religion effectively preclude full assimilation. ● Extra-territorial languages are also an important part of the equation: maintenance of such languages is a sign of engagement in the development of local cultural diversity and a politics of inclusion of the “other”. This is often also a sign of engagement in transnational cultures other than the Anglophone or the francophone. Ethnic community media are in fact global media: not only Spanish but Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, as well as many other less massively populous language cultures, are transnationally networked in media production and reception across the continents.
