Multilingualism
“Most of us in the industrialized countries of
North America, Western Europe, and
Australasia tend to take the concept of the
nation-state and its associated national standard
language for granted, but, in fact, both of these
are the outcome of centuries of struggles among
competing political and economic groups to
advance their own interests” (Foley 2001: 398).
Multilingualism
• Modern nations and multilingual
• The result of contact
• 5000 to 8000 languages worldwide
• USA: 27 ethnic groups: 230 languages
Bakhtin (1981)
• Centripetal forces of language:
---political and institutional forces
---Imposition of one variety code over others
• Centrifugal forces of language:
---forces pushing speakers away from a common
code or language
---multilingualism
---differentiation
Tewa, Arizona (Kroskrity 1993)
• Long history of contact (Hopi)
• Links between identity and language
• Some symbols only available to Tewa
• Language medium of identity expression
Catalan, Spain (Woodlard 1989)
• Political control by central government
• Imposition of language code
---Centripetal forces: school system, media
• High status in Catalonia
Basis of Linguistic Problems
• Economic and political
• Result in war, genocide
---Yugoslavia, Rwanda
---Hutus and Tootsies
Man: Could you tell me where the French test is?
Recep: Pardon? (“Pardon?”)
Man: Could you tell me where the French test is?
Recep: En Français (“In French”)
Man: I have the right to be addressed in English
by the government of Quebec according to Bill
101.
Recept: (To a third person) Qu’est-ce qu’il dit?
(“What’s he saying?”)
Language Status (Multilingual
Nations)
• Canada and India
• Issues contributing to language status:
---Ethnicity
---Race
---Political and social power of native
speakers
India
• Indo-Aryan (74), Dravidian (24), AustroAsiatic (1,5) and Tibeto-Burman (0.7)
• Hindi official language + 14 state official
languages
• English elite language and the second
language of millions
• Mass communication affects minority
languages
Kamala Das
I don’t know politics but I know the names
Of those in power, and can repeat them like
Days of week, or names of months, beginning with
Nehru. I am Indian, very brown, born in
Malabar, I speak three languages, write in
Two, dream in one. Don’t write in English, they said,
English is not your mother tongue. Why not leave
Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins,
Every one of you? Why not let me speak in
Any other language I like? The language I speak
Becomes mine, its distortions, its queernesses
All mine, mine alone…. (In Valentine, 2004)
Canada
• Two different cultural and linguistic
identities(linguistic majority French in
Quebec)
• Economic and politics controlled by Anglo
interests until the 1970’s
• Calls for independence
• Official language act1969 : bilingual
education,
• Referendum 1995
• Reversal of fortunes in Quebec
Situational Use of Language
• Quebec situation
• Francophones, Anglophones and
Allophones,
• language according to situation
• Reflects attitudes
Summary
• In all societies some people speak more
than one language
• Conflict are based on economic and
political conditions but appear as linguistic
issues
• India and canada good examples of
multilingualism: