Handbook of language & ethnic identity

Chapter 6: Nationalism

by William Safran

The Role of Language

• Elements of National sentiment include: cultural heritage, history/memory, kinship (or its myth) – What role does language play?– These elements are all expressed and distributed

through a language

• What comes first – collective identity or language?– Sometimes a language has led to collective identity,

and sometimes collective identity has led to the rediscovery/elaboration of a language

Language – Nationalism – Statehood

• Nationalism: “a principle which holds that the political and national unit should be congruent”

• The national unit is usually defined via language

• But language is neither sufficient nor absolutely necessary for state building

Languages and Nonpolitical Collective Identity

• Post-colonial states – what is the status of language for them? – They have many languages and often use the

colonial language for national purposes

• How many states would we need for each language to have its own state?– If language were the sole motive for

nationhood, there would be several thousand states, not 200

Do states beget language?

• Perhaps it is the growth of nationalist sentiments that give language political importance– What are some examples?

• Jewish nationalism revived Hebrew• Institutionalization of French after Revolution• Collective religious consciousness developed into

national consciousness, which used vernaculars developed as literary languages through Bible translations

Where not to find nationalism

• There is no national consciousness that is inherited along bloodlines

• Language is not essential to the adoption of political ideologies of independent statehood

What language does and does not do

• Language protects collective identity and communal cohesion

• Language may mark distinctions that are not ethnic: social class in Greece & Norway, religion among speakers of Yiddish

• Not all language groups aspire to nationhood (size, lack of power, economic constraints, etc.)

• Sharing a language does not imply sharing a state (English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese all prove this)

What Role Does the Elite Play in Language and Nationalism?

• “intellectuals play a dominant role in the development of nationalism by manipulating language as an instrument for the expression of collective consciousness”

• Ethnic elite can restructure a dialect to serve national purposes

• But the elite is not always fluent in the “local” language

• And sometimes elite will use a language that distinguishes it from the masses

Language as an Artifact of the Political System

• Nationalism depends on place, kinship, race, memory, values, economic conditions – all these may cut across language barriers

• “national languages are almost always artificial constructs built by the same state and the same elite that constructed nationalism ideology”

• National languages are standardized and spread by education and mass media, thus by public policy

Two-way street

• Civic and ethnic forces support each other– A language facilitates the creation of a state– A state develops a language and culture

laden with state-specific ingredients

• What does this mean for other languages in a given state?– Other languages/dialects are disadvantaged

Language and Nationalism as Independent Variables

• A nation results from the collective will to live together, which does not require common language. What are some examples?– Switzerland, Belgium

• “As modern nations are built, ethnic languages are replaced by national languages, which are superior because they are idioms of “high culture”, intercommunal transactional utility, global functional significance, and/or the best expressions of a political ideology or a ‘social compact’ on which the nation is based.” – Do you agree?

Linguistic-Cultural Values and Political Values

• Some argue for a “connection between the values that define a nation and the language in which the definition is articulated” – but this seems overstated, although a common language certainly helps in creating such a definition

• Technically any nationality can be expressed in any language…

Conclusions

• Language remains an important factor of collective consciousness

• In multicultural settings, other factors of nationalism must be stressed, yet culture without language is weak

Open Questions

• Officialization of an ethnic language can– lend support to political aspirations

• or

– satisfy the demands of a minority and dampen political aspirations

– undermine the position of an elite• or

– shore up the position of an elite

Why today’s emphasis on national languages?

• To preserve & assert uniqueness in the face of: – cultural globalization– economic interdependence– weakening of traditional sovereignties– domination of large ethnic groups