Language and Nationalism

Ch 2 of Language, Society, and Identity by John Edwards

Language, Identity, Nation

• How/Where/When do these concepts get linked?

• The linking of these three concepts “is in large part a product of the German romanticism of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries”.

Three main German philosophers

• Who were the three main German philosophers who contributed to the formation of ideas of nationalism and linked nationalism to language?

Johann Gottfried Herder

Wilhelm von Humboldt

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

The Rise of Linguistic Nationalism

• 1772 Johann Gottfried Herder asserts the identity of language and nationhood -- a nation cannot exist without its language.

• Ancestral language = national continuity• A Romantic reaction to rationalist Enlightenment• Self vs. Other – Who is the “Other” here?• The “Other” is French, and rejection of superiority

of French culture

Quotes from Herder’s prize essay

• “Has a nation anything more precious than the language of its fathers?”

• “What a treasure language is when kinship groups grow into tribes and nations. Even the smallest of nations…cherishes in and through its language the history, the poetry and songs about the great deeds of its forefathers. The language is its collective treasure.”

Herder’s contemporary, Wilhelm von Humboldt

• (philologist and brother of the famous scientist)• Foreshadowed Whorfian relativism• Language is the “spiritual exhalation” of the

nation• “Its language is its spirit and its spirit is its

language”• “Language is the formative organ of thought”

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

• 1807 Addresses to the German nation• Germans are the only Europeans who

remained in their original location and developed their original language (instead of borrowing from Latin)

• German language and nation are superior• Adoption of foreign elements weakened a

nation’s language

Quotes from Fichte

• “men are formed by language far more than language is formed by men”

• The infiltration of Latin influence produced “a lack of seriousness about social relations, the idea of self-abandonment, and the idea of heartless laxity”

• Germans are the natural inheritors of the Greek legacy

• German nation and language are superior

The Germans were not alone…

• What other nation espoused similar ideas at that time?

• French philosophers of the time (Maurras, Limoge) promoted French as the European language of sophistication and culture

• But Germans did lead the way• “The notion that nations are really language

groups, and therefore that nationalism is a linguistic movement, derives from Herder’s influence” (Smith 1971)

Language and Nationalism

• Is the link between language and nationalism essential?

• The link between language and nationalism is not essential, but it is powerful and attractive to nationalist movements

• “emphasis upon language follows the growth of nationalistic fervor; it does not create it”

Linguistic purity: Academies and dictionaries

• Policies of linguistic purity are based on misunderstanding of facts of language

• Concept of language purity is older than linguistic nationalism

• Linguistic prescriptivism and national consciousness have become closely entwined

History of Institutionalized Linguistic Purism

• 1582 Academia della Crusca in Florence

• 1635 Académie Française – By far the most influential – Populated from ranks of church, nobility,

military (linguistic training is rare)– Failed to produce a good dictionary due to lack

of expertise– Continues to “protect” French from English…

History of Institutionalized Linguistic Purism, cont’d.

• 1713 Real Academia Espanola– Produced dictionary and grammar

– Spawned associated academies in Spanish New World

– Led primarily by linguists

• Other academies: Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Ethiopia, Sweden, Hungarian, German, Hebrew, Russian

• What’s missing?

There is NO English language academy

• Anglo-Saxon aversion to linguistic engineering

• Dictionaries are one-man projects, not the work of committees (James Murray’s OED, Noah Webster)

• De facto status makes official recognition of English unnecessary in US and elsewhere

Lingua franca

• May assume symbolic significance in the language-identity link

• Greek (Near & Middle East 4th cent BC), Latin (Europe through 17th cent), French, Arabic, English, pidgins & creoles

Pidgin vs. Creole

• Do you know the difference?

Pidgin vs. Creole

• Do you know the difference?

• Pidgin is a limited code used for a specific purpose

• Creole is created when a pidgin is learned as a native language and extended into all the functions of a full language

Do you agree?

• Einar Haugen 1972: “when the time is ripe, we will move beyond the nation, into world government, and with it we will find our way to a world language”

Assessments of Nationalism

• What are the factors that contribute to nationalism?

• Based on same sense of groupness that informs ethnicity

• No objective criteria are necessary

• A non-rational phenomenon

19th c criticisms of nationalism

• Lord Acton -- nationalism erodes personal liberty• John Stuart Mill -- favorably disposed toward

unity of gov’t and nation, but in-group solidarity may lead toward prejudice against others

• Renan -- nationalism depends not on any characteristics, but on will, sense of sharing, and capacity to forget certain things of the past; nationalism may also be temporary (cf. prediction of EU)

20th c views on nationalism

• Kedourie -- nationalism is another set of shackles, seeking redress for past injustices, it creates new conflicts and catastrophes

• Smith -- nationalism has positive features too and inspires culture, research

• Fishman -- nationalism and ethnicity are not inherently negative

More 20th c views on nationalism

• Marx-Lenin -- nationalism should be replaced by proletarian internationalism, and struggles should follow class lines instead

• Toynbee -- saw nationalism as backward, retarding progress, within a capitalist framework

More 20th c views on nationalism

• Porter -- ethnicity is regressive, promotes and sustains ethnic stratification, is historically naïve, and acts against the best interests of individuals.

Discussion point

• Are nationalism and conservativism inevitably linked? What examples and counterexamples can we find?

Does nationalism look backward or forward?

• Fishman 1972: “Nationalism is not so much backward-oriented…as much as it seeks to derive unifying and energizing power from widely held images of the past in order to overcome a quite modern kind of fragmentation and loss of identity”

Edwards’ own view

• [Nationalism] “is a force which attempts to counter the inevitable. A more sinister interpretation is that nationalism seeking to repair or forestall social fragmentation is also an exercise in power…leads inevitably to a striving over others.”

Potential perils of nationalism

• What are possible negative effects of nationalism?

• Promotion of “us-and-them” boundaries• De-emphasis of individual rights & interests• Hardening of group interest into perceived

superiority and racism• Romantic yearnings for an imagined past• Often reactionary and regressive

Why is nationalism not always dangerous?

• Nationalism is often latent -- it is a feeling that is not always translated into action

• It is neither good nor bad and “passively treasured by nearly all citizens of modern societies, even if they do not know it” (Seton-Watson). We are ALL members of groups…

What is the solution?

• To stress human rights above group rights

• Remember that nationalism is a lasting force, one to be reckoned with