PROBLEMS FACED BY LINGUISTIC

MINORITIES
A minority language is language spoken by a minority of the
population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic
minorities or language minorities. By demographic definitions,
'Minority languages are those whose speakers are fewer than
those of another groups, within a defined area. By Socio - political
definition, 'Minority languages are those which a given population
perceives to be minority ones or even those languages whose
speakers feel their language as threatened. By Ethno - social
definitions, minority language is based on four criteria : "self -
categorization, common descent, distinctive linguistic, cultural or
historic traits related to language, social organization of
interaction of language groups in such a fashion that the group
becomes placed in a minority position". Support for minority
languages is sometimes viewed as supporting separatism, for
example the ongoing revival of the Celtic languages in the British
Isles and France (Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Gaelic, Manx, Cornish,
and Breton). The dominant culture may consider the use of
immigrant minority languages to be a threat to unity, indicating
that such communities are not integrating into larger culture. A
linguistic minority in a state doe not have as much liberty to
exercise linguistic skills as the natives of the state. They initially
try to learn the jargon in order to cope with the day - to - day life
activities and finally begin to understand the native language with
regular interaction. At workplace and educational organizations,
English or the link language helps a lot to cope up with the work
and learning process. But, when it comes to understanding the
basic norms of the society, in order to socialize, one does face a
sort of linguistic barrier during communication. Linguistic
minorities are segregated from the rest of the community by their
language, which limits their opportunities in terms of education,
employment and in general economic and political life. They have
access only to a very limited proportion of the information
generated in society, as media and government are not able or
willing to provide more than the minimum in minority languages.
Their only recourse may be to give up their language and become
assimilated into culture of the dominant language, thereby losing
the unifying basis of their culture.>A minority language is spoken
by less than 50 percent of a population in a given region, stator
country. The key criterion here is the size of the speaker
population within a specific geographic context i.e., an individual
language maybe a minority language in one region or state but a
major language in another. Such is the case with many immigrant
languages, whose speakers may continue to be majority in the
homeland but have smaller speaker bases elsewhere. For
example, Spanish is a majority language in a number of countries
but a minority language in the United States overall. Minority
languages have been often been associated with shame and
backwardness. One such example is Basque language. Basque
was associated with shame and backwardness. Basque was
excluded from the public domain for many decades in the
twentieth century during Franco dictatorship in Spain. Basque
was maintained predominantly in rural areas but was forbidden to
teach at school. But after socio-economic and sociopolitical
changes, Basque language is now more widespread.>Several
language policies, often the result of language in education
policies, results in stigmatization and exclusion of minority groups.
They were prevalent in colonial contexts and continue to be
exercises in many states today. For example, indigenous children
throughout the world are subjected to monolingual education
policies with the purpose of shaming students who speak these
languages. This is also the case of autochthonous minorities
throughout Europe, of immigrant children throughout the world
and of other minorities. This shaming also include those who
speak varieties of language that are stigmatized, for example,
African American in the USA.>Language minorities today are not
openly excluded from society and education, instead other
systems exclude those who do not conform linguistically. For
example, Immigrant who do not speak the language of the state
are excluded from citizenship opportunities by language tests.
Another such example is in the UK and USA, the use of standard
English in education and assessment responds to a political
ideology of monolinguals. In the UK, the Swann report (1985)
established policy that there should not be any 'separate
provision' for language minority children and that bilingual
education should not be supported.>Many dominant languages
such as English often silence the ability to speak other minor
languages. For example, with reference to the chapter The last
lesson by Alphonse Daudet, the dominance of German over
France forced the native speakers of French to abandon their
language and learn the language of the enemies. It was hard for
them as the natives did not even get a chance to properly learn
their mother tongue and they were mocked by the Germans for
not being able to speak or write their own language. Overall, in
case of pluralistic societies more than one language may be
official, but one language may predominate over the others, giving
greater opportunities to one group. In societies when only one
language is official other language groups may consist of
immigrants or colonized indigenous people. If immigrants learn
the official language imperfectly or simply prefer their own, a
ghetto situation arises, creating a very closed - in community,
perpetuating its own education and community life apart from the
community at large and often at a lower level, leaving the way
open for social conflicts. Indigenous people may be officially
deprived if their language in order to 'nationalize' them and poor
linguistic communication may make it difficult for national
authorities to render adequate social services. Moreover,
Language is inherent to culture and identity. The authority of
human beings is redistricted to false boundaries that can be
controlled. Nature and other things cannot be governed by some
superficial laws of people. Every person deserves to pursue and
act upon their own choices even regarding their language,
religion, environment etc.
 HISTORICAL EVENTS WHEN
LINGUISTIC IDENTITY WAS
THREATENED
Mother tongue helps a person to express his feelings and
thoughts most lucidly and intimately. Conquerors try to subdue
and control the people of the enslaved territory by enforcing many
measures such as use of force to crush dissent and imposing
their own language on them. From time immemorial the victorious
nations have imposed their own language on the conquered
people and taken away their own language from them. The
Romans conquered many parts of Europe and replaced the local
languages by their own language— Latin. Later on Spanish,
Portuguese, Italian and French developed from Latin. The Muslim
invaders imposed Arabic and Persian in the countries of Asia
overpowered by them. In many Arab countries the local religion
and language have disappeared. In India, a new language Urdu
developed from the mixture of Persian and Hindi. During
colonization, colonizers usually imposed their language on the
colonized people, forbidding natives to speak their mother tongue.
In some cases, colonial regimes systematically prohibited native
languages. Many writers educated under colonization recount
how students were demoted, humiliated, or even beaten for
speaking their native language in colonial schools. (a) The
Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons) over the course of six
centuries, conquered the native Brythonic people of what is now
England and south east Scotland and imposed their culture and
language upon them. (b) When Puerto Rico became a possession
of the United States, as a consequence of the Spanish-American
War, its population was then almost entirely of Spanish and mixed
Afro-Caribbean Spanish descent. Thus, they retained the Spanish
language bequeathed to them as the mother tongue while the
Americans imposed English as the co-official language. (c)
Written with the Latin alphabet, Estonian is the language of the
Estonian people and the official language of the country. The
oldest known examples of written Estonian originate in 13th
century chronicles. During the Soviet era, Russian was imposed
upon Estonians as the language to be used for official purpose.
(d) The conquests of territories by Napoleon led to an imposition
of French language on the people of the conquered areas as the
official language in all the territory. As the influence of French
(and in the Channel Islands, English) spread among sectors of
provincial populations, cultural movements arose to study and
standardize the vernacular languages. (e) A language imposed
500 years ago on the indigenous people of Brazil by their
conquerors has made a comeback in recent years. (f) As a
literary language, Venetian was overshadowed by the Tuscan
'dialect' and by the French languages. After the demise of the
Republic, Venetian gradually ceased to be used for
administrative purposes; and when Italy was unified, in the 19th
century, the Tuscan language was imposed as the national
language of Italy. Since that time Venetian, deprived of any official
status, has steadily lost ground to Italian. At present, virtually all
its speakers are bilingual and use Venetian only in an informal
context.
FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR (1870)
After the defeat in the war Prussia gained the control of French
districts Alsace and Lorraine which served as the centres for
Prussian army during the war. Due to the large presence of
Prussian soldiers and gaining control over these districts Prussian
army started imposing its culture and German language on the
people living here. Orders regarding teaching of only the German
language in schools were passed and those who knew how read
and write French were forced to flee. This was done to demean
the French language and to crush the spirits of the native people
so they can’t revolt in the future against the Prussian hegemony
because when the people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast
their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.

JAPANESE INVASION OF KOREA (1910-1945)

After the annexation of Korea many changes were seen in the
education system of Korea. By 1939 Japan’s focus had shifted
towards cultural assimilation of the Korean people Imperial
Decree 19 and 20 on Korean Civil Affairs went into effect,
whereby ethnic Koreans were forced to surrender their traditional
use of the clan-based Korean family name system and many
Koreans received a Japanese surnames. Integration of Korean
students in Japanese language schools steadily increased over.
While before this schools in Korea has used mostly Hanja script,
during this time Korean came to be written in a script introduced
by the Japanese. In 1982, Hangul Day (9 October) was
inaugurated, which was meant to celebrate the accelerating
Japanization of Korean culture. The Japanese administrative
policy shifts more aggressively towards cultural assimilation after
1939. This left less room for Korean language studies and by
1943 all Korean language courses had been phased out. As a
result of which teaching and speaking Korean was prohibited and
whomsoever disobeyed these orders were forced to migrate to
China.
 HOW CAN THEY KEEP THEIR
LANGUAGE ALIVE
It is very important for society to preserve their languages. This is
because it encourages the growth of culture and social progress.
The steps taken to promote the propagation of native languages
encourage linguistic diversity and cultural traditions in the world,
which inspires solidarity based on understanding, indulgence, and
discourse. Most of these languages under threat of extinction are
due to powerful languages such as English, French, Spanish, and
German. Languages are the most important tools of
communication. They help reflect the view of the world according
to the different communities that speak marginalized languages.
They are also tools of value systems and of cultural expressions.
Languages contribute as the dominant factor that gives identity to
various communities, groups, and individuals (Zrioka, 2012).
Despite the increased importance of technology, it has also
contributed to the extinction of the language. The age of
cyberspace and digitalization have contraries a lot towards the
extension of these languages. This is because the use of powerful
language like English has dominated the education system in
many countries. It has made young people try to learn it for a
better career (Council of Europe, 2010).
The governments should create laws to encourage the protection
of endangered languages. This can be done by setting up a
native language day. This will encourage the societies to
maintain their cultures and traditions and strengthen the unity and
cohesion of societies.
Secondly, the government can protect the use of this language
through enacting Minority Language Protection laws. Protection
laws will encourage the use of minority languages in various
departments of the government. The Minority Language
Protection laws should aim at encouraging the training of
interested people to use their native languages. This can be done
by encouraging the training of native languages in government
schools (Scott et al, 2009). In conclusion, the preservation of
languages that face extension is very important in life. This
enables the cultures in the world to have an identity to which they
can relate. There is a recent move by the General Conference of
UNESCO in 1999, whose motive is to preserve languages that
are close to extinction. The move has enabled the various
societies to have an identity. From the preservatives of linguistics,
various initiatives should be taken across the world because the
world has many languages and dialects. It is also important for
young people to learn and respect their own language. Failure to
do this, many languages and dialects shall become extinct.
 IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE
Language is a very important part of everyday life. It is used to
communicate in every aspect. Emails, conversations, signs and
symbols, are just a few examples of our way of communicating
with others, and without language this would not be possible. By
definition language is, “a body of words, symbols, signs, sounds,
gestures, and the systems for their use common to people who
are of the same community, nation or same cultural tradition”.
Language is not just the way a person talks, there is a lot more to
it than that. A person who is deaf does not use the oral aspect of
language; they use signs and gestures that were developed for
such purpose, called sign language. Written language, another
form of non verbal communication, has been used for centuries.
Some of the earliest uses of the written language were
hieroglyphics, scrolls, engravings in stone, and many others.
Throughout history the written language has enhanced and
became our second most used way of communication.
Another form of language that many do not think of is using our
sense of hearing. People have been trained in their minds to
know what people in different situations are communicating,
whether it a cry of pain, sobs from someone in tears, or the ‘honk!’
from the road raggers. Each sense plays its own role in language
which will be explained further at a later time. Symbols are a part
of our everyday life and also another part of language. Language
is a very broad and not fully understood word that is necessary in
everyday life. How? In this reading language will be broken down
so that one may understand what language is, how is used in this
nation, and furthermore how it is used universally. “Language is
more than just a means of communication” - O’Neil. Language is
used all over the world every day. “Language derives its meaning
from culture; every culture is embodied in the language it speaks.
Every language is rooted in the culture that speaks it” – Universal
Language. Language is used in every culture, and enrooted in the
regions where someone lives, but that does not change how
language is used. Language can be taken back to the beginning
of time. Symbols in caves, which have been found, photographed
and interpreted; scrolls found from the earliest teachings, to the
stone engravings, the use of language began way before those
who are living now. Without language, learning would not be
possible. As we get older we use every source of language there
is. When we learn to talk, read, write, drive, basically everything
we learn to do is learning another form of language. “As a student
you explore the cultures, communities, people and languages of
the world” - Ziegler. In school children are introduced to multi
languages. “Every culture, nation, and community has its own
language. They may write differently, speak differently, and have
different means of learning; however the use of language still
remains unchanged” - Ziegler. Language is used in the
workplace, to communicate sales, used in every aspect of
customer services, by contractors and construction workers,
janitors, politics; basically every corner of a person’s job has
language involved. Language is also used in life’s rituals. In the
car ride to work, one must use language skills to read signs, to
drive a car, those using a GPS, and to communicate with other
passengers. And also used when having a phone conversation,
when reading a book or recipes, when talking to family and
friends, and when using our senses to know what is going on
around us. Our senses play a very important role in knowing
language. Our sense of sight allows us to read the written
language. Our sense of hearing allows us to hear the words one
is trying to communicate and to hear the sounds around us that
are also communicating what is going on in our surroundings. Our
sense of touch allows us to communicate when something is hot
or cold, sharp or dull; our sense of touch communicates with our
brain even during the most intimate touches. Our sense of taste is
another form of language our body communicates with our brain.
Lastly is our sense of smell. Smell is very important, one example
is when there is a fire; the smell communicates with our brain,
which causes a chain reaction, once our brain gets the signal
from the smell, we then call emergency services, and so on.
Every aspect of our lives is a form of language. And furthermore it
is a very important part of the function of this nation.
A universal language by definition is, “any kind of expression that
is used and understood everywhere”. A universal language is
essential in today’s world. “Modern communication and transport
accelerate mass migrations from one continent to another”
- Schlesinger. Due to the high amount of travelling that is done
worldwide, a universal language is a must. Many companies have
already developed a universal language using logos that will be
recognized everywhere. “Universal language is a visual and
picture language, which will fill the need”, Universal Language.
That is exactly what companies like McDonald’s have done.
When travelling to China, France, Israel, wherever one travels
they will always recognize the ‘golden arches’. Pepsi, Coke, Nike,
Lincoln, the Olympic Rings, all are symbols (pictures) that are
recognized in every culture and nation. According Pei, the
universal language is intended to bring people of different
linguistic backgrounds together and form communication among
them to reduce the amount of misunderstandings -Pei. This
however is yet to be developed though many have tried it is yet to
come about. Speaking, writing and reading are integral to
everyday life, where language is the primary tool for expression
and communication. Studying how people use language – what
words and phrases they unconsciously choose and combine –
can help us better understand ourselves and why we behave the
way we do.

MEANING OF LINGUISTIC CHAUVINISM

Linguistic chauvinism means an aggressive and unreasonable
belief that your own language is better than all other.
Chauvinism is the unreasonable belief in the superiority or
dominance of one’s group or people who are seen as strong and
virtuous while others are considered weak , unworthy or inferior.
Linguistic chauvinist often look down or people who do not speak
their language fluently and may even try to prevent them from
learning it. When the sense of offense belonging to one’s own
language crosses the line between pride and proud, it becomes
linguistic chauvinism; If people feel good about their language and
traditions, they must have tolerance for other languages too.
Everybody has the right to follow the religion as well as speak as
per historical organization. Linguistic chauvinism is the belief that
one’s native language is better than any other. Sometimes,
linguistic chauvinism is simply a relatively harmless prejudice but
it can also have major local and ramifications that result in the
repression of other languages. For instance, in Spain, during
Franco years, the Catalan and the Basque languages were
suppressed in favor of Spain. Linguistic chauvinism is having an
absolutely extravagant pride in one’s language. M.Hamel was
deeply in love with the French language but his love does not
amount to linguistic chauvinism, though he reveals the importance
of learning one’s language. On the other hand the people of
Alsace and Lorraine were made victims of learning the language
German.

LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS

‘Language rights’ and ‘linguistic rights’ are human rights that have
an impact on the language preferences or use of state authorities,
individuals and other entities. Language rights are usually
considered broader than linguistic rights and this guide uses both
terms to discuss both the necessary minimum and possible extra
measures that should or can be taken to effectively implement the
rights of linguistic minorities. Language is central to human nature
and culture, and is one of the most important expressions of
identity. Issues surrounding language are therefore particularly
emotive and significant to linguistic minority communities seeking
to maintain their distinct group and cultural identities, sometimes
under conditions of marginalization, exclusion and discrimination.
Linguistic minorities are certain group of people whose mother
tongue is different from that of the majority language in a state or
part of a state. The constitution of India provides provisions for the
protection of the interests of the linguistic minorities.
Most of the States have a dominant language which is spoken by
majority of the people which is called as regional language. All
those who do not speak the Regional Language belong to
linguistic minorities. Three different kinds of linguistic minorities
could be identified in India and they are:
 Linguistic minorities
 Linguistic minorities with tribal affiliation
 Linguistic minorities with religious affiliation
About 36.3 million of India’s 1.2 billion strong populations (Census
2011) speak an ‘absolute minority language’, a language which in
every of India’s 28 States forms a minority. Most of those
languages are Adivasi languages. In a democracy such as India,
where people are divided in terms of religion, language, caste,
race, culture, and socio-economic factors, one of the tasks of the
framers of the Constitution of India was to devise safeguards for
the country’s different minorities. At the time of independence the
demographic scene presented a very peculiar composition. There
were politically recognized minorities, often with religious
identities, such as the Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Parsees and
Anglo-Indians (born of mixed marriages between the English and
Indians). In addition, a very large number of other cultural and
linguistic groups could be distinguished within the population and
often demanded to be recognized as scheduled castes and tribes.
In the case of India, in addition to religious and ethnic minorities,
one can also identify different types of linguistic minorities:
Speakers of minor languages (languages not included in schedule
VIII of the Constitution); Speakers of major languages who
become minorities as a result of migration (e.g., Telugu migrants
in the Kannada-speaking state of Karnataka); Speakers belonging
to scheduled castes and tribes (e.g., Gondi, Santali, etc.);
 LINGUISTIC
CHAUVINISM
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
My humble pranams at the lotus feet of her holiness Sadguru
Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Our guiding light behind all
our achievements.

First and the foremost, praises and thanks to the Almighty, the
author of knowledge and wisdom for showering countless love
and blessings upon me which gave me enough strength to make
the fruition of my effortless possible.

I would like to express my special thanks towards Brahmacharini

Nirlepamrita Chaithanya, the principal of Amrita Vidyalayam for
the guidance and Encouragement throughout my course and at
the time of my project. I express my deepest gratitude and sincere
to Mrs. Varsha A , who gave me the golden opportunity to do
this wonderful project on the topic ‘Linguistic Chauvinism’,
which also helped me in doing a lot of research and I came to
know about so many new things. I would like to thank my parents
and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this project within the
limited time frame.
ACTION PLANS FOR THE PROJECT

 Selection of topic for the project

 Approval of the topic
 Collection of data
 Preparation of a detailed report
 Presentation
 PROJECT-PORTFOLIO
INDEX
SL No TITLE PAGE NO
1 Acknowledgement
2 Objectives
3 Action plan
4 Overview
5 Material evidence
6 Introduction
7 Importance of language
8 Meaning of ‘Linguistic chauvinism’
9 Historical events when linguistic identity
was threatened
10 Problems faced by Linguistic minorities
11 How can they keep their language alive
12 Linguistic human rights
13 Conclusion
14 Bibliography
MATERIAL
EVIDENCE
 OVERVIEW
A project was conducted on the topic ‘Linguistic chauvinism’, as a
part of ASL project. The study was carried out by the students of
class XII. It was group project with five or six members in each
group. The aim of the project was to understand the problems
faced by the minority groups due to linguistic chauvinism. The
study was carried out following different steps and after consulting
with subject teachers and referring various articles. The data was
analysed and the findings were stated. A presentation was carried
out by the group after the study. There was positive attempt on
the part of the group members to provide valuable findings about
the effects of racism on our society.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 www.google.com

 www.edubirde.com
 www.ukessays.com
 www.studoc.com
 www.yourarticlelibrary.com
 English NCERT text book for class XII
 CONCLUSION
From the few examples mentioned previously it is clear that
whenever a new territory is conquered by a nation, the leaders of
that nation try to suppress any future uprising by separating the
people from their culture and language as they both play vital role
in creating a feeling of nationalism. Thus it’s very important for a
colonized/enslaved country to preserve its culture because as
quoted by Alphonse Daudet “When people are enslaved, they
hold fast to their as long as they hold fast to their language it
is as if they had the key to their prison”.
 OBJECTIVES
This project is based on Linguistic chauvinism inspired by the
theme of “The Last Lesson”-by Alphonse Daudet. The
objectives of selecting this topic are:

 Explaining Linguistic chauvinism

 Highlighting the importance of language
 Describe the concept of freedom of speech and expression
 Relationship between language and culture
 Historical events when freedom of speech and expression were
threatened
 INTRODUCTION
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an
individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas
without fear, retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to
freedom of expression has been recognised a human right in the
Universal Declaration of Human rights and International human
rights law by the United Nations. Many counts have constitutional
law that protects free speech. The freedom of expression include
any activity of seeking, receiving, and imparting information or
ideas, regardless of the medium used. Linguistic chauvinism is a
direct threat to freedom of speech and expression as it restricts a
particular group/community from communicating on their
language a language and forcefully imposing a foreign language
on them. Incidents of linguistic chauvinism have been witnessed
many times in history in different areas of the world which will be
discussed in a later art of this project.