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 Wilhelm von Johann Gottlieb
Gottfried Herder Humboldt 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 Herders 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
nationscherishes in and through its language the
history, the poetry and songs about the great deeds
of its forefathers. The language is its collective
treasure.
 Herders 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
nations 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 Herders
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 Acadmie Franaise
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, contd.
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
Whats missing?
 There is NO
English language academy
Anglo-Saxon aversion to linguistic
engineering
Dictionaries are one-man projects, not the
work of committees (James Murrays 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 govt 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 nave, 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-orientedas 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 powerleads 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