GermanlanguageLinguistic imperialism occurs when the language of a large or dominant population or the language of power transfers to other people in the same or neighboring areas. There are many types of linguistic imperialism and many causes of it. Causes include immigration, conquest, trade and cultural superiority. The spread of religions that transcend local cultures and languages can also cause linguistic imperialism. Such changes in language can be forced or can take place through natural changes. Acts of linguistic imperialism have taken place throughout the world’s history.
Not all of these cases have been successful. After 1066, the Franco-Normans attempted to make French, or rather the Norman dialect of French, the national language. After 300 years, they eventually gave up trying and learned English. The Hungarians resisted centuries of attempts by Ottoman Turks and later Habsburg Austrians to make Hungarian illegal. Immigration is a large cause of linguistic imperialism. This is most often seen as the act of an invading or migrating people making others learn their language.
At the end of the Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries AD, a number of Germanic peoples moved westward into the Empire’s territories. Of those invading powers, many took control of the area, but their responses to the indigenous language varied. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes managed to eradicate the language of the native Romano-British. On the other hand, the Franks who invaded Gaul and the Ostragoths, who invaded Iberia, both adopted the language of the native population. Large-scale linguistic imperialism occurred during the colonial era.
The Essay on How are language changes associating with different people
Identifying the features of different kinds of speech is the first step in understanding spoken language. The second is hearing how speech changes to fit different contexts. These can be different places (such as the playground, a doctor's surgery, a law court or a job interview) and different audiences (eg adults, friends, potential employers). Key to each context is purpose - why we are having ...
It first began with the Portuguese in Brazil, the Spanish in Mesoamerica and the English in North America, but widened to large parts of the world. In most cases, new countries and new territories covered a wide patchwork of linguistic groups. In these cases, the dominant colonial power imposed its language on the native population for the system of government. In some countries, like those of the Spanish empire, the colonial language became the majority language. In other countries, as seen in India, it became a language used to unite disparate linguistic groups.
In these cases, an imposed language, while often resented for its imposition, works as a unifying force and a means of preventing the imposition of the language group on the rest of the country. The imposed language becomes a second language to many people. The rise of nationalism across Europe and in other countries has caused linguisticimperialism on a more local or national level. Political leaders and members of the dominant ethnic or linguistic group within the country wanted to develop a sense of nationhood, collectivity and singleness by downgrading minority languages.
This has seen the many small languages of regions from Cornish and Breton to Dalmatian and Yaeyama-go reduced to historic fossils and dialects. A dominance of culture can cause another kind of linguistic imperialism. The idea ofimperialism is the imposition of power by one group over another. The dominance of a dialect or language can be spread by arts and culture in the form of music, television shows and music. The power and wealth of American popular culture has had a great linguistic impact on countries and peoples around the world, including those countries that already speak English.
Robert Phillipson’s influential 1992 book, Linguistic Imperialism It is defined as ‘’the transfer of a dominant imperial language to the native language of the colony” Phillipson’s theory critiques the historic spread of English as an international language and that language’s continued dominance, particularly in postcolonial settings such as India, Pakistan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, etc. , but also increasingly in “neo-colonial” settings such as continental Europe.
The Essay on Studying the English language in an English-Speaking country
Studying a language is a great advantage for our lives. If we can learn language like English, it is better to learn in a country such as Britain, Australia etc., but there are another ways to learn English. Hence, Studying English in a native speaking country is better, but it is not only way to learn English. In native English speaking countries, they have been organizing their all academic ...
His theory draws mainly on Johan Galtung’s imperialism theory, Antonio Gramsci’s social theory, and in particular on his notion of cultural hegemony. A central theme of Phillipson’s theory is the complex hegemonic processes which, he asserts, continue to sustain the pre-eminence of English in the world today. His book analyzes the British Council’s use of rhetoric to promote English, and discusses key tenets of English applied linguistics and English-language-teaching methodology. These tenets hold that: English is best taught monolingually (“the monolingual fallacy”); • the ideal teacher is a native speaker (“the native-speaker fallacy”); • the earlier English is taught, the better the results (“the early-start fallacy”); • the more English is taught, the better the results (“the maximum-exposure fallacy”); • if other languages are used much, standards of English will drop (“the subtractive fallacy”).
According to Phillipson, those who promote English—organizations such as the British Council, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and individuals such as operators of English-language schools—use three types of argument: Intrinsic arguments describe the English language as providential, rich, noble and interesting. Such arguments tend to assert what English is and what other languages are not. • Extrinsic arguments point out that English is well-established: that it has many speakers, and that there are trained teachers and a wealth of teaching material. • Functional arguments emphasize the usefulness of English as a gateway to the world. Other arguments for English are • its economic utility: it enables people to operate technology; • its ideological function: it stands for modernity; its status as symbol for material advance and efficiency. CHECK the link Linguistic imperialism: a critical study http://rua. ua. es/dspace/bitstream/10045/5212/1/RAEI_18_04. pdf Language Empires, Linguistic Imperialism, and the Future of Global Languages http://www. hamel. com. mx/Archivos-PDF/Work%20in%20Progress/2005%20Language%20Empires. pdf Linguistic imperialism, cultural integrity, and EIL http://203. 72. 145. 166/ELT/files/55-4-1. pdf introduction: The English language is being learned by more and more people around the world, with its global status growing daily.
The Essay on A Global Language: English Language
English is an international language spoken all over the world that was originally borrowed from the world. If English is used as a global language, there might be some advantages related to communication and business. However, there are also several disadvantages in terms of losing mother tongue and taking time and money. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages, so English should be made the ...
It is being established as the preferred international language in numerous global domains. The exceptional spread of English most likely began during the early years of the British Colonial Empire which established the language as a ‘lingua franca’ among the various people that were colonized. The advancement of the English language into domains previously held by minority languages, starting out from the inner circle moving toward the outer rim, is considered by linguists as language shift. For instance, the Maori language in New Zealand was slowly displaced by English in most domains until its recent comeback.
Language shift could in effect lead to language death, whereby a majority language, such as English, becomes a ‘killer language’ and completely eradicates other minority languages. This was certainly the case with several Aboriginal and North-Amerindian languages which were, in a sense, ‘killed’ by the English language. In effect, language shift and language death, at the hands of the English language, are persuasive signs of English Language Imperialism. Being alarmed by the effects of ELI, certain governments implement language planning which legislates the mandatory use of their native languages in various domains.
There are compelling arguments illustrating that English has imperialist tendencies, however, counter-arguments show that English lacks ‘imperialist’ qualities on the basis that it is accepted and learned by ‘choice’, therefore, since there is little or no ‘force’ exerted on nations and people to permit it into their lives, it should be viewed as ‘non-imperialist’. This argument tends to put forth the ideas that ‘English is neutral’ and that ‘English is democratic’. LI. Phillipson, for instance, defines LI as follows:
In my usage, linguistic imperialism is a theoretical construct, devised to account for linguistic hierarchisation, to address issues of why some languages come to be used more and others less, what structures and ideologies come to be used more and others less, what structures and ideologies facilitate such processes, and the role of language professionals. … Linguistic Imperialism is a subtype of linguicism … linguicism studies attempt to put the sociology of language and education into a form which furthers scrutiny of how language contributes to unequal access to societal power and how linguistic hierarchies operate and are legitimated. Linguistic imperialism takes place within an overarching structure of North/South relations, where language interlocks with other dimensions, cultural (particularly in education, science and the media), economic and political. (Phillipson, 1997:238-239) Phillipson employs the term ‘linguistic imperialism’, theoretically, as a means of stating that languages are hierarchized, in an attempt to deal with the reasons why some languages get used more than others and to figure out what principles lie behind this and the role language teachers play.
The Essay on The Role of Shipping in International Economic Integration
With this reason, shipping plays an important role in international economic integration . In this essay, I will look at deeply how shipping is important for the international economic integration through international trade. My essay consists of 3 parts. After introducing the objective of this paper, the role of maritime transport in international trade are described. On the other hand, the ...
His use of the term ‘linguicism’ (Phillipson, 1997:240) in his definition points towards a biased system whereby a scheme of linguistic hierarchisation contributes to keeping people in their assigned positions based on language use. That is to say, ‘linguistic power’ helps to maintain hegemony. He affirms that the North/South – otherwise known as Kachru’s inner/periphery circles of language speakers – relationship is shaped by cultural, economic and political dimensions.
Or rather, the Northerly (inner circle) countries exercise political, economic and cultural influences on the Southern ones (outer & expanding circles) (Appendix 1), through the relatively high status their languages enjoy in the South (periphery).
The second definition is by Knowles: Seen in its simplest terms, language imperialism involves the transfer of a dominant language to other peoples. The transfer is essentially a demonstration of power–traditionally military power but also in the modern world economic power–and aspects of the dominant culture are usually transferred along with the language.
In view of the prestige of the dominant power and its culture, the transfer may not be imposed but actually be demanded by the peoples who adopt the dominant language. It is likely to be regarded as an intrinsically superior language and accorded alleged virtues–e. g. ,that it is more logical, more beautiful, or easier to learn than the dominated languages. Among the most successful imperial languages are Latin, Arabic, and English. … (Knowles in Encyclopedia Britannica) Knowles talks of the transfer of ‘dominant languages’ to other countries.
The Essay on Globalization, International Trade And Economic
Why richer are getting richer and poorer are getting poorer? Globalization is taken as facilitator of international trade and economic growth. There might be various parameters for the measurement of the connection between globalization, international trade and economic growth that is derived from the mobility of investment, human capital to communication and transportation that fosters ...
He maintains that languages were originally spread militarily, but in modern day terms they enjoy the support of economic constructs designed to empower them. He further states that cultures were spread along with the languages and makes it clear that this need not happen by force as the adoption of the ‘dominant languages’ could even come by way of ‘choice’. The language may be adopted because of the high status, perceived beauty and linguistic dominance it enjoys in relation to the ‘minority group language’ (Holmes, 2001:64).
‘Choice’ vs. ‘Force’ – The Fine Line
While the supporters of English Language Imperialism, such as Phillipson, believe that language choices are made while outside pressures are bearing down, those in opposition, such as Davies, believe that choices are made freely on individual basis and that minority language speakers adopt English to suit their own needs (Davies, 1997:248).
David Crystal, for instance, believes that exterior languages, i. e. , French and English, are accepted due to the economic, political and religious influences exerted on any given society by the respective external powers (Crystal, 2003:11).
In effect, societies are under no direct ‘force’ to allow entry for the incoming language. Crystal further states that it takes a military might to ‘establish’ a language, however, an economic power is required to ‘maintain’ and ‘expand’ it (Crystal, 2003: 10).
With this in mind, it could be said that while the British Colonial Army spread the English language as a ‘lingua franca’ (Wardhaugh, 1998: 55), a contact language nonnative to all parties, it is now the economic might of the United States that keeps it in its esteemed international position (Crystal, 1997 in Zughoul, 2003).
The Essay on Official Language English America People
America And The English Language Essay, Research America And The English Language America and the English Language To what degree do the words you use define the person you are? This is a central question in the hotly debated issue of making English the official language of the United States. If English did become the official language, the rights of people who do not speak English would be ...
That is, while initially imperialism was evident, what followed is simply a matter of economic related ‘choices’ rather than ‘force’. According to Widdowson, ‘force’ is essential for English Language Hegemony to exist and if a language is adopted by choice it should be considered non-imperialist on the premise that if there was hegemonic control it could not be challenged (1998:398).
Inaccordance with this hypothesis, if the English language is freely accepted by minority language speakers, it would be wrong to label it as imperialist.
In contrast, Knowles states that even though the dominant language may well be invited into a country, it still could be deemed an ‘imperialist language’. I also believe that ‘choice’ may play little relevance since, in my view, it is the underlying hegemony, whether the English language is imposed or elected, which is a central determining factor in English Language Imperialism. To expand on my hypothesis, the following metaphorical representation of the Ancient Romans should now be looked at: – Many of the people conquered by the Ancient Romans simply gave in by ‘choice’.
The Roman strategy was to avoid teaching people their religion and way of life just to make them become more Roman and, instead, get the people to swear allegiance to Rome while still being able to keep their own way of life. Consequently many nations willingly joined the Roman Empire without a fight (Tyler, 2004).
As follows, whether conquered by ‘force’ or ‘choice’ the conquered people nevertheless became a part of the ‘Empire’ and few historians would be willing to state otherwise. Consequently the English Language can similarly be invited in and still be considered as being imperialist.
After all, it is indefatigably being established as the new International Language and this is a persuasive sign of a new Global Linguistic Empire (GLE) on the rise. English as an International Language With the new GLE on its way to becoming progressively more established, the benefits of learning English, the new International Language, may perhaps outweigh the disadvantages. For instance, learning English as a global ‘lingua franca’ could prove extremely beneficial for its speakers in securing business deals and forming partnerships.
Furthermore, even though English is well behind Chinese (Mandarin) when it comes to the number of native speakers it has (Appendix 3), it makes it up in the total number of speakers category which is anywhere between 570 million to1. 68 billion according to Kachru (Appendix 1).
Moreover, English is overwhelmingly ranked ‘number one’ when it comes to the estimated economic strength it possesses in the new global financial system (Appendix 4).
Additionally, 28% of all books published globally are in English, with Chinese falling second at just 13. % (Appendix 2).
Moreover, scientist from around the world may very well fail to achieve world recognition unless they publish their papers in English. German physicists, for example, claim 98% of their working language to be English, while chemists from the same country say; for them it is 83% (Appendix 5).
78% of all medical papers, 33% of newspapers, 85% of films and 99% of popular music on a global scale are released or published in English, along with 80% of all websites and 85% of international organizations set up in English (Crystal, in Mckay, 2006).
Also, to be able to entertain a worldly audience, a writer should transcribe his/her work into the international medium of English. Phillipson points out, for example, that Chinua Achbe, a Nigerian fluent in his mother tongue, chose to use English instead as it allows for reaching an international audience and thus maximizing his monetary gains (Bisong, 1995).
Phillipson believes that the Nigerian languages are so “immaterial” that the legitimacy of English is simply unattested, and thus Ashby’s report in English is a clear indication of ‘English as an imperialist language’ (Phillipson, in Bisong, 1995:124).
What is more, English has become the official language used by the ‘European Central Bank’, despite the fact that the bank is in Frankfurt and there are no predominantly English speaking nations (including Britain) as members of the ‘European Monetary Union’ (Wallraff, 2000).
At this point, it may be crucial to list Graddol’s 12 international ‘domains’ of English (1997) in order to exemplify its true qualities as an ‘international language’: |1. |English is the working language of international organizations and conferences.
Crystal (1997) reports that about 85% of| | |the international organizations now use English as one of their working languages, 49% use French and fewer than 10% use| | |Arabic, Spanish or German. English is also a major language of financial institution. | |2. |English is now the “the international currency of science and technology”. | |3. |English is the language of international banking, economic affairs and trade. | |4. |It is the language of advertising for global brands. | |5. |It is the language of audio-visual/cultural-products (e. g. film, TV, popular music).
| |6. |It is the language of international tourism. | |7. It is the language of tertiary education. | |8. |It is the language of international safety (e. g. “airspeak”, “seaspeak”).
| |9. |It is the language of international law. | |10. |It is a “relay language” in interpretation and translation. | |11. |It is the language of technology transfer. | |12. |It is the language of Internet communication | (Graddol in Zughoul, 2003) It should be evident form Graddol’s list that English plays a leading role within the international community, therefore, the enticement to learn English for some people may be irresistible.
Many even find that acquiring English is not a ‘choice’ but a necessity they can not live without. Along these lines, Holmes states that Minority groups are increasingly prone to surrender to mounting pressures to take on the dominant group’s language (Holmes, 2001:55).
For example, a number of my students in Korea are finding it progressively more essential to acquire English so they can attain better jobs. In my opinion, this bolsters the credibility of the Linguistic Imperialism Hypothesis as the element of ‘choice’ is becoming gradually less available. English a ‘Killer Language’
While English is considered by some scholars as a ‘killer language’ ( Holmes, 2001:55 & Crystal, 2003:20), by no means is it impossible to revive a language once a total ‘language shift’ has occurred. Nevertheless, ‘language death’ is difficult to reverse. In most cases, once a language dies, it is seldom revived. Many Amerindian and Australian Aboriginal languages, for example, were completely overtaken by English, Spanish and Portuguese, although several of them are still alive but have regardless been casualties of ‘Language Shift’ (NRC, 2004 & Cavallaro, 2005).
Of the 100 remaining North Amerindian Languages 50 are considered to be endangered (URC, 2003).
Be that as it may, it should be noted that the Central and South Amerindian languages were mainly victimised by Spanish and Portuguese. However the majority of North Amerindian and the Australian Aboriginal languages fell victim to predominantly English, with French also playing a role in Upper North America (Crystal, 2003:21).
The above is surely a sign indicating that, at least in the past, English was a ‘killer’ and an ‘imperialist’ language beyond any reasonable doubt.
Nevertheless, it could be argued that it was actually the former British Army which is responsible for its previous colonial imperialist practices and not the language per se, but conversely it might be more fitting to propose that the English language should share a portion of the blame since, at least at the time of British Colonialization, it embodied its respective imperialist culture. To elaborate, language and culture could be considered as being closely related even though the relationship is often hidden from view (Wardhaugh, 1998: 229).
Bernstein, for instance, views language as influencing culture and vice versa (Wardhaugh, 1998: 326) while Whorf goes further by claiming that “the relationship between language and culture was a deterministic one” (Whorf in Wardhaugh, 1998: 216-217); the ‘Whorfian Hypothesis’. That is to say, languages, in effect, shape the way individuals view the world and thus the way they act (Swoyer, 2003).
As follows, since languages can be seen as such integrated parts of their respective cultures, the English language should share at least a portion of the blame with the former British Colonial Army for its culture-induced imperialist practices.
Government Legislation – Language Planning Bearing in mind the foregoing reasoning, the French Canadians go to great lengths in countering the English language influence on their ‘French’ culture. To elaborate; the province of Quebec, Canada has elected to remain out of the Canadian constitution which states that all provinces in Canada are obliged to support French-English bilingualism in an effort to hold onto the use of the French language in all domains. – Unlike the rest of Canada, French is the only official language in Quebec and store signs must be in French with English only allowed in small print.
Even the stop signs read ‘ARRET’ (stop in French), while in France all stop signs read ‘STOP’. Also, children of newly arrived immigrants to Canada are legally required to attend French language schools. – (Corrigan, 2006) Similarly, other governments around the word, i. e. , China and France have created legislations in way of language planning that require TV and Radio stations to play mainly native content, thus, restricting access to English language programs (Kennedy, Knowles, Caldas-Coulthard and Coulthard, 2001:76 & China ‘bans primetime Simpsons’ BBC Online News).
Overall, a number of governments struggle hard to prevent English from infiltrating their respective native tongues by way of ‘language shift’. They are, in effect, countering the effects of English Language Imperialism. Language Shift Language shift occurs when an incoming language gradually overtakes the native tongue one domain at a time. Ralph Fasold advocates that in order for ‘language shift’ (Holmes, 2001:52) to occur, a community must willingly give up its identity only to take on a new identity as part of the incoming community.
Often times the infiltrating community is a larger group that exercises social control over the minority group being taken over (Fasold, 1984:240).
Language shift is frequently the result of political and economic pressures, i. e. , to learn the incoming language to get work. People may shift not only their language but their location as well. For instance, the Gaelic, Welsh and Scottish, in the last few decades, have moved to England and to the English language in the hope of finding jobs.
But of course if the majority group does the physical moving, the result still ends up being the same, with language shift occurring in a similar fashion (Holmes, 2001:55) as occurred when English speaking European settlers moved to Australia and North-America, causing the indigenous languages -minority languages- to fall victims to the imperialist mechanisms of the English language -majority language- (URC, 2003 & Cavallaro, 2005).
In the majority of cases language shift takes place in one direction with the minority group’s language being taken over by that of the dominant majority group (Holmes, 2001:56).
The lower status of the minority language does little to spur the dominant group to learn it while the esteem associated with the majority language is a highly motivating factor for minority groups to adopt the dominant tongue. Not only does the majority language get used almost exclusively in the political arena, but it is also the lingo of the stars young people hold in high regard. Consequently, the majority language has the tendency to exhibit glamorous qualities which many minority language speakers find simply irresistible (Holmes, 2001:55).
For instance, English is the dominant language of popular music and the movie industry that young people find admiration in and is already established as the highly esteemed international language in numerous global domains. In effect, this further bolsters support for the view that English is hegemonic and hence that English is imperialist. Language Death Language death can be abrupt in instances when all speakers are wiped out swiftly, as was the case with some Australian Aboriginal tribes as a result of social despair, diseases introduced by European settlers and being killed by the settlers themselves (Hughes, 2007:10).
Nonetheless, if language death occurs slowly it can appear similar to language shift, whereby the minority language is taken over by the majority language one domain at a time. Once older generations of proficient speakers die out, younger generations less proficient in the minority language gradually lose the ability to communicate in it. (Holmes, 2001:57) Language Death sets in when there are no more speakers of the language in question. This could, in effect, be added as the ninth stage of ‘Fishman’s (1991) eight stages of language decay/death’:
Stage 8 The Language is spoken by a few isolated older people. It is close to extinction. Stage 7 There are cultural events and ceremonies. Stage 6 Children are learning language from parents, neighborhood, and community. Stage 5 There is local literacy in the community, literacy programs in native languages. Stage 4 The language is in the schools. Stage 3 The language is in the work sphere. Stage 2 The language is in the local mass media, local government. Stage 1 The language exists at the highest levels in government, universities, national media. (Fishman in Language Loss in Micronesia)