Language and Nationality: Social inferences, cultural differences, and linguistic misconceptions

Description

Language both reflects and reproduces social inclusions and exclusions; the language a person speaks, and the way that they speak it, signals membership of social groupings. But what role does language play in the formation and perpetuation of our ideas about ethnicity and nationality? Language and Nationality investigates this question and the pernicious consequences of the notion that ethnicity, nationality and language are naturally and exclusively connected. Beginning with an examination of how language helps to shape and influence a person’s sense of individual and collective identity, Pietro Bortone discusses the role that language has, or is believed to have, in the formation of ethnic and national communities. Showing how language, as both a channel for a national(ist) outlook and a national(ist) symbol in itself, came to be seen as the key indicator of both ethnicity and nationality, this book uncovers the far-reaching consequences the mistaken belief that a nation has a single, intrinsic language has had, and how the politicization of language can unite, but also dramatically divide, communities. Whilst language plays, and has always played, a major role in expressing and defining people’s identities, this book demonstrates that the idea that language, ethnicity and nationality are intrinsically linked is a misleading result of our intellectual history, and one which has had a significant cost. Cover Contents Preface 1 Language labelling us explicitly Names Surnames 2 Ways of speaking Nurture and nature in linguistic peculiarities: gender Expressed linguistic dislikes Underlying social dislikes Examples: vocabulary, accent, syntax, whole languages Real repercussions of linguistic attitudes Writing and its consequences 3 Preference for the linguistically similar Language as a social border Linguistic accommodation Linguistic divergence Bilingualism Second language learning 4 Linguistic diversity The different features of other languages Equal complexity but not quite Differences in lexical semantics The position of multilinguals New words are coined or adopted 5 Culture hidden in the language Culture in the etymology Presumed translations Implicit connotations and culture references Cultural nuances in cognates Cultural explanations for lexical gaps English words reflecting English concepts Linguistic notions of (im)politeness Language-based collective images How to not say things 6 The effects of languages on cognition The ‘Sapir-Whorf ’ hypothesis Popular perceptions and Sapir-Whorf Concrete evidence for linguistic relativity Imposing an outlook together with a language? Considerations against the ‘Sapir-Whorf hypothesis’ Thinking beyond language 7 Let there be a nation Nations and ethnicities The emergence of nations Maps and borders The rise of nations Consequences of the ideal of the nation state The nation-based outlook 8 Creating nations and languages Teaching a national identity The importance of writing Religious texts National literature, arts, and history Language creating nationality Language conferring perdurance 9 Consequences of national languages Nations formed in parallel with their standard languages Merits of a national language Prescriptivism and anti-prescriptivism among modern linguists Imposing whose standard? Language as individual capital Contesting the concept of native speaker 10 More consequences of national languages Overstating the language Increased requests for ‘language’ status Stressing or fabricating differences between languages Purism Insisting on language boundaries Intolerance towards minority languages The fears underlying the opposition to alloglossy Rejecting the language of the ‘other’ – but not always More tolerance in pre-national times Campaigners for the national language 11 Language and nationality, a hasty equation Equating language and nationality The equation in philology The rise of the equation The effects of the equation The merits of the equation Problems with the equation Epilogue Bibliography Index