The linguistic imperialism is for Robert Philippson cultural domination through the language. This is part of more general phenomenon of cultural imperialism which includes the adoption of lifestyles , the education , the music , etc.. a language group by another. It must be distinguished from the linguistic dominance, the difference is ideological: the linguistic imperialism is a will, the domination of a language is a fact, often the result of the previous, but not always.

The term "linguistic imperialism" has a low reputation. The definition is tricky. Although the phenomenon could theoretically develop in any language, those who use the term nowadays generally apply to the English.

The linguistic imperialism may be the result of a colonial power that marginalizes local languages, which are then likely to fall into disuse, or even extinct.

The linguistic imperialism is a threat to linguistic diversity and cultural. The Unesco estimates that about 6,000 languages spoken around the world, more than 2500 languages are endangered ^{Linguistic Imperialism and the Anglo-American language}

The spread of English in the British Isles

From the ^twelfth century , English rulers practiced a policy of expansion in the British Isles. First in the West of Ireland , then to Wales (won in 1282) and finally in Scotland , whose conquest suffered several setbacks and is finally completed in 1707 by the Act of Union between England and Scotland. A Scottish government has survived for centuries alongside its powerful neighbor English. In England , the French declined, largely because of the war against France. Thus, English was declared the sole language of the courts in 1362, although the application is actually much slower. Henry IV of England (1367-1413) was the first English king to have the English native speakers from the Norman Conquest. Therefore the English language will gain in prestige. In the territories conquered Celtic (Wales, East side of Ireland), the administration is in the language of the King, the English language. Local nobles, influenced by the royal power, anglicized. The little people still continued to speak their Celtic language ( Welsh , Gaelic Scottish or Irish). During the ^eighteenth century , the decline of the Celtic languages to the people increases, because of the English immigration, trade development, education mandatory. Anglicized cities, particularly those facing England. The ^nineteenth century saw the culmination of the process anglicized, the Celtic languages are now confined to isolated sea areas, away from the vibrant centers. Industrialization (especially in Scotland and Wales), the rural exodus have contributed much. In Ireland, the main victims of the Great Famine of 1846-48 are celtophones poor populations of the West Island. The death of a million Irish and the emigration of 1, 6 million other English speaking countries to precipitate the decline of the Gaelic language. With the declaration of independence of the Republic of Ireland in 1921, only 2% of Irish Gaelic are still using. The rate is roughly the same for Scottish Gaelic. Today, the proportions of Gaelic speakers remain substantially the same as the beginning of the ^twentieth century : almost all the Celtic British Isles speak English. To summarize, the factors that have contributed to the extinction of the Celtic languages are:

• The conquest of these territories by England
• The imposition of English language as a single administrative (bureaucracy, education, military ...)
• The colonial empire, starting with English, then British, administered in English. Considered rich, he attracts the Celtic people who see a loophole in their economic condition. Their immigration is encouraged by the central government or governments independent Anglo-Saxon ( U.S. , Canada ...).
• The economic and industrial activity, based on the power center of English and English notables. Opposes Celtic poverty, often rural.
• The cultural prestige of English (through literature, newspapers ...), which feeds all the above.

Items of discussion

From 26 to 30 June 1961 , the British Council organized a conference in Cambridge on Anglo-American teaching English abroad (Anglo-American Conference on Teaching Abroad Franais). At this conference, attended by representatives from U.S. government agencies (United States Information Agency, CIA, and the Peace Corps) and a number of academies in the United States. The British side was represented academic disciplines of education, linguistics, and English, and the Colonial Office, Commonwealth Relations Office, Minister of Education, the BBC and the British Council. There were observers from France and the Commonwealth Education Liaison Committee. In its report, the conference reaffirmed some proposals: that the teaching of English overseas must comply fully with the linguistic and educational needs of the economy, society and human development in the host country, leading to the self-sufficiency goal, and that Anglo-American aid should be planned with the active participation of the host .

In his book Linguistic Imperialism, published in 1992 by Oxford University Press, Robert Phillipson , former professor of English at the University of Roskilde in Denmark who had worked at the British Council , reiterates the terms of a "confidential report" of this conference according to which:

"English has become the dominant language replacing other languages and worldviews: chronologically, the language will be studied first, but English is the language that by virtue of his employment and his duties will become the language fundamental. "

Robert Phillipson stated that this report was written for internal use by the British Council and, therefore, its content differs from that of the texts made public. This report was not intended for wide distribution. The purpose of the report was to demonstrate that the field of teaching English in the world was gaining academic respectability on both sides of the Atlantic and deserved a higher government subsidies. As explained in the annual report of the British Council for 1960-1961:

"Teaching English in the world can almost be considered an extension of the task that was needed when it came to America to impose English as the national language common to his own immigrant population. "

Always according to Robert Phillipson, it was necessary that the British and Americans coordinate their involvement in the development of teaching English to international .

Robert Philippson's book popularized the term linguistic imperialism since the early 1990s , particularly in the field of linguistics as applied to the English.

His theory of linguistic imperialism is part of the theory of imperialism of Johan Galtung and the notion of cultural hegemony of Antonio Gramsci. Philippson critical historical diffusion of English as the language internationally and how it continues to maintain its current dominance, especially in a post-colonial as India , to Pakistan , in Uganda , in Zimbabwe , etc.. but also increasingly in a context he calls "neo-colonial" in reference to the European mainland.

Phillipson is the finding of that in a country where English is not the mother tongue , the language often becomes the language of " elites ". Those who can speak can access to positions of responsibility in places of power and influence, like the UN , the World Bank , the European Central Bank , etc.. The native English speakers, once in office, then come to make decisions that affect those who are not, a situation in apparent contradiction with the claims democratic of these same people.

Claude Piron , a former translator at the United Nations and the World Health Organization and psycholinguist Swiss reinforces this observation by demonstrating in The Challenge of languages that true mastery of English requires 10,000 hours of learning the equivalent of six years of work. Thus the use of English for practical reasons as the sole language of proceedings of the European Union , which is already the case for the ECB and the preparatory documents for many of the decisions of the European Commission , might violate the principle of non- discrimination language. As part of the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, the French National Assembly adopted a resolution for this reason the linguistic diversity in the European Union which states inter alia:

"The publication of tenders and recruitment ads in the only English should be banned because it violates the principle of non- discrimination language and considers that at a minimum, these publications should be done in a limited number of languages official. "

According to the French Bernard Cassen :

"The U.S. imperial power is not based only on material factors (military and scientific capabilities, production of goods and services, control of energy flows and currency, etc..) Incorporates also and especially the control of spirits, so referents and cultural signs, and particularly linguistic signs. "

Charles Krauthammer , a columnist for the Washington Post and one of the most prominent ideologues of the new American right, wrote in 1999: "The fact is that since Rome, no country has been culturally, economically, technically and militarily as dominant. He added: "America spans the world like a colossus

A report by the CIA in 1997 stated that the coming years would be crucial to impose English as the only international language. The report emphasizes the need to act quickly, before the unfolding possibly "really hostile reactions and many that appear and develop throughout the United States against their policy and the Americanization of the world" . .

Consequences

More and more voices to denounce the forced march to all-English "because it marginalizes the development status of other languages, national and regional. This view is particularly widespread in the European Union , where multilingualism official supposedly encouraged, does not prevent 69% of Europeans consider that English is the "most useful" ( source ).

The dominance of English in virtually all areas of international life ( political , scientific , commercial , financial , aviation and even military ) relegates multilingualism among the perfect utopia. Moreover, and this does not date from yesterday, most people who learn languages foreign do more out of necessity, if not real, at least felt, for the pleasure of knowledge. This sometimes leads to irrational behavior, as in Korea , where doctors earn 300 to cut the skin there is little in the language , purportedly because if the Koreans could not pronounce the English , was because of it . It is another example of "perceived need" to Japan , where many parents pay U.S. 50 per teaching hour to give private lessons to children of five years (parents also pay for other materials: including mathematics).

Alastair Pennycook points out that English is not a neutral language, but it still marked by the colonial past of the British Empire . Adrian Holliday indicates that there are social and political issues in education of English in various parts of the world, and is injustice that the native English speakers seeking to change the cultures of students and professors who do not have English as their mother tongue . Julian Edge wonders if the teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and the promotion of English abroad are not part of an age of empire ("Age of Empire") . Suresh Canagarajah describes the strategies employed by teachers and students in English, designed to use the English language in a way that serves their needs while subtly resisting the linguistic imperialism .

Facets of linguistic imperialism in the major regions of the world

The English language has the advantage of having its origin in a combination of Latin languages (including Latin and Old French ) and northern ( Germanic cousins of German and Old Norse ), which could make the language natural European rapprochement. However, the number of speakers in the European Union whose first language is English is 65 million, while there are 90 million native speakers and 70 million French speakers, and more, the Germany and France are in a more central location in Europe and the United Kingdom. So the economic power of the Anglo-American world which reinforces the dominance of English in EU institutions. Eric Denc and Claude Revel show that the United States since the fall of the Berlin Wall an aggressive policy of social learning in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe , and socio-cultural influence U.S. extends across the European continent, through education, language, and film . On the other hand, the position of dominance of English poses problems for linguistic equality: The Grin Report prepared at the request of the High Council for School Evaluation French (2005) estimated the effect at about 17 billion Euro economy conducted by the UK because English is the predominant language in the European institutions.

Going beyond the purely European vision of linguistic imperialism, the same problem arises on other continents, as in Latin America or Africa , where the languages of former colonial powers ( English , French , Spanish and Portuguese ) still play a prominent role, leading some to speak of a "European linguistic imperialism".

Finally, the development of Spanglish in the United States, under the influence of Latino immigrants, is considered by some ^Viewpoints

• "It is in the economic and political interest of the United States to ensure that if the world adopts a language policy, whether the English and that if he is moving towards common standards of communication , safety and quality standards are American and that if its various parts are connected by the television , the radio and music , programs are American, and that, if worked out common values, be they values in which Americans recognize. "

• "The important (...) is not primarily whether the English have, on occasion, worked as a window on the social and economic progress, but he has shown as much expectation, hope this to happen. Within this scheme of understanding have developed different myths, myths that equate the future of mankind, development, modernization, Westernization, globalization - and the use of English. "

• "Any look at the future can reinforce the idea that soon the world will speak English. Many believe that English will become the world language to the exclusion of all others. But the idea, rooted in the nineteenth ^century, is outdated. Of course the English will play an important role in building the new world linguistic order, but its major impact will be to create new generations of bilingual and multilingual speakers in the world. " David Graddol , The Future of Language, Science Magazine, 2004, reprinted in Encyclopedia of Linguistics.

Discrimination on the English language today

Many jobs of the European institutions require applicants to have English as their native language (English mother tongue or English native speaker), eliminating the candidates with English as their language of study, even at an excellent level . These facts are in contradiction with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , which states:

"Everyone is entitled to all rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction as to race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. "

It is the same for many international organizations.

French linguistic imperialism

The English is not the only language to have developed so imperial in the sense of the definition given above. All officials of State sought to impose the use of language that most facilitates communication of the group they belonged. The French did not escape the rule.

History

Frankish language has influenced the dialects novels from the creation of the Frankish kingdom, which allows the linguist Henriette Walter to say that French is the language novel "The more Germanic."

• In crossing the Channel, William the Conqueror wins the Norman (dialect of langue d'oil ) of his time on ground that has never spoken mainly a Romance language. The Norman became the language of the elite , and it gradually influence the language English and is the language foreign to him transmitted over the vocabulary. After the Norman had lost its importance in Normandy for the benefit of the French official , the latter which will bring many words to English. This will find two forms of a word in English , one of Norman origin and the other original French. English is thus the most "French" language of Germanic origin.

• In France , the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterets enacted in 1539 by Francis ^I , can be interpreted as an imposition of the use of Francois (now French ) instead of Latin in the acts to justice "that are arretz clerics and entendibles "by many, while this language is spoken by a minority cultivated. Many legal experts argue that this order has been imposed in the local dialects at the expense of Latin and not the future classic French .

• At the French Revolution , the French language becomes a symbol of national: the unity of the nation , we need a language unique. "Federalism and superstition speak low Breton" says Barrere at hello Committee public by presenting its "Report on idioms.

• During the creation of Belgium in 1830, French was imposed as the only official language at the expense of the majority Flemish. Dutch and Flemish dialects are especially despised, especially by the Flemish bourgeoisie which then uses the French. Added to this is a population movement from French-speaking Belgians and French to the city of Brussels has become predominantly francophone. Dutch and 85% in 1830, it is now only 15%.

• During the creation of the French colonial empire , the French crossed the seas and became, for the sake of consistency, the language taught in all mandatory settlements. It is primarily taught children of the elite local or tribal leaders. At independence, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, formed the elite in French maintain the colonial language as official language.

• Military service and the world wars, particularly the first, put in contact with soldiers who did not speak the same language and had to communicate among themselves and with their officers in French.

• In 1925 , the Minister of Education announces: "the unity language of France, the Breton language must disappear! .

• In 1972 , Georges Pompidou , President of the Republic said: "There is no place for regional languages in France to mark the Europe of his seal. "

The French and regional languages today

The French , long tongue of elites , has gradually taken the place of vernacular languages in France , with an acceleration of the phenomenon in the ^twentieth century through the establishment of a compulsory school system which transmits only language : The French. Television and radio have also contributed heavily to the unilingual francophone, passing the oral French "Paris" in every home. Interregional migration have also played an important role, because people were talking to newcomers in the official language.

Today France , through Article 2 of the Constitution ("The language of the Republic is French ") and Toubon law , undertakes to finance lessons in another language , including those traditionally spoken within its territory. The imbalance is shouting between the means available to the language majority and language minority.

The phenomenon is not unique to the French. Also the European Union adopts Does it 1992 's a href = "% C3% Charte_europ A9enne_des_langues_r% C3% A9gionales_ou_minoritaires" title = "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages"> European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages which recognizes "the right indefeasible pursue a regional language in the private and public life. " In 1999 , the France will sign but not ratify it because of its unconstitutional aspects ^{Linguistic Imperialism other languages}

The Latin

The Latin is the language transmitted by the Romans through their conquests and military the right thing (naturally, because there is no trace of any intention by the systematic eradication of Roman power of the languages of peoples under) as the language administrative, legal and commercial in all the conquered countries. His generalization is the origin of Romance languages (the French , the Spanish , the Portuguese , the Italian , the dialects of Occitan , the Gallo , the Romanian ), resulting in the disappearance of dialects Gallic. Even today, this language is dominant in certain scientific fields (cataloging of species , botanical ), legal (number of technical words and phrases are still taught in this language ) and the Catholic religion as both language liturgical and as a language reference for the holding of councils. There is currently a movement increasingly important as the spoken Latin language of communication including, among others, by creating schools like Vivarium Novum Italy, Schola Nova in Belgium, radio broadcasts as Nuntii Latini Finland Latin magazines like Melissa in Belgium and international conferences . To that end, nearly sixty thousand words have been added to this language in two centuries .

Ancient Greek

Before the establishment of the Roman Empire, the ancient Greek (or Greek classic, "different from modern Greek ), held in Europe and the Middle East the role of language of communication in the preferred trade , the philosophy , the arts , the sciences. He kept that role with great steadiness of syntax and vocabulary throughout the eastern part of the Roman Empire until its collapse in 1453. Lexical roots of this language are still used today in science ( medical especially) and the formation of new words in French -sounding technical or technological ( Aerodrome , phone , cable , bathyscaphe , etc..). If today many languages derived from Latin (and not least on the surface and number, such as Spanish or Portuguese), Greek has no descendants and is localized to the area it occupied already in Plato's time (and even less since he disappeared from the old Ionia, Sicily and southern Italy, "Greater Greece" Marseille was still considered a Greek city in Caesar's time, time and Naples Nero), and yet the Byzantine Empire, as large and populous behind the Latin part of the Roman Empire lasted 1000 years!

The Iberian languages: Portuguese and Castilian

The Castilian is the language broadcast in South America and Central America during the colonization of the Americas from the ^sixteenth century. As the Portuguese in Brazil , this language has become the de facto population of origin. However, this taxation is less the result of a deliberate policy of extinction of languages indigenous than the consequence of an imbalance in population associated with the influx of settlers from the colonizing countries.

Japanese

More recently and on a shorter time, the Japanese during the Second World War , was imposed in some occupied countries, including Korea.

Arabic

The Arabic , because of territorial expansion in the Middle Ages and the dissemination of the Koran , has spread throughout the North Africa and Asia Minor.
The Arabization of the Amazigh of Morocco , to Algeria and Libya met resistance from people who claim rights language. It is the same in Sudan , where Arab takes the place of English and African languages spoken in the south.

Turkish

In Turkey , the Kurdish , spoken mainly as Syria , in Iran and Iraq , trying to remain resilient in Turkish .

Russian

In USSR , the spread of Russian as a unifying language has not resulted in the disappearance of other languages of the country, so that today, "the vast Russia alone accounts for 43 languages (with official status) on its territory. "

The Russian was imposed by Stalin in the Russian-speaking provinces not the USSR, from the 1930s. Stalin gradually stopped teaching in local languages, set up by the "idealists" of the early communist Russian Revolution.
The growth of Russian was also supported by the immigration of Russian-speaking populations, displaced willingly or by force the borders of the Soviet Union. Thus, in some republics such as Kazakhstan , native found themselves shorthanded against the Russians. In Ukraine , in Moldova or Belarus , the Russians are still a significant minority. Always in Kazakhstan, the intermixing of populations related to the gulag have favored the imposition of Russian. Russian is the language of the state apparatus of the USSR, it is indeed the language of the army. The communist regime ended the military service of the tsarist unequal and imposed the same term of conscription to all races. The Russian language is the only language of communication between these soldiers from all provinces. Russian is the language needed to enter university, working in administration and access to the highest responsibilities, or even just to read a book. Local languages are highly undervalued, "flooding" of Russian words.
The communist system has also imposed the Cyrillic alphabet to the languages used exclusively oral, especially in Central Asia, to the detriment of the Latin alphabet or Arabic. This promotes learning the local language by the Russians as well as learning Russian by locals. It is a fairly effective assimilation factor. This "Cyrillization" of the alphabet has been imposed on Moldovan , Romanian speaking and writing in Latin script, that in view of the separation even more specifically the Romanians and thus promote their membership Soviet. This language policy has been very effective since 1989 , the vast majority of non-Russian peoples of the USSR spoke Russian as the language or mother tongue.
The linguistic imperialism of the Soviet Union did not stop at the borders of the USSR. Russian was imposed as a compulsory foreign language to members of the Warsaw Pact ( GDR , Poland , Hungary , Czechoslovakia ...), most often at the expense of English (very little, we learned a second language carefully and American diaspora played in its favor), German (in part: Germany is close and very strong tradition) and especially the French (almost everywhere liquidated, except in Romania, with Ceausescu). The frames of national communist parties were almost all trained in Moscow or Leningrad, as their level of Russian would be quite high.
Russian is the common language and on countries of the Eastern bloc in intergovernmental organizations like the Warsaw Pact or the Cominform. However, it suffers from a lack of popularity for people who see him as the "language of the occupier," and learning collapses at the end of communism (but many Slavic peoples, like the Poles, Czechs and Serbs, understand quite well without learning).

To counter the linguistic imperialism

Various approaches have been used to counter the linguistic imperialism, including the recovery of the mother tongue, the development of mutual understanding , or the use of a constructed language , for the reasons explained below.

Between adherents of the linguistic and cultural uniformity is seen as an inevitable consequence of globalization , or as progress and those who advocate multilingualism and cultural diversity but forget the practical aspects that make a knowing French Spanish only can not communicate with a Swedish knowing German, the views seem difficult to reconcile.

The development of mother tongue

The UNESCO encourages bilingual or multilingual approaches to education based on the use of language , an important factor of integration in teaching and guarantee a quality education. UNESCO provides normative frameworks for multilingual education based on the use of mother tongue .

UNESCO has established in 1999, International Day of the language which embodies the recognition of Language Movement commemorated since 1952 in Bangladesh by Day Language Movement, when the police and the army of the Pakistani state , which then occupied Bangladesh, opened fire on the crowd of speakers of Bengali language demonstrating for their rights in Dhaka.

The International Day of the mother tongue has been celebrated for the first time on February 21 2000. In a message read during the ceremony of the first event, the Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan , has supported this event, which raised awareness for all people of the value of languages. International Day of the mother tongue takes place February 21 of each year.

The languages built

The use of a common language (a language policy that would be consistent with the widespread teaching of a lingua franca built for the purpose of the International Communication) is an idea championed as a solution to problems .

Many projects such languages have emerged, all aimed at facilitating relations between people of different mother tongues . All languages have not built this goal.

The most common currently is the Esperanto , which has, according to a study by Professor Culbert of the University of Washington , nearly two million speakers.

The Grin Report examined this issue and assessed the various options to fight against linguistic imperialism in the European Union.

References

See also

Books

• (En) Yves Person, linguistic imperialism and colonialism, Modern Times, 1973
• (Fr) Louis-Jean Calvet , Linguistics and colonialism, Payot 1974
• (En) Gobard Henry, The Linguistic Alienation, Flammarion, 1976
• (En) Charles Xavier Durand, mental manipulation by the destruction of languages, Editions Franois-Xavier de Guibert, Paris, May 2002 , ISBN: 2868397719
• (En) Robert Phillipson, Linguistic Imperialism
• (In) David Crystal, as a Global Language Franais
• (In) David Crystal, Language Death, Cambridge University Press
• (In) David Rothkopf, Praise of Imperialism
• (In) Tove Skutbabb-Kangas, Linguistic Genocide in Education .. gold worldwide diversity and human rights, LEA Mahwah, New Jersey and London
• (In) Suresh Canagarajah, Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in Franais Teaching, Oxford University Press

Related articles

• Francization
• Cultural Imperialism
• Imperialism
• Colonialism
• Language Policy
• Language Policy of France
• Language Policy of the European Union
• Lingua franca
• Vernacular
• Official language
• Regional language
• Grin Report
• Bilingual road signs as a tool for protecting a regional language.
• Constructed language
• Esperanto and the collaborative encyclopedia in Esperanto
• Interlingua and the collaborative encyclopedia Interlingua
• Intercomprehension
• Academy of English Rug

External Links

• (En) The International Day of Mother Language and linguistic imperialism, the politics of standardization
• (En) English or Norwegian? by Brit Mhlum
• (En) The challenge of language, the common sense of the mess by Claude Piron
• (En) statistics on languages in Europe , the site of the European Union
• (En) [pdf] Costs and language justice in the enlargement of the European Union , report prepared by Professor Francois Grin , and submitted to the High Council of School Assessment amounting to 18 billion euros per year the amount that saving England in the European Union because of the predominance of English, and assessing the consequences of the status quo leading to the "all-in-l'Angle" (sic) and those two alternative scenarios.
• (En) Eurobarometer - Europeans and their Languages
• (In) [pdf] Miscommunication Between pilots and air traffic control (Poor communication between pilots and air traffic controllers), R. Kent Jones (in English). This paper highlights that the choice of English in 1951 by the ICAO came at the expense of passenger safety. The standard phrases used by air traffic controllers in the United States may be misunderstood, because of ambiguities, inconsistencies and bad names. The conclusion of the author, a pilot himself, is the inability of the English language not to be ambiguous should lead to the ICAO language change.

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