If
you ever asked yourself what is it that makes language a language,
you have probably realized how difficult it may be to give an
appropriate answer to this question, even with the extensive
knowledge of sociolinguistics. Sometimes, a language and a dialect
are separated by a thin line that is often defined by some
extra-linguistic forces.
These extra-linguistic
forces are frequently related to political concepts of country and
nationality. Usually, the first feature that defines the language is
the country it is spoken in. However, being a living thing that
develops and progresses, a language cannot always be tied to a
precisely defined territory. This is the case with many regions in
Europe, for example, where the turbulent history caused many nations
to interrelate and merge in terms of culture and language alike.
How is the official
language chosen?
With the emergence of
the notion of ‘nation’, countries adopted different symbols of
their national identities. Besides flags, anthems, and coats of arms,
an official language is also an important feature that defines both
nation and country. However, problems appear in multicultural
surroundings and countries where many different languages and
dialects are regularly spoken. Recently, The Lingua File featured an
interesting article on the Languages of Bolivia, which pretty much
illustrates the point.
In such cases, the
official language is chosen based on the number of speakers, current
political climate and available funds (for reprinting all the
existing material). Therefore, choosing an official language is not
an easy decision, especially in some underdeveloped countries, in
Africa for example, where there are still separate tribes speaking
completely different languages.
Is language a
national property?
Different examples from
Europe prove that a language can be treated as a property emblematic
of a national identity, regardless of its linguistic features. This
is the case with Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, which share a lot of
linguistic features but are spoken within national borders of
different countries. ‘Appropriating’ language in this way further
poses challenges in terms of defining the features that actually
constitute a language.
Even more striking
example is the case with the languages of ex-Yugoslavia and
disassembling Serbo-Croatian to four ‘new’ national languages.
After the huge political transformation when the country got divided
into six smaller ones, national language was also divided and turned
into: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin. Clearly, these four
languages didn’t just emerge the same day the country disappeared.
They have always existed in the form of standardized registers, until
they were given a new status once the national territory was
reorganized.
When language is not
a language
To make this discussion
even more complex, there are some opposite examples when two
significantly different dialectal varieties are treated as the same
language, even though they are spoken in two different countries. An
example of this is Swiss German and its peculiar status in
Switzerland.
Namely, Swiss German is
regarded as an Alemannic dialect widely used across Switzerland and
some parts of Italy. The peculiarity is the fact that in Switzerland,
Swiss German is used on all levels of communication but it is still
treated like a dialectal variety, rather than a language. Instead,
the official language is Standard Swiss German, which has only few
areas of use. It is used in formal contexts, such as in educational
institutions, for official news and broadcasts.
Even though Swiss
German also encompasses a group of different dialects, it is unusual
that it has never been standardized in order to get a status of an
actual language, especially because it does have political
preconditions for this.
Obviously, defining a
language depends on multiple parameters. Due to frequent migrations
and redefinitions of national borders within Europe, this region
seems to be one of the most challenging areas for defining the notion
of a language. The examples given above make it clear that a language
is much more than set of linguistic features - it is a cultural
property and frequently a political tool.
Original image URL:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vinothchandar/5417409353/
Jennifer Collins is an
ESL teacher and linguist currently working on Saundz, a new software
programme for learning English pronunciation.
Follow @jennifer_collie Follow @saundzdotcom
Follow @jennifer_collie Follow @saundzdotcom
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