Language Politics

This chapter discusses linguistic practice, governance, and power. Topics covered include rights and freedoms, law and policy, research evaluation and gendered pronouns. Chapter contents: 6.0 Introduction (by Séagh Kehoe) 6.1 China’s Minority Language Rights: No Bulwark Against Upcoming Change (by Alexandra Grey) 6.2 Linguistic Hierarchies and Mandarin Promulgation: An Excerpt from Dialect and Nationalism in China, 1860–1960 (by Gina Anne Tam) 6.3 The Hidden Language Policy of China’s Research Evaluation Reform (by Race MoChridhe) 6.4 War of Words and Gender: Pronominal Feuds of the Republican Period and the Early PRC (by Coraline Jortay)

Minority language policy and bilingual name semiotic landscape in Slovakia

The present paper addresses the issue of the interrelatedness of Slovakia’s minority language policy and the bilingual name semiotic landscape; more specifically, the name semiotic landscape of settlements populated by Slovakia Hungarians and the way Slovakia’s laws regulating name use affect visual proper noun use in the country. The name semiotic landscape constitutes an integral part of the linguistic landscape, comprising proper nouns and extralinguistic signs referring to, or accompanying names in name plates, signage in public spaces, and on various other surfaces. The name semiotic landscape is a component, an aspect, and a consequence of language policy and name policy. The way minority proper nouns can be displayed in public spaces is regulated by laws approved by the state. Some areas (such as personal name plates, business cards, and names of private institutions) are unregulated, and the forms of proper nouns can be chosen freely. This paper seeks to answer the following questions: to what extent are minority language rights implemented in visual name use in settlements populated by Slovakia Hungarians, whether Hungarian name usage is spreading, and to what extent do signage and name plates contain proper nouns in a Hungarian form. In bilingual societies, proper nouns and other signs in the minority language increase the prestige of the minority language and have the function of marking ethnic identity. In this paper, the proper noun semiotic, place name semiotic, and institution name semiotic landscapes are investigated for various proper noun types in Slovakia Hungarian settlements.

The use of Hungarian as a minority language in municipal offices in Southern Slovakia

The present paper investigates the bilingualism of municipal offices of Hungarian dominant settlements in Southern Slovakia, focusing on communication in these offices in relation to the relevant legal regulations, specifically on the language of signage outside and inside the offices, the language choice of oral and written communication in administration, and the language of official means of communication. Throughout the paper, the author points out issues that make the practical application of legal regulations difficult, and comments on the basic conditions of the asserting minority language rights.

The Case of East Timor Education beyond Independence 2000-2008

The strong motive of East Timor government to establish a national identity through education had brought serious issues. This writing primarily discusses about the drawbacks regarding to East Timor language policy in education sector during the period of 2000 – 2008. Spolsky’s framework was employed to analyze the sociolinguistics situation, working of national/ethnic/other identity within the community, minority language rights and English role as a global language. The study was done by thorough library research in the related fields. The results show that while community language practice was ignored, the top-down language policy put more emphasis on Portuguese as the national identity language, Tetun Dili and English as the global language. As a result, the teachers and students were disadvantaged due to the inability to speak Portuguese, Tetun Dili and English. Second, the strong socio-historical context and political affinity to Portugal and its language had given little role to local languages in Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education.

Language Rights and Language Repression

Many historical and contemporary conflicts in the world today, while often ostensibly framed in ethnic terms, actually involve language—and by extension, language policy—as a key catalyst or concern. This chapter charts how the widespread practice of enforcing linguistic homogeneity within modern nations-states, based on the view that this will minimize ethnic and linguistic conflict, actually exacerbates it, forcing linguistic minorities increasingly into avenues and means of dissent. More broadly, it explores how this preoccupation with linguistic homogeneity at the level of the nation-state is an unhelpful artifact of a combination of the negative ascription of ethnicity, the politics of nationalism, and the promotion of an individualist conception of citizenship and human rights. It concludes by arguing that language policies that actively accommodate minority language rights are more, rather than less, likely to ensure political stability—promoting not just political democracy but ethnocultural and ethnolinguistic democracy as well.

Left Behind? A Critical Study of the Russian-speaking Minority Rights to Citizenship and Language in the Post-Soviet Baltic States. Lessons from Nationalising Language Policies

Minority rights protection is widely discussed in relation to diversity management stability within a state. Yet the case of Russian-speaking minorities in the post-Soviet Baltic States has been a challenging example to analyse because of the sensitivity of language issues. This article discusses Baltic States’ language policies that impact the Russian-speaking minority’s language rights, argued here to be the focal point for minority identity formation inclusion into society. While international law continues to be mostly silent regarding minority language rights, kin-states, in this case Russia, direct their interest towards its supposed kin-nationals abroad, which leads to rising levels of concerns for Baltic States’ governments because this interest has led to conflict in other post-Soviet states. This article argues that the situation in the Baltic States is unique, recommends amending domestic language policies to achieve effective minority integration, inclusion, accommodation, generating stable democratic rule.