MULTILINGUALISM, CONFLICT, AND THE POLITICS OF INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE MOVEMENTS

SUZANNE ROMAINE
Merton College (University of Oxford, England)

Experts know that multilingualism is not the aberration or minority phenomenon supposed by many English speakers. It is, on the contrary, a normal and unremarkable necessity for the majority of the world's population. Yet popular misinformed views on the subject are still commonplace and it is widely believed that multilingualism is divisive and detrimental to the political cohesion of the nation-state.

Because languages and dialects are often potent symbols of class, gender, ethnic and other kinds of differentiation, it is easy to think that language underlies conflict. Yet disputes involving language are really not about language, but about fundamental inequalities between groups who happen to speak different languages. While the existence of distinct cultures within one nation has often been seen by the powers that be as a threat to the cohesiveness of the state, it can easily be shown that denying people the right to their own language and culture does not provide a workable solution either. When large portions of the population are denied forms of self expression, the nation's political and social foundations are weakened.

Clay (1990) estimates that more than 80% of the conflicts in the world today are between nation-states and minority peoples. All nation states, whatever their political ideology, have persecuted minorities in the past and continue to do so today. While not all states are actively seeking the eradication of minorities within their borders, they pursue policies designed to assimilate indigenous people into the mainstream or dominant culture.

It is for this reason that language has been an important focus for various kinds of social and political movements around the world. In this paper I examine the politics of multilingualism as expressed in the phenomenon of indigenous language movements in various parts of the world. Such language movements, which are often aimed at reviving or propping up the use of a threatened language, are, however, rarely conducted for their own sake. All efforts at language engineering serve political, social and cultural ends. Not surprisingly, a prominent demand made within the context of indigenous language movements is for some form of bilingual education in the minority language. At the same time demands for state resources for support of the language often undermine its position further and intensify conflicts between majority and minority.