Economic phenomena and ideologies behind language shift
From nationalism and globalization to modernization and the ideology of “new”
This article examines the phenomenon of language shift from a macroeconomic and ideological perspective. More specifically it looks at how phenomena such as nationalism and globalization, which are closely related to the capitalist mode of production, have affected the spread of some languages and the demise of others, usually minority and regional languages. A special emphasis is placed on the ideology of modernity as a major cause for language shift in the world. Each section in the article includes examples from the areas in the world where the author has carried out his own research and possible solutions to the problems set forth.
Keywords: language shift, nationalism, consumer capitalism, globalization, new, modernity
Published online: 17 September 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.39.1.04col
https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.39.1.04col
Cited by
Cited by other publications
Senayon, Esther
2018. The language provisions of the national policy on education and the endangerment of Ogu in Southwestern Nigeria.
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism ► pp. 1 ff. 
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 june 2020. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
References
References
Anderson, B.
(1991) Imagined communities (7th ed.). London: Verso.
Coluzzi, P.
(2006) Minority language planning and micronationalism in Italy: The cases of Lombardy and Friuli. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 27(6), 457–471.
(2007) Minority language planning and micronationalism in Italy: An analysis of the situation of Friulian, Cimbrian and Western Lombard with reference to Spanish minority languages. Oxford: Peter Lang.
(2009) Endangered minority and regional languages (“dialects”) in Italy. Modern Italy, 14(1), 39–54.
(2010) Endangered languages in Borneo: A survey among the Iban and Murut (Lun Bawang) in Temburong, Brunei. Oceanic Linguistics, 49(1), 119–143.
(2012) Modernity and globalization: Is the presence of English and of cultural products in English a sign of linguistic and cultural imperialism? Results of a study conducted in Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(2), 117–131.
Coluzzi, P., Riget, P., & Wang, X.
(2013) Language vitality among the Bidayuh of Sarawak (East Malaysia). Oceanic Linguistics, 52(2), 375–395.
De Mauro, T.
(1963) Storia linguistica dell’Italia Unita. Bari: Laterza.
Gounari, P.
(2006) Contesting the cynicism of neoliberal discourse: Moving towards a language of possibility. Studies in Language & Capitalism, 1, 77–96.
Grin, F.
(1999) Market forces, language spread and linguistic diversity. In M. Kontra, R. Phillipson, T. Skutnabb-Kangas, & T. Várady (Eds.), Language: A right and a resource (pp. 169–186). Budapest: Central European University Press.
Gross, D.
(2009) The past in ruins. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Harlow, R., & McLellan, J.
(2008) Signposts on the way to, and back from, moribundity: Comparing Māori in Aotearoa and Bidayuh in Sarawak in terms of modernization strategies. Paper presented at the International Conference on Moribund Languages and Cultures, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (14 October).
ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics)
(2006) Notiziario: La lingua italiana, i dialetti e le lingue straniere. Rome: ISTAT.
Kumarappa, J.C.
(1951) Gandhian economic thought. Bombay: Vora & Co. Available at: http://203.200.22.249:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/272/1/Gandhian%20Economic%20Thought.pdf (retrieved 26 October 2012).
Lin, A., & Luke, A.
(2011) Coloniality, postcoloniality, and TESOL… Can a spider weave its way out of the web that it is being woven into just as it weaves? Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 3(2–3), 65–73.
Martin, P.
(1995) Whither the indigenous languages of Brunei Darussalam? Oceanic Linguistics, 34(1), 44–60.
May, S.
(2001) Language and minority rights. Harlow: Longman.
McEwan-Fujita, E.
(2005) Neoliberalism and minority-language planning in the highlands and islands of Scotland. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 171, 155–171.
Mufwene, S.
(2003) Language endangerment: What have pride and prestige got to do with it? In B. Joseph, J. Destefano, & N. Jacobs (Eds.), When languages collide: Perspectives on language conflict, language competition, and language coexistence. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press.
Nelde, P., Strubell, M., & Williams, G.
(1996) Euromosaics: The Production and reproduction of the minority language groups in the European Union. Luxembourg: Office for the Official Publications of the European Communities.
Nettle, D., & Romaine, S.
(2000) Vanishing voices: The extinction of the world’s languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Noor Azam Haji-Othman
(2005) Changes in the linguistic diversity of Negara Brunei Darussalam: An ecological perspective. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Leicester, UK.
Norberg-Hodge, H.
(2009) Ancient futures: Lessons from Ladakh for a globalizing world. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, reprint edition.
Norberg-Hodge, H., Gorelick, S., & Page, J.
(2011) The encyclopedia of happiness. DVD. Produced and distributed by the International Society for Ecology & Culture.
Phillipson, R.
(2008) The linguistic imperialism of neoliberal empire. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 5(1), 1–43.
Piergigli, V.
(2001) Lingue minoritarie e identità culturali. Milan: Dott. A. Giuffrè Editore.
Piller, I., & Cho, J.
(2013) Neoliberalism as language policy. Language in Society, 42(1), 23–44.
Schumacher, E.F.
(2010) Small is beautiful. New York: Harper Perennial, reprint edition.
Skutnabb-Kangas, T.
(1999) Linguistic diversity, human rights and the “free” market. In M. Kontra, R. Phillipson, T. Skutnabb-Kangas, & T. Várady (Eds.), Language: A right and a resource (pp. 187–222). Budapest: Central European University Press.
Yoshioka, H.
(2010) Indigenous language usage and maintenance patterns among indigenous people in the era of neoliberal multiculturalism in Mexico and Guatemala. Latin American Research Review, 45(3), 5–34.