Article published in:
Language Problems and Language Planning
Vol. 39:1 (2015) ► pp. 70–83

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
References
Anderson, B
(1991) Imagined communities (7th ed.). London: Verso.Google Scholar
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. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(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.Google Scholar
(2009) Endangered minority and regional languages (“dialects”) in Italy. Modern Italy, 14(1), 39–54. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2010) Endangered languages in Borneo: A survey among the Iban and Murut (Lun Bawang) in Temburong, Brunei. Oceanic Linguistics, 49(1), 119–143. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(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. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coluzzi, P., Riget, P., & Wang, X
(2013) Language vitality among the Bidayuh of Sarawak (East Malaysia). Oceanic Linguistics, 52(2), 375–395. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Mauro, T
(1963) Storia linguistica dell’Italia Unita. Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
Gounari, P
(2006) Contesting the cynicism of neoliberal discourse: Moving towards a language of possibility. Studies in Language & Capitalism, 11, 77–96.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Gross, D
(2009) The past in ruins. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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).Google Scholar
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. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martin, P
(1995) Whither the indigenous languages of Brunei Darussalam? Oceanic Linguistics, 34(1), 44–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
May, S
(2001) Language and minority rights. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
McEwan-Fujita, E
(2005) Neoliberalism and minority-language planning in the highlands and islands of Scotland. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 1711, 155–171.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Nettle, D., & Romaine, S
(2000) Vanishing voices: The extinction of the world’s languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Noor Azam Haji-Othman
(2005) Changes in the linguistic diversity of Negara Brunei Darussalam: An ecological perspective. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Leicester, UK.Google Scholar
Norberg-Hodge, H
(2009) Ancient futures: Lessons from Ladakh for a globalizing world. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, reprint edition.Google Scholar
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. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Piergigli, V
(2001) Lingue minoritarie e identità culturali. Milan: Dott. A. Giuffrè Editore.Google Scholar
Piller, I., & Cho, J
(2013) Neoliberalism as language policy. Language in Society, 42(1), 23–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schumacher, E.F
(2010) Small is beautiful. New York: Harper Perennial, reprint edition.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Senayon, Esther
2021. The language provisions of the national policy on education and the endangerment of Ogu in Southwestern Nigeria. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 24:7 ► pp. 963 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 january 2023. 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.