engleski

Diversity and Language Liminality

European discourse on diversity is closely linked to the celebration of multilingualism as a proclaimed European language policy. However, the concept is shaped by language ideologies which reveal its complex nature and contradictory discourses emerging from the power relations between majority and minority communities at subnational, national and supranational levels. Much of the linguistic or sociolinguistic work on language still comes from within the discourse tied to the Herderian view that language, identity, community and/or nation are inextricably linked. Along with these ‘ naturalised’ assumptions which often frame language policy, language is culturally constructed as liminality, a bounded, countable entity, which does not confront complex histories and issues of mixture and hybridity. Backed up by widespread standardization ideology the liminal concept of multilingualism has hegemonic effects on language users excluding numerous non-standardized varieties or variable and partial proficiencies in multiple languages. The opposing political implications are manifested by both horizontal (e.g. diasporization, regionalization, and nationalization) and vertical polarizations (elites/non-elites) that reflect relationships of power and unequal position of various groups in Europe. The resulting tensions emerge at supranational level e.g. in desire to protect Europe’ s linguistic heritage (more than 40 native languages), in spite of the fact that most– spoken first foreign language in Europe is English, and that various immigrant groups’ languages are not protected by national policies. At the national level, along with the tension between monolingual state and multilingual European ideal, the homogenizing standardization ideology at the same time produces vertical, structural heterogeneity. The paper examines how at the regional level the articulations of these different discourses are reflected on scientific knowledge, language policy and commonsense knowledge of people living on the ‘ border’ of Europe in the liminal zone of Istria, through processes of both vertical and horizontal polarization, mediated by cultural legacies, economic factors and language proficiencies.

anthropology; Istria; language; liminality

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