ELL: political implications

[Julia Sallabank]

Dear Anthony

I think you make a good point here. Language 'choice' is another
misleadingly neutral term - many people don't have much choice at all due to
the low political and economic power of the community that speaks a
particular language. Along similar lines,  'negative attitudes' are often
blamed for language decline, but they don't just happen for no reason.

However, I would still maintain that it is it important to promote
diversity, because the value of speaking more than one language, or of
having more than one culture in a society, is still not accepted by all; and
you can't promote equality without having that point conceded. All too often
the dominant monolingual ideology has led to people assuming that they have
to drop their old language to speak a new one. The power relationsips also
lead them to see their old language as 'useless' when, as I have already
said, its value for self-expression is intangible but inestimable. There has
been a debate here in the UK recently following some remarks by the Home
Secretary about immigrants (not) speaking English in the home - perhaps
misinterpreted by the Press, but still potentially damaging.

Best wishes

Julia

----- Original Message -----
From: "Anthony McCann" <mccannat at si.edu>
To: <endangered-languages-l at cleo.murdoch.edu.au>
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 2:58 PM
Subject: Re: ELL: political implications


> >Another argument that we can give for saving small
> languages is that
> diversity is a 'good thing': in nature, society, and
> languages.>
>
> In passing, celebrating diversity for diversity's sake is
> not helpful to analyses, as I see it, because diversity is
> one of those concepts that leaves the subtleties and power
> dynamics of the specificity and complexity of people's lives
> (or the environment) out of the picture. Diversity is a
> rubric that suits descriptive analyses, not explanatory
> ones. It talks about the 'that' rather than the 'how' and as
> such is a little too positivist for me.
>
> All the best
>
> Anthony McCann
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