The Politics of Language Equalizing Language

A measure of linguistic unity is a necessity For the properly functioning state (4, pp. 129-130; 8, pp. 63-64; 56, p. 532). While at one time it was assumed that the way to achieve this unity was simply to force on a community the dominant language of the elite, we now understand that language has major social, cultural, and political implications (35). Language can easily reinforce the hegemony of a dominant elite, pushing minority elements into a position of subjection. Language is also a prime conveyer of culture. Hence, if we diminish the cultural standing of a language, we disorient its inheritors, and if we allow a...