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Linguistic protectionism is any state policy introduced to protect a given language from the expansion of a "stronger" language (usually a language with a much greater number of speakers), or against mixing (or deliberate compatibility) with a different dialect or a closely related language. The expansion of a "stronger" language may take two forms: (1) people switching to the "stronger" language and (2) people using words from the "stronger" language in the context of the "weaker" one (i. e. using loanwords excessively). The opposition to the latter form of language expansion is known as purism.
Possible forms of linguistic protectionism are (from milder to harsher):
- maintaining a standard language and providing neologisms to replace loanwords
- providing subsidies for learning the "weaker" language and for publishing and broadcasting in it
- making the "weaker" language an obligatory school subject
- requiring that all state employees have a degree of proficiency in the "weaker" language
- requiring that all education is in the "weaker" language
- forbidding the use of the "stronger" language in some or all spheres
Cognate languages
A common case is when the "weaker" and the "stronger" languages are very closely related. It is usual for the speakers of the "stronger" language to suggest that the "weaker" language is "just a dialect". In their turn, the speakers of the "weaker" language vigorously deny such claims, and go to great lengths to prove that their language is quite separate.
For instance, in the 19th century it was common to consider Ukrainian and Belarusian languages to be dialects of Russian (this point of view was reflected in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica). Today, however, many Ukrainians and Belarusians will take this as a personal insult.
Yiddish also has been subject to allegation that it is just a dialect of German; in fact, a native German speaker can understand a lot of Yiddish if spoken slowly, the same is true for the Dutch language.
Writing systems
Closely related languages often tend to mix up. To prevent this, people impose different writing systems on them, or, if the same script is used, they use different spelling.
The extreme case was with Moldovan and Romanian languages, which are virtually identical in all respects, except that Moldovan used Cyrillic script, and Romanian used Latin script.
Other example is Yiddish, which is very close to German, but uses Jewish script instead of Latin letters, and so keeps its separateness. This results in the situation where, for example, an Israeli could read out loud a Yiddish text to a German (who could not read Hebrew), who could understand it, while the Israeli could not.
The next example is Hindi and Urdu, which are kept traditionally separated by using Devanagari and Arabic script, respectively. This is a well-known example often cited in linguistic texts; however, in recent decades, it has been observed that the languages are tending to drift much further apart, due to the active and preferred borrowing of Arabic loan-words by Urdu (as is the case in many non-Arab Islamic countries), combined with the opposite tendency and preference to incorporate Sanskrit words into Hindi, as an alternative to foreign loan-words, whenever new vocabulary is needed.
Serbian and Croatian languages also differ mainly in using Cyrillic and Latin scripts, respectively (and formerly they were considered to be just variants of one language, Serbo-Croatian). After the breakup of former Yugoslavia, a third "language" was created mainly for political reasons, the Bosniak language, which uses latin script but does not differ from the standard štokavian basis of Serbian/Croatian. The last step in the split of the former "Serbo-Croatian" language is taking place nowadays, as its fourth "copy" is being created, the "Montenegrin language". The "Montenegrin language" for now exists only in name but is likely to be politically instituted by the pro-independentist authorities in Montenegro in near future (whose citizens voted for independence on May 21, 2006).
Belarusian uses the same Cyrillic alphabet as Russian, but the spelling is quite different, even of those words that are pronounced nearly the same. This difference of spelling is important in preserving the language identity. Thus, Belarusian nationalists dislike the spelling reform of 1933 which made Belarusian spelling a bit closer to the Russian one, so working against the idea that Belarusian is a separate language.
The authors of the standard Macedonian language, created in Communist Yugoslavia in 1945 and aimed at establishing a new separate national and ethnic identity in Macedonia, which would be different from Bulgarian and even antagonistic to it (Bulgaria was a defeated country and a German ally in World War II), adopted the Serbian form of the Cyrillic alphabet and the principles of Serbian orthography for the new Macedonian script. The introduction of the Serbian cyrillic script was intended to increase the proximity between Serbian and Macedonian, on one hand, and to wider the differences with Bulgarian, on the other, thus cementing the claims that Macedonian was a separate language (see Macedonian Question).
Today, Bulgarian and Macedonian have different, but still very close standard forms, which differ mainly in their "modern" vocabulary (created after 1913). Phonetic differences are also present, but they do not pose major problems in mutual understanding. In the fields of morphology and syntax, however, Macedonian and Bulgarian undoubtedly preserve the features of a single language and show a remarkable unity even in contrast to their closest linguistic neighbour, Serbian.
Unrelated or distantly related languages
Often one language has a higher social status, or has an established tradition from the time it had a higher social status. However, it may be a minority language and actively threatened by the majority language. An example is Swedish in Finland: the educated upper class was Swedish-speaking prior to the 20th century, and the rules and regulations protecting the Swedish language remain in force. Although the Swedish-speakers represent a 5% minority in a country where 93% speak Finnish, Swedish is a national language and a test in Swedish is required for all public servants.
Linguistic protectionism vs. linguistic imperialism
Many nations have several national languages, and recognize minority languages. If this is not done, the unprotected language (which is often, but not always, the native language) may disappear entirely. Destruction of the language may actually be the aim of the central government, as a part of a program of national unification and destruction of native culture. This is called linguistic imperialism. For example, in France, the official use of any language other than standard French (e.g. Breton or Occitan) was forbidden until 1951. In Northern European countries such as Norway and Sweden, the use of Sami in schools and official documents was strictly forbidden during a long time. In Ukraine, the government currently denies the existence of Rusyn language, declaring it to be a dialect of Ukrainian; no Rusyn schools are permitted.
See also
"Linguistic protectionism"