Linguicism

Linguicism denotes prejudice , disdain, or an unfounded rejection of languages and their speakers. Often these are minority languages or languages or expressions of certain social groups. Also bilingual people in general may be affected.

The trunk word linguisticism goes back to the Latin lingua (language). The ending -zism mostly denotes a subjective attitude in people or groups, which is mostly seen as a (negative) exaggeration by those who do not share it.

The German word Linguizismus is a direct takeover of the English linguicism , which was applied in the 1980s with reference to racism ( racism ) and other " -isms ".

At the individual level, linguicism means prejudices about characteristics of a person that are derived from their spoken or written language (e.g. mother tongue , dialect (vernacular), accent ). But it can also be seen in the discriminatory behavior that is brought forward in situations when people are talking in a minority language in public. Linguicism is also expressed in derogatory jokes about another person's language.

At the social level, linguicism manifests itself primarily in the monolingual orientation of social institutions such as schools , in which people with a foreign mother tongue automatically have worse starting conditions because their mother tongue is supposedly devalued as a deficit. This is particularly true in English-speaking countries, where even people in the highest social positions do not consider the acquisition of another language to be desirable or even harmful.

In examining anti-Semitism in Germany, Léon Poliakov highlights the importance of linguisticism in German history. In view of the late formation of the nation state, the German language had been inflated by the bourgeoisie and thus the claim to the status of a superior cultural nation was justified. It is no coincidence that the term “ Aryans ”, which comes from linguistics and which in its linguistic meaning was only the self-name of the ancestors of today's speakers of the Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages , found particular resonance in Germany . It must be noted, however, that its biological use was not just a use of a linguistic approach, but a racist one.

The term linguisticism goes back primarily to the work of Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Jim Cummins in the early 1980s . When examining minority bilingualism , they recognized the special value of the recognition of mother tongue and bilingualism by the majority society and have since called for special educational concepts to overcome linguicism. It is primarily a matter of promoting the mother tongue and bilingualism among all people, which is particularly neglected in English-speaking countries, if bilingualism is not even combated in general. A good example is the Marta Laureano case .

Linguicism can be seen as a form of racism without races , thus sharing its theoretical inadequacies and fuzziness.

Audism

Due to the factual ban on the use of sign languages as a result of the resolutions of the Milan Congress of 1880 , deaf people, including in German-speaking countries, were forced to communicate in spoken language both with hearing people and with each other. This, according to Skutnabb-Kangas, prevented them from “learning the only language in which they can express themselves fully”.

This pejorative attitude, known as oralism , led to large educational gaps among those affected. The prohibition of the use of sign languages discriminates against hearing impaired people. The term audism in turn describes all types of discrimination against the hearing impaired, of which linguicism is one.

literature

Robert Phillipson : Linguicism. Structures and ideologies in linguistic imperialism , In: Tove Skutnabb-Kangas , Jim Cummins (Eds.): Minority education. from shame to struggle (= Multilingual Matters. 40). Multilingual Matters, Clevedon et al. 1988, ISBN 1-85359-004-5 , pp. 339-358.
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Robert Phillipson (Ed.): Linguistic Human Rights. Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination (= Contributions to the Sociology of Language. 67). Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1995, ISBN 3-11-014878-1

credentials

↑ As an example of a descriptive reaction to linguicism towards local forms of language, which are usually referred to as dialect or dialect , but also as "wrong German", this quatrain on the back cover of a dialect dictionary may apply:

The plate Sproach witt Höck means
plomp, jemeen on ordinäe;
on who se speak, su aanjeluet,
as ov he onjebilden wöe

The dialect language is lamented today
as clumsy, low, common and vulgar;
and whoever speaks them regards them
as if they were uneducated.

Josef Heinrichs: Dürener Platt . Düren 2001.

↑ Tove Skutnabb-Kangas: Language and Human Rights. In: The sign. No. 59, 2002, ISSN 0932-4747 , pp. 52-63, here p. 55.

[1] As an example of a descriptive reaction to linguicism towards local forms of language, which are usually referred to as dialect or dialect , but also as "wrong German", this quatrain on the back cover of a dialect dictionary may apply:

The plate Sproach witt Höck means
plomp, jemeen on ordinäe;
on who se speak, su aanjeluet,
as ov he onjebilden wöe

The dialect language is lamented today
as clumsy, low, common and vulgar;
and whoever speaks them regards them
as if they were uneducated.

Josef Heinrichs: Dürener Platt . Düren 2001.

[2] Tove Skutnabb-Kangas: Language and Human Rights. In: The sign. No. 59, 2002, ISSN 0932-4747 , pp. 52-63, here p. 55.