Acceso usuarios
Roland Breton
Seeing language äs simply a means of communication is misleading. A language is the expression of a Community, carrying its own experience, vision of the worid, and System of values, a unique treasure accumulated through ages. But languages are also permanent andpotential Instruments ofhegemony andparamountcy ofpeoples, one over the other.
For this reason language policy and planning are never neutral but are dictated by the will of some group, an ethnic majority or social class, that wants to extend and strengthen the language they use at the expense ofthe language(s) ofothers. Because every language choice benefits some linguistic Community, politicians andpeoples struggle endlessly in language war s.
In this article, examples are reviewed, including European and Asian endoglossic nation-states, Marxist-Leninist empires, the American melting pot, the multilingual Swiss and Indian models, and states in which ethnolinguistic loyalties are denounced äs tribalist behavior that endangers national unity.
The 1992 Rio summit fostered the defense of biodiversity, including the aim ofpreserving the diversity of human culture.
