Full Description
This volume presents twelve in-depth case studies that critically examine the ways in which historical linguistics and language change interact with ideology. These varying interactions have been present since the birth of historical-comparative linguistics as a field of study. Work in historical linguistics may be appropriated or rejected for ideological reasons, most notably in the debates surrounding the Indo-European homeland; it can also by influenced by ideological biases, as in the 'alternative' histories that have been proposed for Moldovan and Maltese. The development of linguistically-defined nation states may itself fuel linguistic change, for instance through the suppression of minority languages or the division of existing languages to mirror political divisions, as occurred in the Balkans; or it may lead to the formulation of pseudo-histories designed to give a nation a more prestigious past. The book will be of interest not only to historical linguists but also to anthropologists, historians, and all those interested in language policy.
Contents
1: Camiel Hamans and Hans Henrich Hock: Introduction
2: Johanna Laakso: Misunderstanding historical linguistics: Three Uralic examples
3: Kristján Árnason: Ideologies and linguistic development in North Germanic
4: Hans Henrich Hock: Ideology and recent attacks on historical-comparative methodology: Historical linguistics under siege?
5: Hans Henrich Hock: Indo-European linguistic palaeontology and ideology: Nice wheels!
6: Brian D. Joseph: Historical linguistics and the Macedonia name issue: What's in a name?
7: Anders Ahlqvist: Celtic and English language contact and scholarly attitudes
8: Johanna Laakso: Borrowing and historical-linguistic ideology
9: Camiel Hamans: The origin of Afrikaans: Purism or language contact?
10: John Charles Smith: Moldovan and Maltese and the poverty of historicism in Romance linguistics
11: Ranko Bugarski: The breakup of the national language of the former Yugoslavia: Speeding up language change
12: Camiel Hamans: The European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages: Turning the tide against linguistic nationalism
13: Ferdinand von Mengden and Britta Schneider: Methodological nationalism and (anti-)historicism in the history of linguistics: Linguistic essentialism
