Multilingualism in the Modern World

Multilingual nations exist in all parts of the world, and very many examples
could be cited. Difficulties only arise when one attempts to locate a country that is genuinely
monolingual. There appear to be very few. Even in Europe there are not many true examples.
Nearly all European countries contain linguistic minorities groups of speakers who have as
their native variety a language other than that which is the official, dominant or major language
in the country where they live. In some cases, where the minorities are relatively large, the
nation state usually has more than one official language.

Examples are Belgium (Flemish, the Dutch language as spoken in northern Belgium and
French), Switzerland (German, French, Italian, and Romansch).

Where the minority is smaller or less influential, the minority language or languages are
unlikely to have official status, and their speakers, often out of sheer practical necessity, will
tend to be bilingual. This last factor is what helps to give Europe its outwardly monolingual
appearance. The UK, for instance, also gives every appearance of being monolingual, and
visitors certainly need to learn no other languages than English. But this appearance is
somewhat deceptive. Welsh is the first language of about a quarter of the population of Wales.
Scots Gaelic is spoken natively by about 80 000 people largely in the West Highlands and
Hebridean Islands of Scotland. Irish Gaelic is still spoken by a small numbers of speakers in parts
of Northern Ireland.

Perhaps the most multilingual of all the countries in Europe is Rumania. About 85% of the
population have Rumania as their mother tongue, but at least fourteen other languages are
spoken natively in the country.

Multilingualism clearly brings problems for governments and for individuals and groups of
individuals, especially those who are members of linguistic minorities. Unlike members of the
majority-language group, they have to acquire proficiency in at least two languages before they
can function as full members of the national community in which they live. Perhaps the biggest
problem they have to face is educational. Children have to learn to read and write in dialects
that are radically different from their own. Or it may be that the educational policy of the
country concerned is reasonably sophisticated linguistically, and the children learn to read and
write in and are taught through the medium of their native language in the initial stages of their
schooling, with the majority language being introduced later on. This approach has been
adopted in many parts of Wales, as well as in Rumania and many other places. Its aims are that
the children should acquire an ability to read, write and speak both their native language and
the majority language, and has clear parallels with the bidialectalism approach to non-standard
dialects of English. In both cases the two linguistic varieties are considered as respectable
linguistic systems in themselves, and the child is encouraged to use both.

In other cases the minority child may be faced with very considerable difficulty. This may occur
where the two languages involved are not clearly related and also, more importantly, where
the educational policy of a particular nation-state is to discourage or simply to ignore or not to
encourage minority languages. In extreme cases the minority language may be forbidden or
disapproved of in school, and children punished or actively discouraged from using it there. This
was formerly true both of Welsh in Wales and Gaelic in Scotland at one time a law was in
force that actually made the speaking of Gaelic illegal. This Approach to minority languages has
distinct parallels with the elimination of non-standard speech approach towards non-
standard dialects. In both cases the language variety to be eliminated or discouraged is
regarded as inferior. This is in all cases a social judgement. The Welsh language is inferior to
English has absolutely no basis in linguistic fact. And in both cases the psychological, social and
pedagogical consequences are serious. But where Welsh, Gaelic and other minority languages
are concerned, the effects of the attempted imposition of an alien standard such as English may
be much more serious. The attempted replacement of one language by another entails an
effort to obliterate whole cultures; its indicative of illogical ethnic attitudes; and it can very
seriously impair the educational progress of a child who has to learn a new language before
he/she can understand what the teacher is saying, let alone read and write.

This approach was for many years official policy in the United States, where it may have been at
least partly responsible, together with the broader social attitudes to minority languages that
went with it, for the widespread and rapid assimilation of minority language groups to the
English-speaking majority. Generally, children of parents born outside America who spoke
languages such as Chinese, Yiddish, Italian, Greek, Polish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and many
more have not retained more than a passive knowledge of their parents languages. Today
provisions are made for some groups, notable Spanish-speakers in the South-West, to be
educated in their own language, and certain other steps have also been taken: public notices in
NYC, for example, are posted in Spanish as well as English, to cater for the large Puerto Rican
community now living there. However, even the larger, more rural linguistic minorities such as
those consisting of speakers of French (in the North-East and I Louisiana) and Pennsylvania
Dutch (a form of German) are rapidly declining in size.

Happily, this approach and the attitudes associated with it have almost disappeared from the
educational scene in the UK.

The next approach presupposes appreciation of dialect differences. This view states that
theres no need for a child to learn a new dialect because theres nothing wrong with the one
he/she already has. To translate that into equivalent linguistic minority terms would be to say
something like There is no need for Spanish Basques to learn Spanish because Basque itself is a
perfectly good language. The parallel does not quite work, because clearly , there is a need for
Basques to learn Spanish, since they live in Spain and have to function as part of Spanish
society. The argument, therefore, has to be taken one stage further: there would be no need
for Basques to learn Spanish if, as Basque nationalists advocate, they did not live in Spain, but
were given their political independence and could form a nation-state of their own. This is the
type of argument that minority groups are able to use in their campaigns for independence.
Their solution to the problem is to convert linguistic minorities through political autonomy into
linguistic majorities. Some governments have responded to this sort of pressure by granting
partial independence.

Where language is a defining characteristic of a minority ethnic group wanting independence,

particularly where other characteristics are not significant, linguistic factors are likely to play an
important role in any separatist movement they might undertake. This is partly in response to
practical problems but mainly the result of the fact that language acts as an important symbol
of group consciousness and solidarity. The extent to which this is true is revealed in the part
played by linguistic groupings in the development of independent nations in Europe after the
breakdown of the older, multilingual empires. As national consciousness grew, languages like
Czech, Serbo-Croat and several others, developed a literature, underwent standardization, and
emerged as national languages of fairly monoglot areas when independence was achieved.

Thus, the problems of the multilingual situation for the individual can be overcome or
minimized either through political independence or semi-independence, or, less drastically,
through adequate educational programmes and policies. As for the governments, however,
many of them believe that a language can act as a focus of discontent for minorities wanting
more power, independence, or annexation by a neighbouring state. Where governments do not
regard this as threatening or undesirable, they may well regard linguistic minorities favourably.

Vocabulary

Bilingual

To become extinct

To be spoken natively \ indigenously

To acquire proficiency in a language

To be taught through the medium of (a language)

To adopt an approach to (language, some issue)

To eliminate (non-standard speech)

To obliterate (a language, culture)

To impair educational process

To cater for

To be at (a political) disadvantage

Genuinely monolingual countries

Outwardly monolingual appearance

Sizable groups of speakers

Bidialectalism approach

Separatist movement

Monoglot area

Group consciousness

Language loyalty

Disfavoured minority