Languages in Contact — Is Conflict Inevitable?

Reviews Languages in Contact Is Conflict Inevitable? LANGUAGES AND THEIR TERRITORIES . J.A. Laponce. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987. x, 265pp. LANGUAGE, SCHOOLING, AND CULTURAL CONFLICT: THE ORIGINS OF THE FRENCHLANGUAGE CONTROVERSY IN ONTARIO. Cha.d Gaffield. Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1987. xviii, 249pp. In his keynote address to the Third International Conference on Minority Languages, held in Galway, Ireland, Peter Nelde presented the theme that conflict represents a counterpart to language contact, and since the two are interdependently connected they apply to individuals and to language communities .1 Hence, language conflict can occur wherever there is language contact , particularly in multilingual communities . Jean Laponce goes beyond this supposition to develop the thesis that the normal state between languages in contact is that of war. For a language to survive this war, it must have a territorial niche that belongs to it alone. Within this delimited territory communication will take place in that language, thereby linking and binding all members of the society. This exclusivity can only be attained if the language has control of the machinery of government and, ideally , of an independent state. Modem states which require the active participation of the masses in verbal and written communication are, consequently, glossophagic ; that is, the minority languages are suppressed by the majority language. Since glossophagia is considered to be the natural condition within a state, it follows that the battle naturally begins 130 with an individual's acquisition of language. Those who are exposed to a multilingual situation early in life must develop a well established order of precedence between one dominant and other subordinate languages to avoid an inner conflict of ethnic identity. It is when neither language establishes clear dominance during these formative years that inner tensions can evolve between the languages and associated social roles since these reflect a confusion in ethnic identity. Under these conditions individual bilingualism may retard intellectual development. Just as the individual must have a well established ethnolinguistic identity to avoid a conflict over self-identity, a language must have dominance socially and territorially, and thereby produce a unilingual environment in order to avoid a similar conflict of identity. In the absence of this territorial dominance, members of a minority must acquire the language of the majority to attain upward social mobility, but in so doing they are exposed to the risk of exogemy. To avoid assimilation, therefore, members of the minority must assert their ethnicity, an assertion which can manifest itself in demands for greater control of the ethnic region. This control can include a partial or total exclusion of the majority language. The more geographically concentrated the minority language becomes, through territorial control behind a protective boundary, the less threatening to one's identity is the majority language. It is in this context that English would be better received in an independent Quebec. In the multilingual state minorities who are peripherally situated often fail to gain territorial control or influence over the permeability of regional borders. Several European ethnic groups are in this situation; the Bretons in France, the Basques and Catalans in Spain, and the Welsh in the United Kingdom·are examples. Such groups are considered to be territorially unprotected ; their native languages suffer in proximity to greater languages, and Revue detudes canadiennes Vol. 23, No. 4 (Hiver 1988-89 Winter) they can be protected only at the price of local economic development. Peripheral regions have become more accessible to the core areas of their states through processes associated with the time/space convergence.2 Urbanization, industrialization, mass tourism, easy communication and increased population mobility are processes that have developed rapidly since the Second World War. These processes have reduced the time that it takes to move and increased the number who move, between core and periphery, thereby eliminating the relative isolation of the latter. This gain in proximity has intensified the processes that are culturally erosive to peripheral minorities. Languages can be peripheral and lesser in the international context as well. Here languages are considered lesser only in the sense that they are associated with regions or states that are lacking in a large number of speakers, scientific creativity, economic power or military strength...