Language policies in the successor states of former Yugoslavia

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ranko Bugarski

Former Yugoslavia followed an internationally acclaimed language policy of constitutional and legal equality of its numerous languages. Anticipating or accompanying the disintegration of this federation, the new states arising on its territory published their constitutions in the period 1990–1993. This paper briefly surveys the basic provisions concerning the official use of languages in each of them and attempts, on the basis of the often scant evidence available, to assess their actual implementation. It is concluded that, whereas language policy in former Yugoslavia was fairly consistent, its successor states display more variety. The inherited spirit of tolerance and language rights still survives in some respects, but there are also clear indications of favouring the linguistic means associated with the “state nation”, at the expense of old and new minorities. The administrative multiplication of the former federation’s largest language, Serbo-Croatian, is likewise noted, as is the general need to complement internal measures of language policy with external ones in preparation for life in tomorrow’s world.

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-19
Author(s):  
Halyna Shumytska ◽  

This article explores trends in language policies in the Transcarpathian region during 1991–2020 within the general Ukrainian sociopolitical context. It is argued that the status of the Ukrainian language as the state language in the region has become strengthened as evidenced by recent developments in language planning and language policy, including the adoption of the Law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Lan-guage as the Official Language”. However, the manipulation of the language question in Ukraine, especially in the border regions, has taken on a political character, spreading beyond the borders of the state, threatening the constitutional order and the state sovereignty of Ukraine, in particu-lar in education, economics, and legal sphere. In Transcarpathia, a multi-ethnic border region in the extreme west of Ukraine, warrants attention of both scholars and politicians. This article looks into the changes in the Ukrainian language policies in the local state administration, and the importance of the Ukrainian president office in this regard. Specific features of the linguo-political situation in Transcarpathia, viewed at different periods of its development from the independence of Ukraine in 1991 on-ward, are presented. This study determines the role of the media in shaping a regional linguo-political situation, including the Internet media language space. The paper provides data of a comprehensive analy-sis of the results of the 2017–2019 external independent evaluation as an indicator of language competence of the participants of EIE, the results of research on the perception of educational language innovations in the region through a survey of different categories of respondents during 2018, the monitoring of experimental experience in implementing elements of multilingual edu-cation in educational institutions in Ukraine, particularly in Transcarpathia. The author outlines prospects for continued research in the framework of the project “Debat ing Linguistic Diversity: Managing National Minority Languages in Ukraine and Russia” (2020–2023). Keywords: language policy, language situation, state language, mother tongue, minority language, multilingual education, mass media.


Multilingua ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Kristina Hultgren

AbstractThis paper aims to contribute to the study of multilingualism in the workplace by analysing top-down language policies advocating parallellingualism at Denmark’s eight universities. Parallellingualism, a key concept in Nordic language policy, has been suggested as a way to ensure an equitable balance between English and the Nordic language(s) without the former encroaching on the latter. Drawing on theories which consider discourses about language to constitute positioning for or against a particular social, moral or political order (Cameron 2012), the paper contrasts state- and institution-authored university language policies. The overall aim is to understand what the different actors mean when they invoke ‘parallellingualism’. Supplementary data consist of a corpus of newspaper articles on the topic of the use of English and Danish at Danish universities published in the same period as the university language policies. It is argued that while both state and institution-authored policies overtly advocate ‘parallellingualism’ as a guiding principle for managing multilingualism at Danish universities, in the state-authored policies, this seems to mean ‘more Danish’, while in the institution-authored policies it seems to mean ‘more English’. Some underlying ideologies of each of these positions are proposed before the implications for workplace discourse are discussed.


Author(s):  
Selim Ben-Said

Taking effect immediately following Tunisia’s independence, Arabization has achieved mixed results with Arabic institutionally empowered but still competing with French. In fact, when examining the linguistic landscape, this monolingual policy is flouted both in terms of the bilingual Arabic-French Street signage but also challenged by people’s preferences. This paper examines inconsistencies between Arabic as the ‘language of the state’ (government-decreed), and the omnipresence of other ‘languages in the state’ (observed in representation and practice) in Tunisia. Street signage artefacts and attitudinal data also illustrate how language policies are responded to and experienced by Tunisians. Data consists of different types of private inscriptions and public signs, governmental decrees, as well as attitudinal surveys and interviews. The juxtaposition of urban signs with the official policy on multilingualism provides an illustrative account of the complexities of the linguistic situation in Tunisia, which blends top-down advocacies of Arabization, ambivalent attitudes to Arabic-French Bilingualism, as well as a growing interest in English as the emergent language of globalization.


2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo D. Faingold

The constitutions and legislative statutes of the fifty states in the United States are given an exhaustive screening to identify legal language defining the linguistic obligations of the state and the language rights of individuals and groups. The author suggests that in the United States, “hands-off” is good language policy not only nationwide but also statewide because states adopting a hands-off linguistic policy are consistent with the Constitution of the United States while states adopting a “hands-on” policy are in conflict with it. States adopting hands-on language legislation in their constitutions or statutes are deemed to be “nativist” because they seem unfavorable toward speakers of minority languages, while states adopting a hands-off policy are “non-nativist” because they seem favorable (or at least neutral) toward speakers of minority languages.


Author(s):  
Stephen May

Many historical and contemporary conflicts in the world today, while often ostensibly framed in ethnic terms, actually involve language—and by extension, language policy—as a key catalyst or concern. This chapter charts how the widespread practice of enforcing linguistic homogeneity within modern nations-states, based on the view that this will minimize ethnic and linguistic conflict, actually exacerbates it, forcing linguistic minorities increasingly into avenues and means of dissent. More broadly, it explores how this preoccupation with linguistic homogeneity at the level of the nation-state is an unhelpful artifact of a combination of the negative ascription of ethnicity, the politics of nationalism, and the promotion of an individualist conception of citizenship and human rights. It concludes by arguing that language policies that actively accommodate minority language rights are more, rather than less, likely to ensure political stability—promoting not just political democracy but ethnocultural and ethnolinguistic democracy as well.


2012 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 743-757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reine Meylaerts

Since democratic societies are based on the ideal of participatory citizenship and since participatory citizenship presupposes, among other things, the citizens’ right to communicate with the authorities, one of the biggest challenges for contemporary multilingual societies is the elaboration of a fair translation policy: there is no language policy without a translation policy. However, among the numerous studies on language rights, on language policies or on immigrant incorporation, the key role of translation is usually not taken into consideration. Which linguistic and translational territoriality regimes are used by authorities to communicate with their multilingual populations? How do these different regimes relate to their linguistic and translational rights and their chances for participatory citizenship and integration? This essay discusses four prototypical regimes which may be used by authorities to communicate with their citizens. It will also try to hint at their possible impact on minorities’ linguistic and translational rights and integration.


Author(s):  
Asma Nifaoui

The purpose of this article is to analyze the multilingual situation in Morocco in the face of the challenges encountered by language policies undertaken by the state since independence in 1956. The Moroccan society is characterized by ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity. This multidimensional richness has created competition amongst the linguistic varieties in the country, which has prompted the state to undertake several reforms and language policies including Arabization and the development of the National Charter in 1999, with a view to managing linguistic diversity in the country. Before tackling all these issues, a presentation of the linguistic landscape in Morocco is provided. Then, drawing upon the work of researchers specializing in the field, this review addresses the obstacles that have hindered the success and effectiveness of the enacted policies thus far. A sociological approach is also privileged in this study by referencing the work of the sociologist Bourdieu and emphasizing the importance of identity, cultural, and social considerations in developing an effective educational language policy that is capable nurturing citizens with adequate proficiency in national, local, and foreign languages.


Author(s):  
Andrew Linn ◽  
Anastasiya Bezborodova ◽  
Saida Radjabzade

AbstractThis article presents a practical project to develop a language policy for an English-Medium-Instruction university in Uzbekistan. Although the university is de facto English-only, it presents a complex language ecology, which in turn has led to confusion and disagreement about language use on campus. The project team investigated the experience, views and attitudes of over a thousand people, including faculty, students, administrative and maintenance staff, in order to arrive at a proposed policy which would serve the whole community, based on the principle of tolerance and pragmatism. After outlining the relevant language and educational context and setting out the methods and approach of the underpinning research project, the article goes on to present the key findings. One of the striking findings was an appetite for control and regulation of language behaviours. Language policies in Higher Education invariably fall down at the implementation stage because of a lack of will to follow through on their principles and their specific guidelines. Language policy in international business on the other hand is characterised by a control stage invariably lacking in language planning in education. Uzbekistan is a polity used to control measures following from policy implementation. The article concludes by suggesting that Higher Education in Central Asia may stand a better chance of seeing through language policies around English-Medium Instruction than, for example, in northern Europe, based on the tension between tolerance on the one hand and control on the other.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Janis Grzybowski

Abstract At the height of the Syrian civil war, many observers argued that the Syrian state was collapsing, fragmenting, or dissolving. Yet, it never actually vanished. Revisiting the rising challenges to the Syrian state since 2011 – from internal collapse through external fragmentation to its looming dissolution by the ‘Islamic State’ – provides a rare opportunity to investigate the re-enactment of both statehood and international order in crisis. Indeed, what distinguishes the challenges posed to Syria, and Iraq, from others in the region and beyond is that their potential dissolution was regarded as a threat not merely to a – despised – dictatorial regime, or a particular state, but to the state-based international order itself. Regimes fall and states ‘collapse’ internally or are replaced by new states, but the international order is fundamentally questioned only where the territorially delineated state form is contested by an alternative. The article argues that the Syrian state survived not simply due to its legal sovereignty or foreign regime support, but also because states that backed the rebellion, fearing the vanishing of the Syrian nation-state in a transnational jihadist ‘caliphate’, came to prefer its persistence under Assad. The re-enactment of states and of the international order are thus ultimately linked.


Author(s):  
A.V. GORIN ◽  
R.N. POLYAKOV ◽  
M.A. GRYADUNOVA ◽  
I.V. RODICHEVA

The paper briefly outlines the state of development of impulse technology. The schemes of hydraulic machines of impulse action with percussion mechanisms of the sixth and seventh classes are presented. The calculation of impulse mechanisms with a pneumatic chamber of the working stroke is given. The physical model of the drain pipeline is presented. Shown is a diagram of the forces acting on the striker during the working stroke. The dependence of the relative energy losses on the ratios of the cross-sectional areas of the working chamber and the drain pipeline is presented. Recommendations are given for the use of a pneumatic accumulator in the drain branch of the pipeline of a pulsed hydraulic mechanism with a pneumatic chamber of the working stroke


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