scholarly journals Translation for Israeli television: the reflection of a hybrid identity

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Weissbrod
Keyword(s):  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Hybrid Identity

Broadcasting in today ’s world is characterized by the tensions between competing entities, including the nation-state, the agents of globalization as well as national and other minorities. This article sets out to describe these tensions as manifested in translation for Israeli TV, focusing on the relations between Hebrew – the main and most ideologically protected language of Israel – and two minority languages, Arabic and Russian. The latter represent groups that are similar in size but differ greatly in that only the former seeks acknowledgement as a national minority.

The Hungarian Professional Theatre in Greater Romania, 1918–1930

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-90
Author(s):  
Pompilia Burcică
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Civic Identity ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Political Interference ◽  
Company Directors ◽  
Class Status ◽  
New Nation

In this article Pompila Burcică traces the work and legal conditions in which Hungarian theatre professionals – company directors and actors – operated as a national minority of middle-class status in Greater Romania after 1918. Their attempts at representing Hungarian culture in the public space, as revealed in their business correspondence with the Romanian state, placed theatre professionals not at the vanguard of a collective action on behalf of a minority and its cultural life, but at the forefront of civic engagement and individual private initiative that led to economic recovery and development, thus illustrating the array of civic choices and economic opportunities for minorities holding Romanian citizenship in a nation state. The article focuses on two issues: the work environment for minorities that helped them adjust professionally and negotiate and exert a civic identity in the new nation state; and the degree to which a cultural field such as theatre was actually treated as an economic entrerprise, free of political interference. These civic and economic concerns accounted for the success of these theatre entrepreneurs, operating their businesses under the control of a paternalistic state.

On the Intrinsic Value of Arabic in Israel—Challenging Kymlicka on Language Rights

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meital Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
General Question ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
Linguistic Minorities ◽  
Complex Situation ◽  
Intrinsic Interest ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
Israeli Arabs

In the postcolonial era, we have witnessed waves of mass immigration. Consequently, many states are no longer associated with just one or two national languages. Newly formed immigrant minorities raise demands for language rights, alongside national minorities, which raise similar demands.Such a complex situation exists, for example, in Canada, where only French and English are declared official languages although there are other languages, such as Chinese, which are spoken by large communities of people. My paper addresses the general question of which linguistic minorities are most entitled to comprehensive language rights. Will Kymlicka distinguishes between national minorities, which he regards as deserving of comprehensive language rights, and immigrant minorities which are not. Many scholars challenge Kymlicka’s distinction. However, none of them have suggested alternative criteria for distinguishing minority languages that are entitled to protection from minority languages that are less entitled to protection. In my paper, I suggest such a criterion. My alternative criterion is based on the intrinsic interest people have in protecting their own language as the marker of their cultural identity, thus, comprehensive language rights are to be accorded to linguistic minorities that possess the strongest intrinsic interest in the protection of their language as their marker of cultural identity. I apply my criterion to the Israeli case, in which there are two dominant linguistic minorities: the Arab national minority and the Jewish Russian immigrant minority. Relying on general criticism of Kymlicka’s distinction, I argue that this distinction is not applicable to the Israeli linguistic case. Applying my alternative criterion to the Israeli case, I argue that Israeli Arabs have a stronger interest in Arabic than the Russian Jewish minority has in Russian because Arabic constitutes Israeli Arabs’ exclusive marker of identity.

‘Nachschrift eines Freundes’: Kant on Language, Friendship and the Concept of a People

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-117
Author(s):  
Susan Shell
Keyword(s):  
Minority Languages ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Apparent Lack ◽  
Own Name ◽  
Life Work

Kant's brief ‘Postscript of a Friend’ serves as a peculiar coda to his life work. The last of Kant's writing to be published during his lifetime, it is both a friendly endorsement of Christian Gottlieb Mielcke's newly competed Lithuanian–German and German–Lithuanian Dictionary and a plea in Kant's own name for the preservation of minority languages, Lithuanian in particular. This support for minority languages has no visible precedent in his earlier writings, in which national, civic and linguistic identities and associated loyalties tend to overlap. Indeed, Kant's understanding of the commonwealth as nation-state seems predicated on the fact or myth of ethnic and linguistic unity and homogeneity. The same apparent lack of precedent also applies to the Nachschrift's singling out as a people of peculiar civic merit of the Lithuanians, who are not otherwise mentioned in any of Kant's published or unpublished writings. The work thus raises an obvious question: why does Kant devote his last published work (and declining powers) to a topic and cause in which he does not seem to have taken much earlier interest?

scholarly journals Status prawny mniejszości narodowych w Republice Słowackiej

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 93-111
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Puzyniak
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
Legal Method ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government

Położenie mniejszości narodowych na terenie Republiki Słowackiej regulują liczne akty prawne. Wśród nich znajdują się dokumenty przyjmowane na gruncie krajowym oraz rozwiązania o charakterze międzynarodowym. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie treści najważniejszych ustaw oraz dokumentów, które wpływają na położenie mniejszości narodowych na Słowacji, a także przybliżenie reakcji organizacji międzynarodowych na wprowadzane przez Bratysławę regulacje prawne. The legal status of national minorities in the Slovak Republic The location of national minorities in the territory of the Slovak Republic is regulated by numerous national acts, the most important of which are the constitution, the law on the use of national minority languages and the law on the state language. References to national minorities can be found in many other acts, such as the Act on counteracting discrimination, the Act on Upbringing and Education and the Act on Radio and Television. The issue of minorities is also raised in bilateral agreements, an example of which is the agreement on good neighbourliness and friendly cooperation between the Slovak Republic and the Republic of Hungary. The legal situation of minorities in Slovakia is also influenced by international organizations to which Bratislava belongs. In this case, the Council of Europe’s most significant influence, the European Union, the Central European Initiative and the United Nations. Over the years, the Slovak authorities have also created institutions responsible for activities for national minorities, and among them, an important function is performed by the Government Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Republic for National Minorities. This article aims to analyse the legal acts and institutions regulating the legal status of national minorities in Slovakia. The publication is also intended to show that the issue of minorities is covered in many legal solutions, and the Slovak authorities have developed a system of protection and support for this community over the years. The author used the institutional and legal method.

scholarly journals The Ukrainian language in the polylingual space of Transcarpathia

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-19
Author(s):  
Halyna Shumytska ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
The State ◽  
Border Region ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
State Language

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.

scholarly journals Evolution of Legal Consolidation of Language Policy of Russian Empire on Ukrainian Provinces in XIX – early XX Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
pp. 15-26
Author(s):  
O. V. Shevchenko
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Linguistic Minorities ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Minorities

The need to create an effective mechanism to ensure the implementation of language policy by our state has been increased at the present stage of the development of Ukraine and its legal system. It, on the one hand, will ensure the revival and spread of the Ukrainian language, and on the other will allow the development of national minority languages in accordance with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (1992), the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1992), the UN Resolution on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1995), The Oslo Recommendations on the Language Rights of National Minorities (1998) and other existing international legal acts. Historical experience can significantly help the successful implementation of measures aimed at improving the effectiveness of domestic legislation in this area. It will allow us not to repeat the mistakes of the past and take into account and use the positive developments. Unfortunately, domestic practice demonstrates a clear lack of attention to the study and use of such experience. The purpose of the article is a comprehensive historical and legal analysis of the processes of legal consolidation and implementation of the language policy of the Russian Empire on the Ukrainian lands in the XIX – early XX centuries. In accordance with the purpose, the following tasks have been formulated: to consider how the imperial language policy has evolved, aimed at narrowing the scope of using the language of the Ukrainian people for assimilation, to emphasize the role and significance of the legal component in these processes that was expressed in the legislation and law-enforcement activity of the relevant state authorities. Scientific novelty is manifested in the fact that this article is one of the first scientific works, where the problems of legal consolidation of Russification language policy on the Ukrainian lands during the past and the beginning of the last centuries are studied according to the latest methodological positions, based on a comprehensive analysis of existing scientific literature, regulatory and law-enforcement acts, as well as other historical and legal sources. The author of the article has emphasized that the tsar pursued a policy of incessant formal and legal restrictions on the Ukrainian language during this period. It has been claimed that during the 60-80s of the XIX century there was the legislative consolidation of that policy. The author has determined the purpose of the imperial government – to limit the scope of use of the Ukrainian language in order to prevent it from becoming a key element in the creation of Ukrainian identity.

Sunni–Shi’a Relations

2020 ◽  
pp. 167-216
Author(s):  
Fanar Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Arab World ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Sunni Islam ◽  
Sectarian Identity

This chapter examines the overlooked role of demographics in sectarian identity formation and sectarian relations in the modern Arab world up to 2003. It will be argued that the demographic imbalance has created minoritarian and majoritarian outlooks. These can sometimes operate in contradictory ways between the various dimensions of sectarian identity – a national minority that is nevertheless part of a transnational majority for example. Demographics have helped shape power relations between sect-centric actors particularly at the transnational and doctrinal dimensions where mainstream conceptions of global Islam tend to be Sunni-inflected. The chapter will demonstrate the profound implications this has had for how sectarian identities are imagined and instrumentalized. In doing so, this chapter will concentrate on the extremes of sectarian polemics and sectarian ecumenism (as opposed to the more common norm of mundane coexistence and sectarian irrelevance). Finally, the role of demographics in state–sect relations and the role that the nation-state has played in minoritization, majoritization and securitization of sectarian identities will be examined. Specifically, it will look at the normativity of Sunni Islam; the often-counterproductive side-effects of state-sanctioned sect-blindness; the securitization of sectarian plurality and of sectarian outgroups; and the intersection of Arab-Iranian rivalry with state-sect relations.

Effects of Language Status on Assessment and Educational Development of Basotho Learners from Minority Languages’ Backgrounds

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maboleba Agnes Kolobe ◽  
Lifelile Matsoso
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Educational Development ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Linguistic Backgrounds

This paper provides a critical overview of the theoretical and practical questions that prevail in the teaching, learning, and assessment of learners from diverse linguistic backgrounds in Lesotho.  It investigates how far exclusion of minority languages affects both assessment and/or educational development of learners whose mother tongue is not Sesotho but other minority languages spoken in Lesotho. The paper advances a research-evidenced argument that the poor performance of students from such backgrounds is indicative of marginalisation and discrimination of such learners due to their language background. A constructivist qualitative study was adopted through use of focus group discussions with 246 learners and 142 teachers in 23 schools located in Botha Bothe, Mohale’s Hoek, Qacha’s Nek and Quthing districts in Lesotho. These places were selected based on their predominance of minority languages. The findings revealed diminutive if not absolute non-recognition of minority languages in teaching, learning, and assessment of learners from this linguistic background. Therefore, the study concludes that linguistically discriminative curriculum, teaching and learning and assessment educational practices can reasonably be associated with   poor performance of learners. Based on these findings, the paper recommends that Lesotho’s education system should respect and embrace existence of national minority languages. Again, the curriculum, its implementation and more importantly assessment should not be divorced from linguistic background of learners.

scholarly journals Securing Unity and Reverence: Chinese ontological security across its maritime and frontier disputes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Henry Curtis
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
International Relations ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Territorial Disputes ◽  
Minority Populations ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Maritime Disputes ◽  
Realist Perspective

<p>This thesis draws on the Constructivist school of International Relations, applying the theory of ontological security to explain diverging patterns of behaviour by China across its maritime and frontier territorial disputes. Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, these patterns have seen China consistently interact with states adjacent to its frontiers to settle disputes peacefully, with occasional instances of conflict. Conversely, in its maritime disputes, though varying in its levels of aggression and cooperation, China has resolutely refused to settle with disputant states. In examining these varying behaviours, it is argued that differences derive from the differing ability of China to secure its national identity between the two types of dispute. Analysing the examples of the Sino-Indian dispute and border war, the Burmese border agreement, and the ongoing South China Sea disputes, periods of conflict and settlement in these disputes are compared to changing manifestations of Chinese national identity. What results is an illustration of frontier border settlement contributing to the security of China’s identity as a unified, pluralistic nation state. The absence of national minority populations in relation to maritime disputes alternatively sees continued interaction in these disputes as securing China’s identity as the superior ‘Central Kingdom’ relative to peripheral South East Asian states, while offering little incentive for settlement. Both types of dispute can be viewed as contributing to the biographical narrative of China’s ‘Century of Humiliation’. This thesis presents a significant departure from existing studies of China’s disputes, predominantly undertaken from a Realist perspective. Additionally, it expands on existing Constructivist literature by demonstrating how national identity can result in a range of behaviours across a range of differing disputes, further validating the emerging ontological security approach within International Relations scholarship.</p>

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