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Linguistic imperialism occurs when a dominant language spreads to other areas through conquest, immigration, trade, or cultural superiority. It has occurred throughout history, with varying degrees of success. Colonial powers imposed their language on native populations, while nationalism led to the downgrading of minority languages. American popular culture has also had a major linguistic impact worldwide.
Linguistic imperialism occurs when the language of a large or dominant population or the language of power transfers to other people in the same or neighboring areas. There are many kinds of linguistic imperialism and many causes of it. Causes include immigration, conquest, trade, and cultural superiority. The spread of religions that transcend local cultures and languages can also cause linguistic imperialism. Such changes in speech can be forced or can occur through natural changes.
Acts of linguistic imperialism have taken place in world history. Not all of these cases have been successful. After 1066, the Franco-Normans attempted to make French, or rather the Norman dialect of French, the national language. After 300 years, they finally gave up trying and learned English. Hungarians resisted centuries of attempts by the Ottoman Turks and later the Habsburg Austrians to make Hungarian illegal.
Immigration is a great cause of linguistic imperialism. This is most often seen as the act of an invading or migrant people causing others to learn their language. At the end of the Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries AD, a number of Germanic peoples moved westward into the Empire’s territories. Of those invading powers, many took control of the area, but their responses to the indigenous language varied. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes succeeded in eradicating the native Romano-British language. On the other hand, the Franks who invaded Gaul and the Ostragoths, who invaded Iberia, both adopted the language of the native population.
Large-scale linguistic imperialism occurred during the colonial era. It began with the Portuguese in Brazil, the Spanish in Mesoamerica, and the British in North America, but spread across much of the world. In most cases, new countries and new territories covered a large patchwork of language groups. In these cases, the ruling colonial power has imposed its language on the native population for the system of government. In some countries, such as those of the Spanish Empire, the colonial language became the majority language.
In other countries, as seen in India, it became a language used to unite disparate language groups. In these cases, an imposed language, while often resentful of its imposition, functions as a unifying force and a means of preventing the imposition of the language group on the rest of the country. The imposed language becomes a second language for many people.
The rise of nationalism in Europe and other countries has caused linguistic imperialism at a more local or national level. Political leaders and members of the dominant ethnic or linguistic group within the country wanted to develop a sense of nationality, collectivity and uniqueness by downgrading minority languages. This has seen the regions many small languages from Cornish and Breton to Dalmatian and Yaeyama-go reduced to historical fossils and dialects.
A dominance of culture can cause another kind of linguistic imperialism. The idea of imperialism is the imposition of power by one group on another. The dominance of a dialect or language can be spread by arts and culture in the form of music, television shows and music. The power and richness of American popular culture has had a major linguistic impact on countries and peoples around the world, including those countries that already speak English.
