Thread by @GJosephRoche

Today is @UNESCO International #MotherLanguageDay & 2019 is the International Year of #IndigenousLanguages @iyoil—let’s talk about language denialism. 🚨 thread 🚨

Language denialism is one type of linguistic injustice. To put it in context, here are a few other types of linguistic injustice (and for all things related to linguistic injustice, check out @VocalFriesPod)…

There’s accentism—discrimination against a person or group based on their accent. See the Accentism Project @AccentismProj AKA glottophobie.

There’s linguistic appropriation, including Mock Spanish, Mock Asian, and digital blackface—these all relate to using the linguistic features of marginalized groups in mainstream speech for comic effect. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mock_Span…

Another form of linguistic injustice is racial profiling based on linguistic variables—this is studied as part of a broad research paradigm called raciolinguistics. See the work of @DrJonathanRosa @nelsonlflores @mixedlinguist et al

We can also talk about linguistic ageism AKA “How Millennials are Ruining the English Language”—see the work of @RobDrummond on youth sociolinguistics. And so on.

Then there’s language oppression—“The enforcement of language loss by physical, mental, social & spiritual coercion…” This comes from the work of Alice Taff & colleagues in the Oxford Handbook of Endangered Languages global.oup.com/academic/produ…

Language oppression is different from accentism, ling appropriation, lang profiling, & ling ageism. These all occur within a horizon of intelligibility. They are ways of differentiating ppl who mostly understand each other’s speech.

Language oppression occurs across the horizon of intelligibility, and so does language denialism. We’ll see later that this is important. Not all forms of linguistic injustice work in the same way and have the same effects.

So what is language denialism? It means denying that some languages are languages. It is a refusal to acknowledge parity between speech forms. It denies linguistic equipotentiality.

Language denialism pits languages against ‘mixed language’/ dialect/ jargon/ lingo/ patois/. It not only creates hierarchy, but also draws a boundary between legitimate and illegitimate speech forms.

Language denialism is always a form of linguistic supremacy—“My language is real, yours is fake/ incomplete/ a variety of my language, etc.” A few examples:

🇫🇷 1794—French is the language of the republic! Abolish the patois! Today—🇫🇷 refuses to ratify the Council of Europe’s Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. 🇫🇷 has 1 language, and a lot of ‘heritage’.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergonha

🇮🇳 The linguistic survey of India recognized 364 languages. Today’s govt recognizes 122—22 have official status. Languages with <10k speakers not counted. Meanwhile, the people’s linguistic survey of 🇮🇳 recognizes 780 languages.
blogs.reuters.com/india/2013/09/…

🇨🇳 has 56 ‘minzu’ (~peoples), each with 1 language. Chinese linguists count ~130 languages. Ethnologue lists 299. PRC counts 1 Indigenous language in Taiwan—Taiwan counts 16. Tibetans speak 1 language? Or 30+?
cambridge.org/core/journals/…

🇦🇺 The 300+ Indigenous languages were known as jargon, lingo, etc. by invaders. Now, Kriol & Aboriginal English struggle for recognition as Indigenous languages because they’re not ‘traditional’.

🇺🇸 Greenblatt’s ‘Learning to Curse’ on linguistic colonialism. In the 1500s, native langs were 1) noise—not just incomprehensible, but beyond comprehension, or 2) entirely transparent & learned effortlessly. Top shelf language denialism.

So if that’s what language denialism looks like, how does it work and how does it harm? How is language denialism unjust?

Language denialism often results in discursive erasure. The language is not talked about. Its status is not debated. It doesn’t even make sense to talk about it, e.g., languages have rights but lingos, dialects, jargons, etc do not.

Discursive erasure leads to material inequalities. Languages get [money] but non-languages don’t. Non-languages are materially deprived. There is maldistribution of resources.

This maldistribution is seen in the lack of institutions to produce, reproduce, and provide services in non-languages. Produce: 🚫 language academy, 🚫 dictionary, 🚫 spell-checker, 🚫#woty, 🚫 op-eds, 🚫 style guides, 🚫 grammar police.

No institutions to reproduce non-languages: 🙅‍♂️schools, 🙅‍♂️ curriculum, 🙅‍♂️ teaching materials, 🙅‍♂️ trained teachers, 🙅‍♂️ textbooks, 🙅‍♂️ pedagogy, 🙅‍♂️ standardized tests.

No services in non-languages: ❌ doctors, ❌lawyers, ❌ judges, ❌ translators, ❌ teachers, ❌ nurses, ❌ flight attendants, ❌ bureaucrats, ❌ movies, ❌ podcasts, ❌ radio, ❌ TV, ❌ product labeling, ❌ assembly instructions, ❌ street signs.

Living life as a speaker of a non-language can be mentally & emotionally exhausting. There’s linguistic insecurity [am I speaking mainstream lang right?] & linguistic anxiety [what’s going to happen to my language?]

And there’s the fact of living with constant gaslighting—being told that you don’t speak a real language but always hearing “Excuse me? What?! What are you saying? Speak properly. Stop speaking that gibberish.”

And your multilingualism is cast as languagelessness—even if you speak several languages, you get told you don’t speak any of them well.
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…

These discursive, material, institutional, and affective outcomes of language denialism produce reduced life chances & increased vulnerability of populations that speak non-languages.

No schooling=lower education outcomes, reduced 💰. U get sick & can’t afford 🏥. U must work. U find a 🏥 but get misdiagnosed. U are given the wrong medication or misread the label. Can’t access public health info. U die young.

U get profiled by 👮‍♀️ because of your accent. U get questioned & there are misunderstandings. U get locked up. No lawyers speak your language. No interpreters. U cannot understand everything the judge says. U go to prison.

War breaks out. Enemies & terrorists are foreigners. Are U? What’s that accent? Whose side are U on? U flee—cross the border. Detention. Who will advocate for U? Who can tell u what’s going on?

These vulnerabilities & reduced life chances due to linguistic injustice intersect with other injustices based on race, gender, sexuality, etc. So to you gender, sexuality, race, etc, add language as a source of privilege or oppression.

Language denialism can eventually lead to language oppression—forced language loss. But it doesn’t end there, because after the language is taken, future generations continue to suffer—think postmemory, epigenetics, intergenerational trauma.

Assimilation never pays off. Stigma remains after language is lost. There will always be something in your speech to set you apart. Some excuse to exclude and marginalize.

And one day, if you’re lucky, your community might have the chance to get your language back. Then you have to deal with all the trauma, guilt, shame & anxiety. You have to find the resources. You have to make time.

Language denialism→discursive erasure→material maldistribution→non-institutionalization (🙅‍♂️ production, reproduction, services)→affective harms→stigma→ ↘️ chances & ↗️ vulnerability→language oppression→intergenerational trauma

On #MotherLanguageDay we should recognize that language denialism is unjust, causes harm & is a major cause of language loss. And although states enforce language denialism, we all have a role to play in resisting it.

Language denialism is unjust & harmful. We need to see languages, speak up for them, & resist language denialism. The Year of #IndigenousLanguages is a good time to start. So is International #MotherTongueDay. Do you see languages? 👀