Bilingualism and Separatism

Joshua A. Fishman

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1986, vol. 487, issue 1, 169-180

Abstract: There is little solid evidence of separatism resulting from provision of governmental services to minority groups in their own languages, whether in the context of the territoriality principle or in the context of the personality principle. In general, the roots of separatism lie not in language but in minority-majority relations more broadly conceived. The problems popularly attributed to bilingualism are problems of social and economic development, control, and incorporation, superposed upon ethnolinguistic, racial, and religious differences. Without such superposition, problems of communication are solved, rather than created, by bilingualism. Intergroup problems will not disappear merely because sidestream languages are not recognized, nor are they caused merely because such languages are utilized for governmental services to minorities.

Date: 1986
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:487:y:1986:i:1:p:169-180

DOI: 10.1177/0002716286487001011

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