Asserting Ethnic Identity and Power Through Language Essay

Week-1 The linguistic ideology at work here is founded some(prenominal) on the conceit of the mother tongue as well as on the ace nation, one vocabulary principle. Communities on the western side of the border argon not interested in learning the voice communication of their easterly neighbors. Eastern communities, on the other hand, argon strongly motivated to learn western verbiages. The importance attributed to side as the speech of globalization is common to both sides.We can actu all toldy say that language is a very hot and recurrent issue for some communities namely the German-speaking fraternity in Bernstein (D), the Czech-speaking community in Vejprty (CS), the German-speaking and S distinguishnian-speaking communities in Eisenkappel/Z? elezna Kapla (A),etc. The term mother tongue is often lend oneselfd forms the room of thinking of its speakers, and thus the different mentalities and national characters are connected with the use of different languages. Many info rmants are convinced that it is the mother tongue which determines thought, social behavior, and exhibition or control of affection and emotions.Thus the encounter between languages automatically becomes a clash of mentalities. For example, the German-speaking community in Ba? renstein finds there is a relation between the insurmountable difficulty in pronouncing and learning the Czech language and the incomprehensibility of the words Czech-speaking bulk produce. People in western communities explain this widespread hold upledge by saying that the otherwises need to turn in my language, because my language is the superior One.We can also find indices of implicit prestige in more consultation quotes, like my language is useful to find a job, my language is more international than theirs, it represents a symbol of up contendd social mobility the importance of my language twitchs them to learn it, and in this way they show practical sense, intelligence and cleverness, because they well know that the knowledge of the languages spoken on both sides of the border offers more overlord and economic opportunities.People are not generally interested in learning the language of the Other, and the reason is, as we have already seen, its uselessness, or its low value on the language market. They only learn what they need in their commercial transactions. Europe is a multilingual unstained in which the tension between linguistic pluralism and assimilation is quite evident at present. Week-2 The topic for this week was Creation of a Sense of Belonging through Language, which we found very much kindle as we have to present our own explanation, views and thoughts.The topic is about Finland, Iceland and Latvia. Firstly we discussed about Finland that Swedish-speaking people along the coastlines, spoke a non-Scandinavian language, namely Finnish. The Finnish language was to become the most effective medium in the nation-building process as well as the most important criterion in creating an awareness of a collective individuation. Language became a defining characteristic towards the outside and a communicative driving force on the inside within the great diversity of local and regional cultures.We could say that for the process of nation-building in Finland during the 19th century two main deficits had to be overcome sovereign state structures had to be veritable and an individual Finnish national consciousness had to be formed. In the process of spreading a Finnish national consciousness a development often associated with the term awakening as in a religious experience the main focus was directed towards the common people, their language and culture. Finlands modest pagan vitality, Finnish had gained the status of a modern cultural and scientific language.The civil servants, scholars, and many artists, continued to use Swedish as their language of communication and cosmosation. But Finnish steadily gained ground. Many people were al ready, or became, bilingual. The accusation that Finnish was too primitive was defeated by generating new damage, which proved that the language was in advance(p) and possessed the potential for development. In the discussion about Iceland by Halfdanarson. The text tells a story of Icelandic nationalism and the struggle for independence of Iceland under Danish rule.Halfdanarson points out the rare case of Icelandic nationalism, and its non-violent nature. In fact, according to the article, both Icelands struggle for independence and the Danish reactions to it were both surprisingly pacific in nature, partly because of the idea of divided up past and cultural heritage between the two countries. at that place are certain elements in common with the case study of Iceland and Herders text, such as the idea of mystic, shared past of a nation, the role of the single language of a social crowd forming the nation and so on.I think especially in cases like Iceland, language and linguisti c identity have essential role in formation of national identity. Iceland is isolated, both in geographical terms as an island in the middle of Atlantic ocean and in terms of language. Although Icelandic is a language related to scandinavian languages, it still differes from them quite a lot. And lastly There was a question that is it attainable to have a single language in whole Europe? We think its not come-at-able to have a single langage in the whole Europe as there are many different countries with their own languages from last hundreds of years.In Europe, People communicate with each other using the shared language of their group. The group might be as small as a couple (married or unmarried partners, twins, mother and daughter etc. who share a private language where only they know the meaning of some words) or as large as a nation, where everyone understands the allusions in their shared language (often allusions to shared history, to contemporary events, to media people of fact or fiction etc). The secret language of the smallest group and the public language of the national group are two varieties of the same language.Every social group, large or small, has its own language variety, (regional groups have varieties of the national language (as opposed to regional or minority languages) which are usually called dialects) and there is overlap among all the varieties. However there is a possibility to use side of meat as a second language as use of English gives a considerable service to the 13 % of EU citizens who are native English speakers, and to speakers of closely related languages (German, Dutch, Danish and Swedish), over all other Europeans. Week-3 In the week 3, we learned about Language and subjective identity.The two articles were on Franz Kafka and Simone de Beauvoir. Franz Kafka was German though he never lived among the Germans. He was then living in Prague, Czech. Hence Kafka knew both Czech & German languages. But, he preferred Czech L anguage as he was of the view that one could express his/her feeling in a better way in a particular language. In this case, he thought that Czech was a better language than German to express his feelings. Franz Kafka was in love with Czech translator Milena Jesenka. He used to demand Milena to write him letters in Czech language than German. He belived in a approach belongs to a language.When Milena replied his letters in Czech, he believed that Czech was much more affectionate, which removes all the uncertainties, he could see his lover more clearly, the movements of her body, her hands quickly which or so resembled as they both are meeting. This shows how Kafka prefered Czech more than German. Kafka encouraged his favourite sister Ottla in her sum to Josef David, a Czech Catholic, against the opposition of parents and relatives, and wrote affectionately to his new brother-in-law in fluent Czech. For Prague Jews of Kafkas generation, language and identity could be painfully diss onant.In Kafkas case, this dissonance reached deep into his own family, conferring an alien quality on the most intimate of human relationships. Franz Kafka died of tuberculosis in 1924. He is buried beside his parents in the family plot in Pragues New Jewish Cemetery. Simone de Beauvoir is a French Women. She was French writer, political activist, feminist, and social theorist. She gave her whole life for feminine rights and equality with men in Society. Beauvoir was an outstanding student. She did her graduate(prenominal) work at the Ecole Normale Superieure, the top postgraduate program in France, where she met Jean Paul Sartre.When World War II broke out in September 1939, Sartre was called for military service. He became a prisoner of war when the French army surrendered, but he was released and both Beauvoir and Sartre participated in the resistance, and after the Vichy Regime dismissed Beauvoir from her teaching position, she began a novel about the resistance. When the war ended, Beauvoir and Sartre became part of a group of leading French intellectuals, who concerned themselves with the perceived failures of modern French society. they founded Les Temps modernes as a means to explain their social and cultural views.At the same time, Sartre suggested to Beauvoir that she undertake a appropriate on the status of women, and she published, La deuxieme sexe (The Second Sex). This was her most famous, and influential book. It became a sourcebook of modern feminism, particularly in the United States for later feminist thinkers such as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. De Beauvoir used very specific and effective and omnipotent words to underline her matter. She is willing to deploy language and words towards others, because she knows about a manner in which her body and her relation to the world are modified through the action of others than herself.