Linguistic diversity in Europe, state and nation-building and the local-global continuum
Résumé
The 27 polities which make up the current European Union are supposed to be based on the "will to live together" which needs as a basic cultural prerequisite the fact that all citizens share a common language, a koine.
Today, the relationship between language and politics is quite more complex because of the territorial size, the linguistic heterogeneity and the nation-state building historical components of the states, without forgetting such trends as massive migration processes, globalization and
the impact of new technologies.
The imposition of a common language can be considered as a necessary but not sufficient condition for the good working of a polity, whatever its degree of democracy, but a true linguistic democracy must avoid two pitfalls : the rejection of other languages ("regional or minority languages"? and the reification of the official or state language considered as the only language of democracy or the only democratic language. Each of the European states has to deal in the same time with infra and supra-national demands and pressures : regionalization from below and European integration and globalization from above, without forgetting interstates relation with, for example, the issue of "national minorities? in, but non only, eastern Europe : the issue of language and politics is relevant for all these levels.
Today, the relationship between language and politics is quite more complex because of the territorial size, the linguistic heterogeneity and the nation-state building historical components of the states, without forgetting such trends as massive migration processes, globalization and
the impact of new technologies.
The imposition of a common language can be considered as a necessary but not sufficient condition for the good working of a polity, whatever its degree of democracy, but a true linguistic democracy must avoid two pitfalls : the rejection of other languages ("regional or minority languages"? and the reification of the official or state language considered as the only language of democracy or the only democratic language. Each of the European states has to deal in the same time with infra and supra-national demands and pressures : regionalization from below and European integration and globalization from above, without forgetting interstates relation with, for example, the issue of "national minorities? in, but non only, eastern Europe : the issue of language and politics is relevant for all these levels.
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