Tuesday 24 January 2017
Tuesday 17 January 2017
Language is the Perfect Instrument of Empire
As is familiar, the Spanish Colonisation started in the 15th century. The Spanish power and reign was forced upon those who lived in the Americas. Religion, culture, and language were inflicted and forced into the natives' daily lives as the spanish and portuguese have started to settle. As much as religion and other aspects played an important role, the spanish renaissance scholar Antonio de Nebrija once stated "Language is the perfect instrument of empire", after publishing a book of spanish grammar. However, what exactly did he mean by this?
This quote closely links to a quote by Max Weinreich, a social linguist, which goes as follows "Language is a dialect that has its army and navy". This essentially states that stronger languages rule over the weaker languages and dialects, almost eliminating them. As discussed in class today, language is a strong factor for the elimination and/or preservation of cultures. This is due to languages sometimes being untranslatable and unique. This may cause problems as the rapid globalisation forces native tribes to adapt to the expanding and developing world, often leaving behind traditions and cultures as a whole.
Now to link all this back to Antonio de Nebrija's quote. The main goal of an empire is to secure economic zones and to spread a nation's power. This becomes a problem when the area a nation is trying to expand on is already inhabited by an inferior power. At this point it was important to the spanish to understand and be able to communicate with the enslaved volks. How was this done? With the help of Antonio's book. It has helped enforce spanish onto the native tribes, rotting their own language and possibly even losing the language as a whole. That is predominantly what the quote describes, using language as a tool to empower an empire, making it the stronger language, and finally using this advantage to yet again expand one's power.
This quote closely links to a quote by Max Weinreich, a social linguist, which goes as follows "Language is a dialect that has its army and navy". This essentially states that stronger languages rule over the weaker languages and dialects, almost eliminating them. As discussed in class today, language is a strong factor for the elimination and/or preservation of cultures. This is due to languages sometimes being untranslatable and unique. This may cause problems as the rapid globalisation forces native tribes to adapt to the expanding and developing world, often leaving behind traditions and cultures as a whole.
Now to link all this back to Antonio de Nebrija's quote. The main goal of an empire is to secure economic zones and to spread a nation's power. This becomes a problem when the area a nation is trying to expand on is already inhabited by an inferior power. At this point it was important to the spanish to understand and be able to communicate with the enslaved volks. How was this done? With the help of Antonio's book. It has helped enforce spanish onto the native tribes, rotting their own language and possibly even losing the language as a whole. That is predominantly what the quote describes, using language as a tool to empower an empire, making it the stronger language, and finally using this advantage to yet again expand one's power.
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