City and language. Role of cities and towns in shaping language situation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18778/2300-0562.02.04Keywords:
city (town), hinterland, language situation, linguistic diversification, linguistic homogenisation, linguistic contactsAbstract
Cities and towns play a significant role in shaping language situation in countries and regions. In cities and towns two language mechanisms are working: diversification and simplification of language situation. Diversification results from immigration to cities (towns), simplification – from contacts of peoples inside the city (town). In extreme cases of rapid inflow of peoples of various languages to the city (town) difficulties in mutual communication of inhabitants can emerge (“Babel tower effect”). In the 19th century such a situation was in Lodz and Bialystok. Simplification of the language situation in a city (town) runs through the stage of common language and bi-lingualism of a part of the population. An important issue is which language becomes the common, and consequently, the only language, of the city (town). It depends on numerical, economic and political strength of ethno-linguistic groups in the city (town), on prestige of individual languages and, in contemporary world, on language policy of a given country or region. Different socio-professional characteristics of urban and rural populations often make that from the ethno-linguistic point of view cities (towns) differ from their rural hinterland. City (town) and its hinterland are in contact which leads to a change of the language situation – to an “absorption” of the city (town) by the hinterland or to expansion of language of the city (town) and assimilation of the hinterland by the city (town), or to equilibrium and tensions over the language between the city (town) and its hinterland (as nowadays in Brussels). Cities (towns) by forming a network of contacts create favourable conditions for expansion of the most important language in a given country (or empire), which in modern times (the 19th and 20th centuries) was used for cultural and linguistic homogenisation of populations in the process of building nation states.
References
Alpatov W.M. 1988, Japonia. Jazyk i obszczestwo, Izdatielstvo Nauka, Moskwa (Алпатов В.М., Япония. Язык и обзщество, Издательство Наука, Москва).
Google Scholar
Barwiński M., 2013, Geograficzno-polityczne uwarunkowania sytuacji Ukraińców, Łemków, Białorusinów i Litwinów w Polsce po 1944 roku, Wydawnictwo UŁ, Łódź.
Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/7525-785-4
Blake N.F., 1996, A history of the English language, Palgrave, Basingstoke.
Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24954-1
Boivin M., 2011, Indie. Zarys historii, Dialog, Warszawa.
Google Scholar
Cudny W., Rouba R., 2012, Lodz – Poland, [w:] Cudny W., Michalski T., Rouba R. (red.), Tourism and the transformation of large cities in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Wydawnictwo UŁ, Łódź.
Google Scholar
Daneš F., 1996, Čeština od národního obrození do získání státní samostatnosti, [w:] Čmejrková S., Daneš F., Kraus J., Svobodová I. (red.), Čeština, jak ji znáte i neznáte, Academia, Praha.
Google Scholar
Delage G., Dumas G., 2002, Politiques linguistiques: Le modele québécois, World Congress on Language Policies, April, Barcelona.
Google Scholar
Diaz-Couder E., 1997, Multilingüismo y Estado-Nación en México, „Diverscité”, Janvier: www.teluq.uquebec.ca/diverscite/entree.htm
Google Scholar
Djaczkov M.W., Leontjev J.I., Torsujeva A.A., 1981, Jazyk tok-pisin, Izdatielstvo Nauka, Moskwa (Дьячков М.В., Леонтьев Е.И., Торсуева А.А., 1981, Язык токписин, Издательство Наука, Москва).
Google Scholar
Gawryszewski A., 2009, Ludność Warszawy w XX wieku, PAN IGiPZ, Warszawa.
Google Scholar
Gelber H.G., 2001, Nations out of empires. European nationalism and transformation of Asia, Palgrave, Basingstoke–New York.
Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230288645
Ingrassia G., Blasco Ferrrer E., 2009, Storia della lingua sarda, CUEC (Cooperativa Universitaria Editrice Cagliaritana), Cagliari.
Google Scholar
Jassem-Staniecka A., 2012, Community conflict in Belgium and its linguistic reflections, „Annual of Language & Politics and the Politics of Identity”, 6: www.alppi.eu
Google Scholar
Jurkowski J., 1986, Od wieży Babel do języka kosmitów. O językach sztucznych, uniwersalnych i międzynarodowych, KAW, Białystok.
Google Scholar
Keating M., 1996, Nations against the state. The new politics of nationalism in Quebec, Catalonia and Scotland, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.
Google Scholar
Koter M., Kulesza M., Puś W., Pytlas S., 2005, Wpływ wielonarodowego dziedzictwa kulturowego Łodzi na współczesne oblicze miasta, Wydawnictwo UŁ, Łódź.
Google Scholar
Macan T., 2004, Hrvatska povijest, Matica Hrvatska, Zagreb.
Google Scholar
Pellicer D., 1997, Reconomimiento y conocimiento de las lenguas indígenas de México, „Diverscité”, Fevrier: www.teluq.uquebec.ca/diverscite/entree.htm
Google Scholar
Pěničková D.A., 2009, Anglicky mluvící cicinci v České republice: výuka angličtiny jako prostředek společenské integrace, [w:] Bittnerová D., Moravcová M. (red.), Etnické komunity. Elity, institituce, stát, Fakulta humanitních studií Universzity Karlovy, Praha.
Google Scholar
Rocher F., 2002, The evolving parameters of Quebec nationalism, „International Journal on Multicultural Societies”, 4 (1), s. 75–97.
Google Scholar
Rossel H., 1997, La référence identitaire régionale – le cas de la Belgique et de l’ex-Tchécoslovaquie, [w:] Jałowiecki B., Gorzelak G. (red.), The identity of Central Europe/L’Identité de l’Europe Centrale, Regional and Local Studies, t. 13, Warszawa.
Google Scholar
Rotković R., 2006, Kratka ilustrowana istorija crnogorskog naroda, Crnogorska izdanja, Podgorica.
Google Scholar
Roux G., 2006, Mezopotamia, Dialog, Warszawa.
Google Scholar
Rykała A., 2011, Mniejszości religijne w Polsce. Geneza, struktury przestrzenne, tło etniczne, Wydawnictwo UŁ, Łódź.
Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/7525-577-5
Sofronov M.W., 1979, Kitajskij jazyk i kitajskoje obszczestwo, Izdatielstvo Nauka, Moskwa (Софронов М.В., 1979, Китайский язык и китайское общество, Издательство Наука, Москва).
Google Scholar
Simke J., 2011, Běła Wóda, něga raz serbska wjas, Ludowe Nakładnistwo Domowina, Budyšin.
Google Scholar
Singer I.I., 1937, Di brider Aszkenazy („Bracia Aszkenzazy”), Forwerts Ojsgabe, Nowy Jork.
Google Scholar
Singer I.I., 1946, Fun a welt wos iż niszto mer („O świecie, którego już nie ma”), Farlag Matones, Nowy Jork.
Google Scholar
Sobczyński M., 2012, Region łódzki w tradycji podziałów administracyjnych Polski Środkowej, [w:] Pawłowska A., Rykiel Z. (red.), Region i regionalizm w socjologii i politologii, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego, Rzeszów, s. 177–195.
Google Scholar
Szul R., 2010, “Wskrzeszanie” języków jako symboli tożsamości, pamięci i przestrzeni narodów, [w:] Kapralski S. (red.), Pamięć, przestrzeń, tożsamość, Wydawnictwo Scholar, Warszawa, s. 72–101.
Google Scholar
Szymańska D., 2007, Urbanizacja na świecie, PWN, Warszawa.
Google Scholar
Truchot C., 2008, Europe: l’enjeu linguistique, La Documentation Française, Paris.
Google Scholar
Trunk I.I., 1946, Pojln („Polska”), Farlag Unser Tsait, Nowy Jork.
Google Scholar
www.alppi.eu
Google Scholar
www.radioaustralia.net.au/tokpisin
Google Scholar
www.visitcardiff.com
Google Scholar
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
