Common values for the European Union : a view from a candidate state

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Silesian: from gwara to language after 1989

In the past, Silesian was treated as a subdialect of the Polish language (and sometimes of Czech). During the 1990s, following the fall of communism and the establishment of democracy in Poland, most Silesian-speakers decided to treat Silesian as a language in its own right. It became part and parcel of their eff ort to shed the status of second-class citizens that had been imposed on them in the interwar and communist Poland. Warsaw has not recognized this language yet, but, despite suff ering this (quite humiliating) disadvantage, Silesian-speakers have produced a growing number of articles, books, websites, radio and television programmes in their language, winning a recognition for Silesian as a language abroad and among scholars. It appears that the Polish administration’s rigid stance toward the Silesians and their language is dictated by the logic of ethnolinguistic nationalism, which equates the legitimacy and stability of the nation-state with the full ethnolinguistic homogeneity of its population. This article sketches the trajectory of the main events and probes into the state of the discourse on the issue of Silesian language and culture during the quarter of a century after the fall of communism in 1989.PostprintPeer reviewe

Ethnolinguistic Nationalism as the Shared Ideological Basis of Poland’s Governing Party {PiS} and the Opposition

Tomasz Kamusella. 2016. Dobra zmiana. Jak niewiele dzieli PiS od opozycji [Ethnolinguistic Nationalism as the Shared Ideological Basis of Poland’s Governing Party {PiS} and the Opposition] . Studio Opinii. 9 Oct. http://studioopinii.pl/tomasz-kamusella-dobra-zmiana-jak-niewiele-dzieli-pis-od-opozycji/Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The rise and dynamics of the normative isomorphism of language, nation, and state in Central Europe

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Albania: a denial of the Ottoman past : (School textbooks and politics of memory)

In post-communist Albania’s schools, alongside regular textbooks of history for teaching the subject, school atlases of history are also employed as a prescribed or adjunct textbook. In the stories and facts related through texts and maps, the Ottoman past is curiously warped and marginalized. As a result, the average Albanian is left incapable of explaining why Albania is a predominantly Muslim polity, but with a considerable degree of tolerant poly-confessionalism. Furthermore, school history education in Albania propagates the unreflective anti-Ottoman feeling encapsulated by the stereotypes of ‘Turkish yoke’ or ‘the five centuries of Turkish occupation.’ This simplistic anti-Ottomanism of Albanian culture and public discourse is strangely at variance with the Muslim and polyconfessional character of Albania.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Arabic language : a Latin of modernity?

Standard Arabic is directly derived from the language of the Quran. The Arabic language of the holy book of Islam is seen as the prescriptive benchmark of correctness for the use and standardization of Arabic. As such, this standard language is removed from the vernaculars over a millennium years, which Arabic-speakers employ nowadays in everyday life. Furthermore, standard Arabic is used for written purposes but very rarely spoken, which implies that there are no native speakers of this language. As a result, no speech community of standard Arabic exists. Depending on the region or state, Arabs (understood here as Arabic speakers) belong to over 20 different vernacular speech communities centered around Arabic dialects. This feature is unique among the so-called “large languages” of the modern world. However, from a historical perspective, it can be likened to the functioning of Latin as the sole (written) language in Western Europe until the Reformation and in Central Europe until the mid-19th century. After the seventh to ninth century, there was no Latin-speaking community, while in day-to-day life, people who employed Latin for written use spoke vernaculars. Afterward these vernaculars replaced Latin in written use also, so that now each recognized European language corresponds to a speech community. In future, faced with the demands of globalization, the diglossic nature of Arabic may yet yield a ternary polyglossia (triglossia): with the vernacular for everyday life; standard Arabic for formal texts, politics, and religion; and a western language (English, French, or Spanish) for science, business technology, and the perusal of belles-lettres.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Between Scotland and Silesia

Between Scotland and Silesia (pp 154-160). In: Robert Burns. Wiersze i śpiywki Roberta Burnsa ze ślōnskimi translacyjami ôd Mirka Syniawy (Ser: Canon Silesiae, Bibliŏtyka Tumaczyń). Kotórz Mały: Silesia Progress.Postprin

Brendan Karch, Nation and loyalty in a German-Polish borderland : Upper Silesia, 1848–1960

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The normative isomorphism of language, nation and state

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Gábor Almási and Lav Šubarić, eds., Latin at the crossroads of identity : the evolution of linguistic nationalism in the Kingdom of Hungary

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