Málfríður - 15.05.2002, Page 28

When Eastern
Europe got rid
of the Soviet
domination a
decade ago, the
first thing they
did was to for-
get Russian,
which they were
quite good at,
and start learn-
ing English
from scratch.
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emotionally very strong idea which is,
also, the background for our foreign lan-
guage teaching. We teach national lan-
guages and, in connection to that, we
teach what we call The Cultural Heritage
of that nation, especially the hterature
written in that language.
The connection of language and
state
We tend to connect nation and language
in strange ways:When I was a young man
I went to Holland. It was in 1958. We had
great difficult in speaking Enghsh to the
people because very few had learned it,
but it was even worse to speak German to
them, which they spoke fluently, because
they hated the Germans for their deeds
during the war. — When Eastern Europe
got rid of the Soviet domination a decade
ago, the first thing they did was to forget
Russian, which they were quite good at,
and start learning Enghsh ffom scratch.
The idea of the language and the
nation reached its sad extreme in
Germany in the 1940’s.
English rules the world
But after 1960 we see a new order:
Enghsh rules the world — or the world is
ruled in English, and the old national lan-
guages give way. An example: During the
last 4—5 years Icelandic has disappeared
ffom the posters and advertisements for
movies. Now it is only Enghsh. In men-
tioning the movies it has become custom-
ary to say “the title of the film is...” and
mention its English name, but occasional-
ly add “in Icelandic it has been called...”
And as always we academics are the
worst. We write our articles or disserta-
tions in English, we — as you see —
address audiences in more or less bad
Enghsh when we could often just as well
use another more familiar language.
It looks like we have returned to a sit-
uation similar to the one before 1700.The
comedy written in 1720 by Ludvig
Holberg: “Jean de France eller Hans
Frandsen” about a young man returning
ffom Paris to Copenhagen refusing to
speak anything but French could just as
well be about a young Icelander returning
ffom his studies abroad and not being able
to say a single word about his studies in his
mother tongue.
Three types of language
Let us return again to the notions:We
have historically three types oflanguage:
1. The hngua ffanca — the
international dominating language
2. The dialect
3. The national language
The national language is historically a
dialect, often the dialect of the capital,
used in the former functions of the hngua
ffanca. These two types oflanguage have
so much in common that we can say that
they are one: Languages of power and cul-
ture. The difference between them is that
the national language is limited to one or
a few countries but the international lan-
guage to many. —And that is only a ques-
tion of communication.
The dialect on the other hand is the
language only used in private situations,
home, family, ffiends — not business,
administration, government, philosophy
or science — perhaps literature but not
necessarily.
Three periods
We can describe the history in short as
follows: Before 1700 Europe was domi-
nated by an international aristocracy, and
hence the language of power and culture
was international. For a period of 250
years the infrastructure of Europe was
dominated by local bourgeoisie and hence
the language of power and culture was
more local. Now we hve at times where
the former national languages change
back to a status as dialects and Enghsh
becomes our new international language
of power and culture.