Pride and prejudice in multilingualism and development

Abstract

The role of language as a means of communication and social interaction, a medium of education, and a vehicle for cultural expression is fairly well-known. In any nation state, language is also often regarded as a symbol of nationality. This, in turn, is based on the equally wellknown function of language as a solidarity marker. A speech community has its ‘in-group’ language that marks it off from other speech communities. This same speech community may have an ‘out-group’ language that it shares with a wider group. Alternatively, the solidarity function of a language may be restricted to special purposes, such as religion. In all these cases, language marks a person as belonging to a group which may vary from a village community or a religious sect, to an ethnic group or the entire nation.

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