Noam Chomsky

Language is our medium of expression, and languages and dialects come in as many flavors as people do. While most people recognize that it is useful to have a standardized language for public communication, schools and so forth, when humans start making laws which punish or fine people for the way they speak, it is a red flag; I should not be fined if I want to say “ain’t,” and a school child should not be caned for speaking Welsh.

Slovakia has recently passed a law which has the potential to oppress thousands of people by imposing enormous fines for “‘misusing‘ language.” An electronic petition is being distributed which objects to this law. Hundreds have already signed it, including many very well known linguists such as Noam Chomsky (MIT), Guglielmo Cinque (Venice) (whose book I have written about on Coldfront in the past), Hagit Borer (USC), Andrew Nevins (Harvard University), among many others.

In the course of human history, it  has not been uncommon for oppressive forces to to make laws prohibiting the use of some language or dialect of a language. This allows them, essentially, to legally penalize people for being of their ethnicity. For example, it is common to severely punish school children for speaking the wrong language, often before they ever would have had the chance to learn the “right” language. (See this site for examples of oppression against Kurdish students.)

You may see the list of petition signatures here, and you may read the petition itself (and, if you like, sign it) here. I would like to encourage anyone who has not looked into this interesting and important issue, especially those who are skeptical about its importance, to read any of the articles linked above and/or any of the many, many interesting pieces written on the issue.

–Jim Wood

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