The Making of Monolingual Japan: Language Ideology and Japanese Modernity (Multilingual Matters) - Softcover

Heinrich, Patrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847696562 ISBN 13: 9781847696564

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

Japan is widely regarded as a model case of successful language modernization, and it is often erroneously believed to be linguistically homogenous. There is a connection between these two views. As the first ever non-Western language to be modernized, Japanese language modernizers needed to convince the West that Japanese was just as good a language as the national languages of the West. The result was a fervent desire for linguistic uniformity. Today the legacy of modernist language ideology poses many problems to an internationalizing Japan. All indigenous minority languages are heading towards extinction, and this purposefully created homogeneity also affects the integration of immigrants and their languages. This book examines these issues from the perspective of language ideology, and in doing so the mechanisms by which language ideology undermines linguistic diversity are revealed.

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Patrick Heinrich is an associate professor at Dokkyo University, Japan. His research interests focus on language ideology, language endangerment, history of linguistics, and social aspects of foreign language learning. Recent publications include Higashi ajia ni okeru gengo fukko [Language Revitalization in East Asia] (co-edited with Shin Matsuo, Sangensha 2010), Language Life in Japan (co-edited with Christian Galan, Routledge, 2011), and Mezase! Ryukyu shogo no iji [In Pursuit of Ryukyuan Language Maintenance] (co-edited with Michinori Shimoji, CoCo Shuppan 2011). He is currently co-editing the Handbook of Ryukyuan Languages.

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The Making of Monolingual Japan

Language Ideology and Japanese Modernity

By Patrick Heinrich

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2012 Patrick Heinrich
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-84769-656-4

Contents

Preface, 
1 Language Ideology as a Field of Enquiry, 
2 The Call of Mori Arinori to Replace Japanese, 
3 The Creation of a Modern Voice, 
4 The Unification of Japanese, 
5 The Linguistic Assimilation of Ryukyuans and Ainu, 
6 The Most Beautiful Language in the World, 
7 Language Ideology as Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, 
8 Current Challenges to Modernist Language Ideology, 
9 Language Ideology in 21st-century Japan, 
References, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Language Ideology as a Field of Enquiry

Language ideology is an ever-present component of our communicative behaviour, for it regulates the way we talk. Yet this is something of which most of us are unaware, and so we assume our linguistic choices and attitudes to be entirely natural. The term 'ideology' is therefore a fitting one, and while language ideology escapes the attention of many of us most of the time, once one purposefully starts looking for it one encounters it everywhere. Consider the following examples of language ideology at work in Japan.

On 18 January 2000, a consultation body organized by the late Prime Minister Obuchi Keizo published a booklet which proposed the establishment of English as a second official language in Japan. In the resultant discussion on the appropriateness of such a proposal, linguist Tanaka Katsuhiko (2000) drew attention to the fact that Japan does not actually have a first official language.

On 20 February 2009, the evening edition of the daily newspaper Asahi shinbun led with the headline, 'Hachijo Language'?, followed by the statements, 'UNESCO: 2,500 languages world-wide threatened by extinction', 'Eight languages in Japan endangered' and 'Also [Japanese] dialects are independent languages'. Such was the response of Japan's most influential newspaper to the publication of the latest UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, which identified eight endangered languages in Japan (UNESCO, 2009).

On 26 May 2009, colleagues and friends of mine met at my office at the University of the Ryukyus. Frustrated by the lack of a language policy supportive of Ryukyuan languages, radio presenter Fija Byron commented, 'if we had a governor who said, all of a sudden, 'From now on, I will speak only Uchinaaguchi' (Okinawan) ... Someone with that kind of faith ... That would be it'!

In February 2009, Florian Coulmas handed me a copy of Tomasz Kamusella's The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe and asked me for a review. On the plane from Tokyo back to Naha, I read Kamusella's words:

The most ethno-linguistically homogenous nation-states (that is, almost without any native speakers of other languages than the national) are Iceland, Japan, and Poland. In the cases of Iceland and Japan, this unusual homogeneity was achieved by the long lasting maritime isolation of both parties. (Kamusella, 2009: 60)

It is easy to find such conflicting attitudes and opinions when dealing with the issue of language in Japan, yet few people take the time to consider the reasons for this incongruity, where it originated and how it might be resolved. Here, the issue of language ideology is crucial. As will be demonstrated in the course of this book, incongruity arises from the fact that the dominant language ideology in Japan is far removed from the country's sociolinguistic situation. To understand this disparity, we must trace the social and historical genealogy of dominant ideas about language in Japan, for by doing so we will find that there is a single ideology present in all the vignettes above which was proliferated towards the end of the 19th century. The idea is that of language nationalism. Of course, language nationalism is in no way unique to Japan, nor is it exceptional that the creation of a modern nation-state following the Meiji restoration of 1868 necessitated the establishment of a national language for Japan. That said, however, the events recounted in this book are in many ways unique. The implementation of language nationalism, its adaption to the Japanese socio-political and linguistic context, and the impact on the linguistic situation of present-day Japan will be dealt with in the chapters that follow.

The significance of studying language ideology encompasses the field of history of thought, to which this topic might be most closely related. Three reasons will be shown to be relevant for a consideration of language ideology for all orientations of linguistics. Firstly, all ideologies emerge in specific socio-cultural conditions and thus do not form an appropriate base for a general linguistics worthy of that name. Secondly, these conditions grow quickly obsolete due to the normalization of ideological claims. Hence, ideologies pass as fact and appear to be common-sensical and natural, and they are usually also shared by linguists. Thirdly, language ideology influences the sociolinguistic realities on the ground in making them more similar to ideological claims. In brief, linguistics is involved in changing sociolinguistic situations due to its negligence of the socio-cultural conditions under which ideologies are created. This results in confusing ideological claims for fact, and hence, in further support for ideology. Since the basis of dominating ideology is power, linguistics will be shown in this book to assist in changing the sociolinguistic situation in ways which are beneficial to powerful actors. This book will also make clear that non-idelogical linguistics is not possible, and it will be argued that power-based ideologies should be replaced by ideologies based on cultural liberty and solidarity.

In considering the importance of language ideology to the creation and spread of a 'national language', we will look in this book at (1) the fundamental ideological entities of kokugo (national language) in Japan; (2) their evolution; and (3) their impact. We will thus attempt both to trace the ideological genesis of the ontology of kokugo, and to reveal the impact of kokugo ideology on Japanese society. Chapters 2–4 deal with language ideology and the creation of kokugo. In Chapters 5–7, we will turn our attention to the ways language ideology functions. Chapter 8 highlights contemporary attitudes and challenges to the legacy of kokugo ideology in late-modern Japan. In Chapter 9, we will return to the three central considerations outlined above, and discuss language ideology as a generative principle which constantly creates new meaning as contexts evolve. Given the scope of this book, it is perhaps appropriate to begin with a brief review of modernization as it occurred in Japan, and also to introduce some of the fundamentals of language ideology study, by way of preparing the ground for a more detailed discussion which will follow.

Overcome by Modernity

Following the reopening of Japan to contact with the outside world as enforced by Commodore Matthew Perry (1794–1858), Japan was suddenly and involuntarily faced with a need to define its place in the modern world. Japan's transformation into a modernized state required the formation of a new cultural and linguistic consciousness, something for which its feudal society was quite ill prepared. Identity and loyalty were shifted from premodern feudal domains to the emerging state,...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1847696562
• ISBN 13: 9781847696564
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 214
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland