Abstract
Language, along with ethnicity or religion, is widely regarded as a core aspect of personal and group identity. Just as it would be monstrous to force someone to renounce their religion, and absurd to expect them to change ethnicity, so too must an individual’s language receive respect, we are told, lest its oppressors stand complicit as the moral equivalent of Nazis. Yet compromises do occur—new languages are learned, old ones are neglected, conversions take place, and even ethnicity is subject to a certain amount of renegotiation and contextualization. In the case of language change, it can be difficult to disentangle the effects of political coercion, socioeconomic pressure, and the practical need for everyday communication. It is also difficult to decide what level of accommodation a state or society can reasonably demand of its people, or they of it.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
“Askalon” (26 February 2010). 10 modern cases of linguistic genocide. Listverse. Retrieved 10 May 2010, from http://listverse.com/2010/02/10-modern-casesof-linguistic-genocide.
Cemiloglu, D. (2009). Language policy and national unity: The dilemma of the Kurdish language in Turkey. A case study on language policy between 19242009. College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal. Retrieved 15 February 2010, from http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1115&context=curej.
Cole, Juan R.I. (2009, July 1). Death toll in Kirkuk rises to 33, Growing Arab-Kurdish violence threatens stability of Iraq;4 US troops killed. Informed Comment. Retrieved 2 November 2010 from http://www.juancole.com/2009/07/death-toll-in-kirkuk-rises-to-33.html.
Cole, Juan R.I. (2010, August 13). Kurdish general again insubordinate, angles for US to remain in Iraq. Informed Comment. Retrieved 2 November 2010 from http://www.juancole.com/2010/08/kurdish-general-again-insubordinate-angles-for-us-to-remain-in-iraq.html.
Dwyer, A. M. (2005). The Xinjiang conflict: Uyghur identity, policy, and political discourse. Policy Studies, 15. Washington, DC: East-West Center.
Fraser, S. (1 August 2005). Turkey’s Kurdish language schools to shut down over lack of interest, bureaucratic Hurdles. Associated Press. Retrieved 1 December 2009 from http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P1-111714977.html.
Friend, T. (2003). Indonesian destinies. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press.
Gozke, O. (22 April 2002). Keeping Kurdish language alive. Bianet News Center. Retrieved 1 December 2009, from http://bianet.org/english/women/9425-keeping-kurdish-language-alive.
Hassanpour, A. (2000). The politics of a-political linguistics: Linguists and linguicide. In R. Phillipson (ed.), Rights to language, equity, power, and education, celebrating the 60th birthday of Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (pp. 33–39). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Hassanpour, A., Skutnabb-Kangas, T., and Chyet, M. (1996). The non-education of Kurds: A Kurdish perspective. International Review of Education, 42(4), 367–379.
Human Rights Watch Report (1996, October). Syria: The silenced Kurds, 8 (4). Retrieved 1 December 2009, from http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/1996/10/03/syria-silenced-kurds.htm.
Joseph, J. E. (2006). Language and politics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Jwaideh, W. (2006). Kurdish national movement: Its origins and development. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Kibbee, D. A. (2003). Language policy and linguistic theory. In J. Maurais and M. A. Morris (eds.), Languages in a globalizing world (pp. 47–57). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kreyenbroeck, P. G. (1992). On the Kurdish language. In P. G. Kreyenbroeck and S. Sperl (eds.), The Kurds: A contemporary review (pp. 68–83). London: Routledge.
McDowall, D. (1996). A modern history of the Kurds. London: I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd.
Miller, J.J. (8 March 2002). How do you say “extinct”? Languages die;The United Nations is upset about this. Wall Street Journal, W13. Retrieved 1 December 2009, from http://www.heymiller.com/2010/08/language-extinction.
Mufwene, S. S. (2008). Globalization and the myth of killer languages. Retrieved 15 February 2009, from http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mufwene/publications/globalization-killerLanguages.pdf.
Phillipson, R., and Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (1989). Linguistic human rights and the Kurdish language. Human rights in Kurdistan. Documentation of the international conference on human rights in Kurdistan (pp. 60–68). Bremen: The Initiative for Human Rights in Kurdistan.
Phillipson, R., and Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (eds.) (1994). Linguistic human rights overcoming linguistic discrimination. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.
Rudelson, J. J. (1997). Oasis identities: Uyghur nationalism along China’s Silk Road. New York: Columbia University Press.
Russell-Johnston, D. (7 July 2006). The cultural situation of the Kurds: A report submitted to the European Parliamentary Assembly, Committee on Culture, Science and Education. United Kingdom Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Doc. 11006.
Schleifer, Y. (5 October 2005). Opened with a flourish, Turkey’s Kurdish-language schools fold. Christian Science monitor. Retrieved 15 February 2009, from http://www.csmonitor/2005/1005/p07s02-woeu.html.
Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2000). Linguistic genocide in education—or worldwide diversity and human rights? London, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2002). When languages disappear, are bilingual education or human rights a cure? Two scenarios. In L. Wei, J. Dewaele, and A. Hausen (eds.), Opportunities and challenges of bilingualism (pp. 45–68). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2006). Tove Skutnabb-Kangas speaking at UC Berkeley. Retrieved 17 March 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SugkhNnRKGg.
Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (19–21 January 2009). The stakes: Linguistic diversity, linguistic human rights and mother tongue based multi-lingual education or linguistic genocide, crimes against humanity and an even faster destruction of biodiversity and our planet. Keynote presentation at Bamako International Forum on Multilingualism, Bamako, Mali. Retrieved 7 April 2009, from http://www.tove-skutnabb-kangas.org/pdf/Tove_Skutnabb_Kangas_Keynote_presentation_at_Bamako_International_Forum_on_Multilingualism_Bamako_Mali_19_21_Jan_2009.pdf.
Skutnabb-Kangas, T., and Bucak, S. (1995). Killing a mother tongue — How the Kurds are deprived of linguistic human rights. In T. Skutnabb-Kangas and R. Phillipson (eds.), Linguistic human rights: overcoming linguistic discrimination (pp. 347–370). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Skutnabb-Kangas, T., and Phillipson, R. (1999). Linguistic genocide and human rights: Kurdish considerations. In P. Sundqvist (ed.), The Kurds. Perspectives on a unique culture (pp. 25–48). Helsinki: Suomen Rauhanliitto YK-Yhdistys.
Vali, A. (2006). The Kurds and their “others”: Fragmented identity and fragmented politics. In F. A. Jabar and H. Dawod (eds.), The Kurds: Nationalism and politics (pp. 49–78). London, Berkeley, Beirut: Saqi.
Van Bruinessen, M. (2006). Kurdish paths to nation. In F. A. Jabar and H. Dawod (eds.), The Kurds: Nationalism and politics (pp. 21–48). London, Berkeley, Beirut: Saqi.
Wood, G. (12 June 2006). Iran bombs Iran: Meet the Kurdish guerrillas who want to topple the Tehran regime. Slate. Retrieved 15 February 2009, from http://www.slate.com/id/2143492/?nav=fo.
Zhou, M. (2003). Multilingualism in China: The politics of writing reforms for minority languages 1949–2002. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter Mouton.
Zubaida, S. (2006). Religion and ethnicity as politicized boundaries. In F. A. Jabar and H. Dawod (eds.), The Kurds: Nationalism and politics (pp. 93–102). London, Berkeley, Beirut: Saqi.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2011 Evangelos Voulgarakis and Bei Dawei
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Voulgarakis, E., Dawei, B. (2011). Confronting “Linguistic Genocide”: Language Repression in Kurdistan. In: Nault, D.M., England, S.L. (eds) Globalization and Human Rights in the Developing World. Global Ethics Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230316966_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230316966_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-33228-1
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-31696-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.