Abstract
Language imperialism and political correctnessIn the times of general globalization, in its part that considers languages, especially the so-called small languages, we can talk not only about an uncontrolled inroad of mainly English words into all walks of life within a society, but also about elements of linguistic imperialism.That imperialism has come about through technology, not by arms and blazing swords, as was mostly the case in history. In addition, the USA – the exporting country of the above mentioned language-imperialistic phenomena around the world, is considered to be the cradle of the much advocated political correctness, which should include basic human rights, one of which is undoubtedly the right to a proper name.It could be argued whether this right is always respected: I will show some examples of proper names of immigrants who had to/wanted to renounce their names in order to be Americanized (‘‘cooked in the American melting pot’’). Thus, the Croatian Krešo became Chris, Eva is spelled Eve on the other side of the pond (pronounced /I:v/), and in the global (American) news Michael Stich, a German, is pronounced /majkl stits/, and so on.I will also provide an example of political correctness which is not far from sheer stupidity.Political correctness itself changes with time, which will be illustrated by the Croatian example Ciganin – Rom (Gipsy – Roma(ny)).
Highlights
The USA – the exporting country of the above mentioned language-imperialistic phenomena around the world, is considered to be the cra‐ dle of the much advocated political correctness, which should include basic human rights, one of which is undoubtedly the right to a proper name. It could be argued whether this right is always respected: I will show some examples of proper names of immigrants who had to/wanted to renounce their names in order to be Americanized (‘’cooked in the American melting pot’’)
I will provide an example of political correctness which is not far from sheer stupidity
It could be argued whether this right is always respected: I will show some examples of proper names of immigrants who had to/wanted to renounce their names in order to be Americanized (‘’cooked in the American melting pot’’)
Summary
Ovaj sam tekst zamislila (a nadam se da ću ga tako i napisati) kao niz poticaja za razmišljanje i raspravljanje na temelju činjenica koje ovdje poda‐ stirem. Ovako su Sjedinjene Američke Države svoj materinski jezik (kao samo po sebi razumljivo) nametnule ostalim jezicima kao lingua franca, ne u prvom redu iz poliglotskih pobuda (da svi ljudi na svijetu nauče i engleski), nego zato da ih i preko jezika učine ovisnima o svekolikoj svojoj tehnologiji (vojnoj, svemirskoj, komunikacijskoj, medijskoj i sl.), što će onda povući za sobom i oponašanje obrazaca ponašanja (radno vrijeme, promjena prehrambenih navika – brzo pripremljena ili gotova kupljena hrana – vožnja automobilom u udaljenija mjesta rada iz onih u kojima ljudi stanuju, čega u Europi, s obzirom na slabiju mobilnost, nije prije bilo, prekrajanje običa‐ ja – Božić sve više s reklamnim kokakolinskim Djedom Mrazom nego s pri‐ jašnjim malim Isusom kao darivateljem, Noć vještica, Valentinovo i sl.), što u konačnici i opet ima poticanje amerikaniziranoga konzumerizma (u Hr‐ vatskoj se to više i ne zove drukčije nego shoppingiranje, a ako se baš žurimo, pa ne znamo dobro englesko slovkanje, šopingiranje). Znamo vrlo dobro kako su izgledala osnovna ljudska prava upravo u toj «velesili demokracije» (segregacija crnačkoga stanovništva ne samo u nizu službi nego i u najobičnijem autobusu), pa nije onda čudno što je politička korektnost (bar izvana) dobro došla kao neki «pomak» u političkoj i/ili građanskoj svijesti. Evo pri‐ mjera koji pokazuju dokle je danas otišla možda i dobro zamišljena politička korektnost
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