Linguistic propaganda against perceived irredentism

Abstract

Majority propaganda directed against (real or imaginary) secessionist and irredentist aspirations on the part of minorities may, under certain conditions, be directed at the language variety spoken by those minorities. The typical condition for this to obtain is where the minority (a) is geographically contiguous to a neighboring state and (b) speaks a language variety which is more closely related to that of the majority in the contiguous state than to the majority language in its own state. This article contrasts propaganda about language, at different periods during the last 150 years, in five localities: southern Austria, western Hungary, Karelia, Moldavia and northwestern Greece. The main thrust of this propaganda is, normally, to argue that the minority's linguistic links to its neighbor are minimal: the two language varieties are very different; there is little mutual comprehension; it is difficult to learn the neighboring variety: and the minority dialects are assimilating to the majority language in their own state and are tending to become ‘mixed languages’. In the first four localities considered, with minor exceptions, these five propaganda arguments recur independently; in Greece, however, many of the parallels are lacking. It is suggested that this fact is linked, among other factors, to the differences in official approaches to the concept of ethnicity and nationalism.