Resumen de The selective celebration of linguistic diversity: evidence from the Swiss language policy discourse
The scholarly praise for linguistic diversity stands in an interesting contrast to the way diversity in standard and non-standard languages is referred to in language policy discourse. Drawing on recent debates in Switzerland, this article focuses on ideologies on linguistic varieties in the German- and Romansh-speaking areas. The two contexts represent the demographically smallest and largest national languages respectively, which are both characterised by dialect use as speakers’ default choice. The specific language ecology leads to different social constructions of the ‘problem’ of linguistic heterogeneity: In German-speaking Switzerland, the attitudes towards dialect oscillate between its potential to express local authenticity and its role as a linguistic barrier with respect to speakers of other (national or non-national) languages. In the Romansh context, however, the roles of the local dialect and of several more or less standardised forms are complicated by the status of Romansh as a minority language that is under pressure from German. I discuss media clippings, census data, but also data from a longitudinal study with a main focus on the educational context. The celebration of linguistic diversity tends to be selective and highly dependent on the respective political agenda.
