Question

“When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.”

Can you think of examples in history where conquered people had their language taken away from them or had a language imposed on them?

Answer 1

Some examples of the native language taken away from its people and/or imposition of the language of the conqueror are:-

(a) Portuguese becoming the lingua franca of Angola.
(b) English imposed on the various Celtic peoples.
(c) Spanish imposed on the Basques and the Catalans.
(d) Turkish imposed on the Kurds.

Answer 2

1. Polish under Russian Rule: After Poland’s partition, Russia banned the Polish language in schools and offices, making it mandatory for Russians to repress Polish nationalism.
2. Spanish in Latin America: The Spanish conquistadors pushed their language on indigenous civilizations such as the Aztecs and Incas, mainly replacing native languages with Spanish.
3. Turkish in the Ottoman Empire: The native languages of the Balkans and the Middle East were impacted by the Ottoman authorities’ promotion of Turkish in several areas.
4. Apartheid South Africa: The government tried to force black students to learn in Afrikaans, resulting in the famous Soweto Uprising, in which people struggled to preserve their own identity.
5. Tibet under China: There have been continuous efforts to promote Mandarin Chinese in schools and government agencies, raising fears about the Tibetan language’s survival.