I’m a bit shocked by the level of your confidence in this sentence:
forcing a language change from above is something that has factually never been met with success in the history of language and languages
Think hate speech laws in Europe. Think language reforms in Lithuania or Poland that made some forms (foreign terms, feminatives) illegal under the threat of losing a job if you’re a teacher. Think about introduction of the gender-neutral pronoun “hen” in Sweden to the kindergarten books and education system. Think about Ex nihilo vocabulary coinage in Estonian, or similarly in Hebrew. Or, on the more gruesome note, there’s a vast body of the research that indicates that any genocide begins with changes in national discourse, oftentimes codified, or that many nationalistic forms of discrimination start with language policies (think colonization practices).
Yes, language politics has existed for centuries and has informed how people speak, think and relate to each other. And yes, there have been plenty success in the history in enforcing from the top how everyday people speak. Sometimes it takes a few years, sometimes a few decades.
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I’m a bit shocked by the level of your confidence in this sentence:
Think hate speech laws in Europe. Think language reforms in Lithuania or Poland that made some forms (foreign terms, feminatives) illegal under the threat of losing a job if you’re a teacher. Think about introduction of the gender-neutral pronoun “hen” in Sweden to the kindergarten books and education system. Think about Ex nihilo vocabulary coinage in Estonian, or similarly in Hebrew. Or, on the more gruesome note, there’s a vast body of the research that indicates that any genocide begins with changes in national discourse, oftentimes codified, or that many nationalistic forms of discrimination start with language policies (think colonization practices).
Yes, language politics has existed for centuries and has informed how people speak, think and relate to each other. And yes, there have been plenty success in the history in enforcing from the top how everyday people speak. Sometimes it takes a few years, sometimes a few decades.