Comparative geography of local languages in Europe and
America: differentiation, standardization and political recognition
First Part
Danilo Anton
1. Introduction
The historical evolution of traditional societies that
possessed community structures and modes of self-sustainable production and
consumption led to the formation of differentiated local cultures. Although
there was an exchange with neighboring communities due to their relative
isolation, particular linguistic characteristics were developed, different from
the neighboring languages. These idiomatic or dialect variations, which could
sometimes be very important, acted as the defining axis of these cultures.
As the states developed, with more or less centralized
administration, the need to adopt one or more common languages was generated.
In some cases, lingua franca developed as was the case with Swahili in East
Africa and Tuscan in Italy.
In other cases the language that was imposed belonged to the
strongest region (culturally, economically and / or politically), as was the
case of Spanish in Spain, English in the British Isles and Mandarin in China,
or the colonial power dominant (English in India, French in northwestern
African countries, Russian in the Russian Federation).
As new states became established and independent during the
19th and 20th centuries, the national languages were consolidated. This
phenomenon occurred mainly in the European continent and in Asia, and to a
lesser extent in Africa.
In the American continent there was a different process. Due
to the invasion and occupation of the native territories the local cultures
were partially or totally substituted eliminating or weakening the indigenous
languages. A similar situation occurred in Australia and New Zealand.
In these regions, no national state was established based on
native cultures. All states arose from former foreign colonies (Spanish,
English, Portuguese, French) that gained independence during the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries.
In the following paragraphs we will analyze the comparative
linguistic ethnogeography of Europe and America with some references to the
rest of the world that we consider relevant to the subject considered.
2. Linguistic differentiation in Europe and the political
recognition of local languages
In Europe, this evolution throughout history led to the
formation of several hundred different languages or local dialects.
The expansion of some states (Greek-Macedonian and Roman
Empires) in the so-called classical era (5th century BC to 6th century AD) and
Greek-Byzantine gave rise to linguistic homogenization due to the imposition of
certain strong languages on weaker ones.
In particular, Latin (in Western Europe and the western half
of the Mediterranean Sea) and Greek (in the eastern half of the Mediterranean
Sea) were expanded.
From the fall of the Roman Empire of the West, in the fifth
century, linguistic differentiation intensified. Thus, after several centuries
of transformation, local languages, strongly influenced by written,
bureaucratic and religious Latin gave rise to several linguistic varieties
generally called "Romance languages" in the former provinces of the
Empire. In the Iberian Peninsula the Galician-Portuguese language, Spanish,
Catalan, Asturian, Leonese and others were developed. In the Italian peninsula
and neighboring islands, the Tuscan language, Piedmontese, Lombard, Veneto,
Sardinian, Corsican, Calabrian, Sicilian, etc. evolved. In the ancient
transalpine galias these processes gave rise to the Provencal language,
Occitan, French, Romansh, Walloon and others. In Dacia the Romanian emerged. In
North Africa the influence was less due to the strong Phoenician roots and
pre-existing Berbers. The Afro-Romance languages that emerged are
extinguished in the early medieval period as well as in the British Isles a
British Romance language became extinct in the early Middle Ages.
In the Greco-speaking area the local differentiation was minor
due to the longer duration of the Greco-Byzantine domination and the Ottoman
invasion in Anatolia that imposed the Turkish languages replacing Greek in
the main centers of the former Byzantine Empire.
In the European regions that did not experience Roman or
Greco-Byzantine domination, families with different ethno-linguistic roots were
developed (German-Scandinavian, Slavic, Finnish, Magyar, Albanian, Celtic and Euzkaro languages, among others).
At the beginning of the 20th century, 150 different languages
were spoken in Europe, including numerous dialect varieties. Among them there
were about 60 languages with sufficient demographic volume and local
predominance to transcend politically and culturally.
In fact, 41 languages became dominant official languages (national
languages) in their respective states. The process of defense and
officialization of national languages proved complex and it was necessary to
resist the cultural and political domination of dominant (sometimes occupying)
states. Some languages survived but did not become dominant official
languages (eg Basque, Catalan, Breton, Welsh, Corsican, Sardinian, Sami,
Tatar, Chechen).
Many of the new states emerged as a result of the dissolution
of the Soviet Union. This is the case of Ukrainian, Belarusian, Moldovan,
Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Armenian, Georgian and Azeri. Something similar
happened as a result of the break-up of Yugoslavia that resulted in the
establishment of independent states with their own national languages
(Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegrin, Macedonian,
Albanian languages of Kosovo, etc.).
In any case, after this long evolutionary history, the
resulting official ethno-linguistic geography in Europe is one of the most
diverse in the world (see Tables 1 and 2).
The multiple historical episodes that marked European
political evolution led to the formation of numerous national states that, in
most cases, managed to preserve their own languages.
Because of this, many local languages, now recognized as
national languages, have social prestige and state support, in particular
educational and economic.
Table 1 shows the 49 European states with their respective
dominant and secondary languages, including the approximate number of speakers
of each of them.guage
1.
Andorra Catalán 50,000
2.
Armenia Armenian3,200,000
3.
Azerbaijan Azeri 8,500,000
4.
Austria German 8,000,000
5.
Belgium Flemish 6,100,000
6.
Walloon (French) 600,000
7.
Belarus Belarusian 7,000,000
8.
Bulgaria Bulgarian 7,000,000
9.
Croatia Coatian (Serbo-Croatian) 4,000,000
10.
Denmark Danish 5,500,000
11.
Slovakia Slovakia
5,000,000
12.
Slovenia Slovenian
1,900,000
13.
Spain Spanish 44,000,000
14.
Estonia Estonian 920,000
15.
Finland Finnish 5,000,000
16.
France French 65,000,000
17.
Georgia Georgian 4,000,000
18.
Greece Greek 11,000,000
19.
Netherlands Dutch 20,000,000
20.
Hungary Hungarian 9,000,000I
21.
Ireland English
6,000,000 Irish 3,000,000
22.
Iceland Icelandic 300,000
23.
Italy Italian 60,000,000
24.
Latvia Latvian 1,400,000
25.
Lithuania Lithuanian 3,000,000
26.
Luxembourg Luxembourgish 350,000
27.
Macedonia Macedonian 1,800,000
28.
Malta Maltese 330,000
29.
Moldova Moldovan (Romanian) 3,200,000
30.
Montenegro Serbo-Croatian 300,000 Montenegrin 200,000
31.
Norway Norwegian 4,500,000
32.
Poland Polish 38,000,000
33.
Portugal Portuguese 11,000,000
34.
United Kingdom English
61,000,000
35.
Czech Republic Czech 10,000,000
36.
Romania Romanian 20,000,000
37.
Russia Russian 142,000,000
38.
Serbia Serbian (Serbo-Croatian)
7,000,000
39.
Sweden Swedish 9,000,000
40.
Ukraine Ukrainian 37,000,000
