Language Problems and Language Planning - Volume 25, Issue 2, 2001

This paper reviews sociological analysis of the transformation of the link between language and identity among Soviet Jewish immigrants in Israel, focusing on their common desire for Russian language maintenance after their immigration to the State of Israel. The authors argue that although the immigrants acquire Hebrew quite fast, which improves their occupational perspectives and enriches their social life, the former Soviet Jewish intelligentsia’s perception of the dominant Israeli policy of language shift to Hebrew is extremely negative: in their view it resembles the Soviet policy of language shift to Russian. However, because of the success of Soviet language policy in suppressing Yiddish and Hebrew, the contemporary cultural world of Russian Jews has been mediated mostly in Russian. Furthermore, the self-identification of today’s post-Soviet Jewish intelligentsia combines the Jewish (mostly Yiddish) legacy and the heritage of Russian culture, which has been created partly by Jewish writers. Therefore, Russian Jews tend to consider Russian a more important channel than Hebrew for conveying their cultural values. The Soviet Jewish intelligentsia in Israel is striving to retain a multilingual identity: while they do appreciate Hebrew and the cultural values it conveys, they share a strong feeling that their own cultural-linguistic identity is of great value to them.

Opérant une distinction entre l’aménagement linguistique et la politique linguistique, la présente étude est consacrée à la politique des langues au Bénin et couvre la période allant de l’indépendance du pays à nos jours. Elle reconnaît la politique dahoméenne des langues, qui se donne le développement national comme objectif et la langue française comme moyen, la politique béninoise, qui révèle une orientation nationaliste en intégrant les langues nationales et en excluant le français de son statut officiel, enfin, la politique républicaine des langues, issue de la conférence nationale que le pays a tenue, qui s’efforce aujourd’hui de couvrir les réalités béninoises.

There is growing concern about the spread and influence of English worldwide. In Cyprus, the influence of English on the Greek Cypriot dialect has attracted much interest in recent years, becoming the subject of frequent media attention and, at times, creating acrimonious public discussion. While some people have reacted mildly to this phenomenon, others express strong views, seeing the ‘influx’ of foreign words as a ‘linguistic invasion’ that ‘contaminates’ their language, and referring to the ‘suppression’ of the Greek language by English. Such ‘protectors’ of language warn of a colonialist ‘dominance’ of English in the lives of Cypriots. This paper (a) examines concerns and fears that were expressed recently about the influx of English loanwords in Cypriot Greek and in general the influence of English in Cyprus and (b) reviews papers presented at a conference held in 1992 that dealt with the dominance of English and the ‘suppression’ of Cypriot Greek.

ResumoLa sinjorino, la lingvistoj, kaj la internacia lingvoDe 1924 ĝis 1951, la novjorka International Auxiliary Language Association (internacia helplingva asocio) aŭspiciis ampleksan interlingvistikan esplorprogramon kun financa subteno de Alice Vanderbilt Morris. Komence la celo estis esplori la motivojn por elekto de unu internacia lingvo inter la ekzistantaj kandidatoj, inkluzive de Esperanto, Ido, kaj Latino sine flexione. Tamen, pro la influo de eminentaj usonaj kaj eŭropaj lingvistoj, precipe Edward Sapir kaj Otto Jespersen, la esplorprogramo reorientiĝis, unue al komparado de komunaj trajtoj de okcidentaj lingvoj, poste al la kreado de nova interlingvo, Interlingua. La artikolo pritraktas kelkajn el la ideologiaj tendencoj kondukintaj al tiu ŝanĝo, kaj ilian rilaton al aliaj marĝenaj tradicioj en la moderna usona lingvistiko.