Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!nntp.sei.cmu.edu!news.psc.edu!scramble.lm.com!godot.cc.duq.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!deb5
From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Language as a barrier to violent conflict (was Re: language as a barrier to access to Internet?)
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: ellis-nfs.uchicago.edu
Message-ID: <Dtqqq8.Kny@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Organization: The University of Chicago
References: <19960628100005.baaa0051E@babyblue.cs.yale.edu> <19960628100004.aaaa0051E@babyblue.cs.yale.edu> <31d3b553.1708286@news.nando.net> <31D48ECE.1E2D0F2E@netcom.ca>
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 02:54:08 GMT
Lines: 40

In article <31D48ECE.1E2D0F2E@netcom.ca>, Ochlocrat  <ocrat@netcom.ca> wrote:
>D Gary Grady wrote:
>> 
>> Zamenhof did not, of course, suggest that a neutral language in and of
>> itself would magically bring about peace, love, and brotherhood, there
>> having been plenty of well-known examples of violent conflict among
>> peoples sharing a language in common.
>
>Actually, modern history has turned this idea on its ear.  _Most_ examples
>of recent violent conflicts involve people who speak common or mutually
>intelligible languages, and almost all are (or started out as) civil wars.
>Rwanda, Lebanon, Bosnia, Somalia, Northern Ireland...

...Nagorno-Karabakh, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Tibet, Philippines, Chiapas,
Kurdistan, Natal/KwaZulu, Liberia, Sudan, Transdniestria...

>It seems that people who inhabit distinct spaces (cultural, linguistic, or
>territorial) are nowadays content to coexist or ignore each other.  Collisions
>occur only when large areas of shared culture are offset by one or two
>insurmountable differences (religion, for instance).

	Collisions occur whenever one group appears, for any reason, to
be receiving better treatment than another, whether they be Armenians in 
Krasnodar, homosexuals in Colorado, or Jews anywhere.  Sometimes linguistic
differences coincide with the divides between cultural groups, sometimes
not.

>I'm not sure if linguistics can offer any insight into this, so this may
>be off topic for this group.  Then again, this issue comes up so often
>in the context of Esperanto that others must have given it some thought.

	What group--that I could read without having to construct a
lengthy kill-file (i.e., not soc.culture.europe, for instance)--would
this be on-topic for?


-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
