普世语言、王朝语言与民族语言——近代以来欧洲语言的政治化及其权威模式

On the Cosmopolitan,Monarchy and National Languages ——The Politicization of European Languages and its Ruling Mode since the 18th Century

在中世纪的欧洲,被视为"普世语言"的拉丁语享有信仰、政治和文教上的特权。近代早期,拉丁语地位衰落,以宫廷语言和文人语言为标准的君主语言成为国家语言。进入19世纪后是典型的"语言政治化"时期,"民族"需要"语言"这一文化符号和标志,以建立同质的、单一的政治单元——"民族国家"。20世纪尤其是二战以后,语言政治呈现出两种相反的发展趋势:一方面是迫于外界压力和诱惑,小语言濒危、消亡的速度加剧;另一方面是反抗语言地位不平等、争取语言权利的运动不断发生。无论是拥有权利的语言,还是争取权利的语言,都有赖于政治的"屋檐",因此语言问题又是一个政治问题。

In medieval Europe, Latin, deemed as the ＂cosmopolitan language＂, enjoyed the privilege in religion, politics and culture. In early modern time, the Monarchy language spoken by the royal society and intellectuals, began to take the place of Latin and became the prevailing language. During the ＂language politicization＂ period in the end of 19th century, language was used as the cultural symbol in building the homogeneous and singular political unit ＂nation-state＂, which caused the national language to flourish. In the 20tb century, especially after World War II, the language politicization went different directions： on one hand, small languages have been shrinking and withering quickly under the external pressure and temptation; on the other, movements opposing unequal language status and striving for more rights cropped up from time to time. In all, both the privileged and marginalized languages had to be sheltered in politics, which explained the nature of the language problem.