engleski

The protection of languages as an obstacle in the promotion of linguistic diversity

Regardless of its popularity, the term 'linguistic diversity' is still far from being unequivocally defined and understood. The reason for this lies in a general lack of agreement regarding the meaning of more basic terms such as 'language' and/or 'minority'. Paradoxically, it seems that the object of protection in different language- protecting acts are usually official, standardized, and well-established linguistic varieties – often the only ones referred to as 'languages' in such documents. At the same time, the diversity within the protected languages is often ignored and purposely neglected or marginalized. This is also the reason why all the variability found beyond the narrow horizon of officially recognized and normatively proscribed varieties is often omitted in the discussions on linguistic diversity. Even when there is an intention to preserve 'intralinguistic' diversity, the success of such attempts often remains very partial for various ideological reasons. Departing from the analysis of two attempts aimed at the protection of diatopic diversity in Croatia, namely the insertion of certain linguistic varieties on the Unesco Intangible Heritage List and the treatment of diatopic diversity in the national curriculum, the paper focuses on the discussion of some of the possible reasons that may stymie the promotion of linguistic diversity.

linguistic diversity; identity; language policy and planning; anthropology

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