FRAGL 4: State borders and language change: the (non-)effects of political border permeability on language

Abstract

On the basis of a cognitive approach to space which follows the tradition of Georg Simmel, I argue in this paper that geopolitical (above all, national) borders should be looked upon as cognitive constructs intimately linked to the “imagined communities” (Andersen) they delimit. These imagined communities are usually national ones; only rarely are larger political units within the nation states (such as Bavaria, German-speaking Switzerland) involved. The “imagined borders” can nonetheless have a strong impact on the dialect continua which they crosscut. Dialect divergence at the national borders of Germany is therefore not due to impeded communication as suggested in traditional dialectology (Verkehr); rather, they are the limits (boundaries) of the perceived reach of a given repertoire type in which one (or more) standard language(s) is assigned a specific role and position.

Since the reach of these repertoires ends at the state borders, the territories of the nation states have never before been as important for language as they are today – despite the fact that in many ways, the nation states have been weakened by globalisation, the unification of Europe, migration and so on. Whatever may happen on the economic or political plane: the European nation state is still doing remarkably well as a linguistic unit.

 This paper has appeared as

"State borders and language change: the (non-)effects of political border permeability on language". In P. Gilles, H. Koff, C. Maganda and C. Schulz (Hrsg.) Theorizing borders through analyses of power relationships. Brussels: Peter Lang, 2013.

If you would like to receive a copy of this FRAGL working paper, please write to: peter.auer@germanistik.uni-freiburg.de