Sociolinguistic status of nations

Lecture 4. Language and the nation.

Швидкість хвилі дорівнює добутку частоти коливань на довжину хвилі.

http://fizika.in/kolebaniya-i-volni/114-chto-takoe-volna.html

A nation is a body of people who share a common history, culture, language, economic life or ethnic origin, and who typically inhabit a particular country or territory. The formation of the nation is closely related to the development of modern industrial states. Though the term is also commonly used in an informal discourse as a synonym for state or country, a nation is not identical to them. Countries where the social concept of "nation" coincides with the political concept of "state" are called nation states. In the strict sense, the terms nation, ethnos, and people denote a group of human beings. The concepts of nation and nationality have much in common with an ethnic group and ethnicity, but have a more political connotation, since they imply the possibility of a nation-state. Country denominates a geographical territory; state expresses a legal administrative and decision-making institution; nationality refers to the people with a common origin, tradition, and often language, who form or are capable of forming a nation-state; ethnos is a Greek word, meaning “nation” or “race.”

The term cultural nation is understood exclusively ethnically, without a territory, therefore a number of nations without land can be found. During a lengthy period of time Jews settled in all parts of the world and have had an impact on many civilizations. Another example would be the gypsy nation, the kurds. They show that cultural nations can exist without an independent state, and that many independent states are simply administrative unions of different cultural nations or peoples. On the other end, there are states like Belgium which consists of several cultural nations, most prominently Flemish and Wallon. The question of whether the state of Canada harbours one cultural nation or two (English Canadian and Québécois) has been an object of political disputes for a long time. Almost all nationalist movements make some claim to share the national origin and descent, and it is really a component of the national identity in most cases. It is right that ancestry unites the members of the nation and sets them apart from other nations. The question is: descent from whom? Often, the answer is from the previous generations of the same nation!

Language is a primary ingredient in making a nation. Without the common language a nation cannot exist or evolve. A common culture, a common history, they are all dependent on language. Really to deal with everyday affairs any group of people living in a specified territory needs a common means of communication to trade and socialize. A group of people, sharing a common culture, history, ethnicity may live in different countries (like Jews) but still consider themselves attached to their respective nation as long as they share the same language. Many nations are created around the idea of a shared language and culture. The national culture can be assumed as including a cultural heritage of the previous generations, but this identification of the past and present cultures with the common ancestry may be largely symbolic. The archaeological site of Stonehenge, for instance, is owned and managed by the English cultural heritage nowadays, although it is a prehistoric monument in Southwestern England, which dates from the late Stone and Early Bronze Ages (about 3000 B.C.). Stonehenge is the best preserved and most celebrated of the megalithic (large standing stone)monuments of Europe but not of Britain. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the first known list of the most remarkable man-made creations of classical antiquity, and includes works located around the Mediterranean rim.

Many definitions of a nation combine several factors. One of the most influential of these definitions is that of given by Joseph Stalin, who wrote: A nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture. A national language is a language (or language variant, i.e. dialect) which has some connection - de facto or de jure [dei 'yu: rey] - w ith the people and perhaps by extension with the territory they occupy. The term is used variously. A national language may for instance represent the national identity of a nation or country. National language may alternatively be a designation given to one or more languages spoken as first languages in the territory of a country.

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