Handout on

Religion and Language

LING 540, Language Policy,

H. Schiffman, Instructor

Religion and Linguistic Domain
- Classical language, unrelated to the Mother Tongue: Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic, Hebrew,
- Diglossia: Formal language gets attention, spoken language gets none (Germans).
- Older liturgical language: Church Slavonic, Greek, Armenian, Latin (for Italians), Hebrew (for Israeli Jews).
Communities expect their children to learn some of this language, have schools or weekend classes. Fundamentalists: language (texts) is holy, sacred cannot be tampered with. Orthodox Jews object to Hebrew in Israel; Roman Caths. object to dropping Latin mass; fundamentalists objected to revised standard version of Bible (King James 1911 version is only one.)
Institutional Context: language is somewhat divorced from home, playground, street. Institution has goals for its survival independent of goals of language maintenance. If choice between institution and language, the language is dropped.
Language and Ethnicity.
- When non-English ethnics immigrated to US, they were confronted with the ``super-ethnicity of the American Dream", which threatened to engulf them and rob them of their ethnicity. If they had come for relig freedom they often turned to their relig group, their church for support in resisting assimilation. Church became equivalent to ethnicity: RELIGION = ETHNICITY and church often supported ethnicity in ways it never had to at home. Prev to arrival in US, their ethnicity was their religion; after arrival, their religion was their ethnicity (many unchurched people joined churches to hold on to ethnicity; modern Korean immigrants do too).
- Later, when survival of ethnic church was threatened (as an ethnic church), the church(es) chose de-ethnicization, often before many members were ready (but others were). Survival of religion was more important than survival of ethnicity and/or language.
- Roman Cath church had special problem--super-ordinate structure was confronted with many ``national" catholic churches trying to coexist in same space: Polish, Slovak, Irish, German, Italian, etc. Early arrival of (Anglicized) Irish hierarchy insisted that American RC be American and English-language church---led to struggles with German, Italian, etc. but eventually they won (Pope Leo XIII's Encyclical `Pacem in Terrae', 1899). Ordered ethnic parishes to be brought tightly within the orbit of church authority. Blanket of silence dropped over ethnicity; ethnic parishes had to go underground. Special problem with the Polish Cath. Church in emigration; had been given dispensation to operate more in Polish in Poland, wanted to continue in America.
- Fishman says: RC church in America may have been 2nd most important Americanizing factor after public schools. Church wanted to avoid being seen as foreign. Kloss indicates that the RC church (Bishop Ireland) collaborated secretly with nativist groups to try to ban `foreign languages'.
Problem of Ethnic-specific Churches. Some denominations are specific to the ethnicity: Greek Orth., Armenian Orth., Missouri Lutheran, etc. They could not substitute an Anglicized theology without losing a great deal of the theology. When there existed another comparable English-speaking theological counterpart (Catholics, German Methodists, etc.) it was easier to merge, language issue was less crucial.
Religion and Isolation. Some groups left the Old World to isolate themselves from other theologies and from the corrupting influence of the secular world: Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish, Hassidic Jews, Black Muslims, etc. Ideology is millenial: truth has been revealed, believers have to have a correct relationship with the deity, keeping the faith until Armageddon, when they alone (having kept themselves pure) will be saved. No need for new ideas, great need to isolate themselves from other theologies. Language is
- A Buffer against other theologies.
- Specifically required to transmit the theology.
These groups control intermarriage, reject higher education, may resist military service, etc.. Sometimes can maintain a Sprachinsel (language island) where a small territory is zoned off from other langs. May even have some effect on public schools.
Parochial Schools. When there exists a `national' church (German, Scandinavian, Baltic Lutheran churches; Armenian, Greek, Russian, other Slavic Orthodox churches; Judaic groups requiring Hebrew, etc.) the body often feels need to establish schools so children can learn language of the church. Protestants feel particular need to have an active ability to read the Evangelos, not get the message second-hand from priesthood. Protestants began with the Reformation to insist on need for schooling, and special need in THEIR language, not some other. Gradual de-ethnicization of these bodies: northern European Lutherans de-ethnicized to a Scando-German Americanized body, now one large ELCA; only Missouri Lutherans remain separate.
Other parts of the world.
- India: Differences between Urdu, Hindi and Panjabi are less linguistic than religious, coupled with diff. writing systems. Panjabi most recently obtained `language' status under constitution of India, because sacred writings of Sikhism were in Panjabi writing in Gurumukhi script. This led (1966) to establishment of Panjabi language State; Hindus then had to have a non-Panjabi state (Hariana). Other dialects of Hindi (Rajasthani, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Bihari) have tried to get this status but haven't succeeded.
- Poland: Dismembered by (Protestant) Germany and (Orthodox) Russia, Poland's Roman Catholic church defended Polish ethnicity and language in order to assure that RCath. would survive as well; Polish Cath. Church became chief defender of ethnicity/language, with special dispensation by Rome to use Polish in all domains (not just Latin mass). Still today RC church strongly supports Solidarnosc, opposes Communism, etc. 93% of Polish population claims membership in Polish Cath. Church (highest in Europe).
- Korea: Under Japanese occupation, American missionary groups were allowed to use Korean language and Hangkul writing in their schools; other schools under Japanese control had to use Japanese. Result: greatest success in Christianizing in any Asian country; in the US, Korean language churches draw in non-Christians as well, since churches help preserve ethnicity.
- France: French Protestantism credited for spreading standard French into southern France (at the expense of Occitan) and Switzerland. In Swiss Protestant French cantons, dialect ( patois) has declined; patois has survived only in Catholic areas. French first penetrated into (German- speaking) Alsace as Huguenot refugees from France fled into Protestant- tolerant Alsace; but Lutheran Strasbourg made the Calvinists keep out of Strasbourg; they therefore settled in smaller towns, bringing French with them.
- Switzerland: language differences and religious differences (Prot./Cath.) crosscut each other, rather than intensify each other. There are predominantly Prot. and predominantly RC cantons in both German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland. (Ticino (Italian-speaking) is a prot. refuge from predom. RC Italy.)
- Sri Lanka: Tamil--Sinhala conflict is reinforced by Hindu-Buddhist conflict. Tamils see no way to remain Hindu through Sinhala versions of their Saivite texts; Sinhalese see Tamils as a beachhead for penetration by numerically superior, predominantly Hindu India.
- Britain: Welsh language and non-conformism combined to resist Anglicization and spread of Church of England. Welsh temperament took to Methodism, methodist hymns, rejected CoE, which had to be disestablished.
- Former Soviet Union: Much linguistic nationalism was supported by religious differences: the Baltic states are non-Orthodox (Lutheran or RC); the Armenian/Azerbaijani split is Orthodox/Muslim conflict; other Islamic republics resist domination of `Orthodox' Russia.
- Belgium: first raison d'être of Belgium was to carve off the Catholic provinces from Protestant Holland; once the religious safety was assured, a linguistic split (hitherto ignored) between Flemish and French Walloons began to grow.
- Pakistan: Similar to Belgium: religion (Islam) was paramount in establishment of Islamic Pakistan, but once established, the linguistic split between (east) Pakistan (Bengali) and west Pakistan (Panjabi, Urdu) loomed up and led to split (Bangladesh).
- Canada: French/English differences are exacerbated by RC/Protestant split; RC French clergy sees language differences as an ally of RC Church.

Harold Schiffman
Wed Oct 08/97