Language and Universalization a “Linguistic Ecology” Reading of Bahá’Í Writ

Published in the Journal of Bahá’í Studies Vol. 9, number 1 (1994) © Association for Bahá’í Studies 1994 Language and Universalization A “Linguistic Ecology” Reading of Bahá’í Writ Gregory Paul P. Meyjes Abstract In this article, interpretation of Bahá’í writings regarding language, cultural diversity, and worldwide communication leads to the seemingly paradoxical position that the promotion of linguistic minority rights in must coincide with promotion of an International Auxiliary Language (IAL). Opposing trends toward increased globalization and growing nationalism are noted and their concurrence explained. The notion of “cultural justice” is expounded and the unregulated global spread of English today critically assessed in its light. By contrast, from the perspective of Bahá’í writ, IAL emerges as a language intended to facilitate worldwide communication without unduly impinging on humankind’s native linguistic traditions. Thus, Bahá’í writings appear to support a worldwide linguistic ecology better planned, more equitable, less prone to precipitous change, and more cognizant of the singular role of language in humanity‘s individual and collective identity. Résumé Dans le présent article, l’interprétation des Écrits bahá’ís concernant la langue, la diversité culturelle et la communication sur le plan mondial, mêne au point de vue apparemment paradoxal selon lequel la promotion des droits linguistiques minoritaires doit coïncider: avec la promotion d’une langue auxiliaire internationale. La concurence entre la mondialisation croissante en la montée du nationalisme est ensuite soulignée et expliquée. Puis, la notion de justice culturelle est développée, afin de fournir un contexte où analyser di façon critique l’expansion globale effrénée de l’anglais à l’heure actuelle. Par contraste, la langue internationale auxiliaire émerge des Écrits bahá’ís comme une langue qui vise à faciliter la communication mondiale sans toutefois empiéter sur les traditions linguistiques natives de l’humainité. Ainsi, les Écrits bahá’ís semblent appuyer une écologie linguistique mondiale mieux planifíee, plus équitable, moins sujette à les changements abruptes ct qui reconnaîl davantage le rôle particulier que la langue joue par rapport à l’identité individuelle et collective l’humanité. Resumen En este artículo, la interpretación de los escritos bahá’ís en lo que se refiere a idioma, diversidad cultural, y comunicación mundial nos encamina hacia la posición paradójica de que la promoción de derechos minoritarios linguísticos necesariamente coincide con la promoción de un Idioma Auxiliar Internacional (IAI). Se toma en cuenta y se explican las corrientes opuestas del ensanche de la globalización y el aumenlo del nacionalismo. Se amplía el concepto de “justicia cultural” y se escruta a su luz el esparcimiento global descontrolado del inglés. En contraste, la IAI emerge del mandato bahá’í como un idioma que busca facilitar la comunicación mundial sin impactar en las tradiciones linguísticas autóctonas de la humanidad. Por esto, los escritos bahá’ís parecen apoyar una ecología linguística mundial mejor diseñado, mas equitativo, menos dispuesto a cambios repentinos, y más conocedor del rol único del idioma en la identidad colectiva e individual de la humanidad. The day is approaching when all the peoples of the world will have adopted one universal language and one common script These things are obligatory and absolutely essential. It is incumbent upon every man of insight and understanding to strive to translate that which bath been written into reality and action. —Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas he paramount challenge of multiculturalism today lies in ensuring harmonious relations between T dominant and nondominant groups, whereby “dominance” can occur at levels ranging from local to global. Indeed, our increasingly interdependent and transcultural planet has created more opportunity than ever before for confrontation and conflict over language, ethnicity, and religion—the foremost determinants of any culture’s values, whether within or among sovereign states. For instance, not to appreciate the significance of societal multilingualism to the identity and political reality of most of humankind, is to underestimate the paramount role of language to many of humanity’s most cherished assets, i.e., its values, thoughts, and feelings of group adherence. It is no surprise that the degree to which the cultural priorities of our still numerous1 linguistic minorities are treated seriously represents a significant key to many societies’ success at achieving longer-term stability, greater unity, higher overall standards of living, and fuller participation in the international community. As argued below, to negotiate issues of linguistic dominance effectively is essential for all of humankind to achieve sustained peace and stability. Reflecting humanity’s evolution toward ever greater oneness—a notion pivotal to Bahá’í doctrine—language has contributed much to the consolidation of ever larger political aggregates, from tribes, city-states, and principalities to states in the contemporary sense. In today’s postcolonial world, traditional nation-states are outnumbered by states comprising multiple ethnocultural “nations.” State-level control over matters of language and culture is frequently inhibited by the dynamics of substate nationalism, or that of a suprastate world order, or both. In fact, at the current stage in world history, two concurrent. intensifying, and opposing processes—globalization2 and localization—have been repeatedly noted (e.g., Fishman, “Summary and Interpretation” 639). Unfortunately, linguistic globalization is frequently viewed with suspicion by anthropologists and sociolinguists. It is often perceived as an evil that runs counter to the cultural interests of local, indigenous, or minority3 language groups. The position represented in this article, however, is that such conflict need not and in fact should not exist. All depends on how tensions between the twin processes of globalization and increased local assertiveness are negotiated. What follows, then, is a Bahá’í-inspired view of global linguistic ecology, a reading of Bahá’í writings that supports the seemingly paradoxical position that the safeguarding of linguistic minority rights can, and indeed must, go hand in hand with the promotion and choice of an International Auxiliary Language (IAL) for worldwide communication. The notion of “cultural justice” is central here, whereby “justice” is seen in a manner contrasting. yet not conflicting, with that in “Whither the International Auxiliary Language?’ by Phyllis Chew. Culture and Justice One of the few twentieth-century linguists known to embrace the IAL issue was the American Edward Sapir (e.g., “The Function of an International Auxiliary Language”). Presaging the views of later social theorists such as Bourdieu (The Logic of Practice), Sapir saw “culture” as the set of values, customs, institutions, and commodities that most significantly characterize a community’s identity, i.e., the “spirit” or “genius” that distinguishes it from others. Among the combined ideational and material factors thus defining culture, Sapir considered the nonmaterial ones most important, i.e., those that spring from values (“Culture, Genuine and Spurious”). Bahá’í writings, too, teach that the spiritual and social lives of human beings are inextricably linked. Shoghi Effendi explains, “We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other . .” (from a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, qtd. in Conservation of the Earth’s Resources 15). Indeed, we can affirm the appropriateness of Sapir’s interpretation of culture as the way in which our inner values interact with those values of the society that affect us most, and with the behaviors, customs, and institutions that society deems most significant. Thus culture, as the nexus of humans’ socially acquired value set, is connected to our underlying spiritual essence, which, according to Bahá’í writings, is quintessentially the same for all humans, a notion often associated with the work of French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss (e.g., Structural Anthropology). But what of the cultural significance of language, the relation between language and values? Elucidating the paramount significance of language to culture and validating Sapir’s notion of culture, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá reportedly called language the most profound characteristic of a people, the garment of the spirit of the people (Fallscheer, “Aus dem Schatz”). This lends credence to another of Sapir’s views, inspired by his mentor Franz Boas, that of language as the primary pillar of culture, the greatest socializing force (Duranti, Linguistic Anthropology 52ff.), for “a common speech serves as a peculiarly potent symbol of the social solidarity” of its speakers as a group (Sapir, “Language” 15). By appreciating the paramount role of language for the identity of humanity’s countless speech communities, we better grasp the significance of such concepts as “language rights,” or “linguistic human rights,” as formulated in the 1996 Universal Declaration (Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights). Indeed, the Declaration’s premise that such cultural rights are both collective and individual, inseparable and interdependent (Universal

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