Michael,

This is an item from an annotated bibliography I created for a master's 
project at East Carolina University.

Errington, J. (2001). Colonial Linguistics. Annual Review of Anthropology, 
30, 19-39.

Descriptive linguistic projects by Europeans within colonial regimes led to 
objectifying, regulating and categorizing native languages. The consequences 
were sociolinguistic hierarchies, creation of new ethno-cultural identities, 
and spiritual dominion through language, all of which supported European 
colonial interests Much of the linguistic engineering was done by 
missionaries whose work “effaced pre-colonial social formations (and) also 
gave rise to new, language-linked socioeconomic stratification that 
subserved political and economic agendas of the colonial states that 
sanctioned their work.” These early “linguists” ideological notions of 
languages both served and reconfirmed the overarching ideology of “the white 
man’s burden” which in fact was the highly lucrative burden of exploitation. 
Errington connects the use of linguistic weapons in colonial contexts to 
hegemony at home. “These hierarchies bear broad comparison with others in 
Europe, where literate, urban, bourgeoisies viewed peasants and workers at t 
heir own geopolitical economic and linguistic margins in similar way.” 
(p.25) This ties in with my focus on connecting linguistic imperialism with 
linguistic elitism to separate groups of native speakers in the United 
States.


--

Christine Reintjes Martin
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Reply-To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar              

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