Jambor

This page is for the discussion of the Jambor article.

"Seen in its simplest terms, language imperialism involves the transfer of a dominant language to other peoples. The transfer is essentially a demonstration of power-traditionally military power but also in the modes world economic power- and aspects of the dominant culture are usually transferred along with the language. In view of the prestige of the dominant power and its culture, the transfer may not be imposed but actually be demanded by the peoples who adopt the dominate language. It is likely to be regarded as an intrinsically superior language and accorded alleged virtues- e.g., that it is more logical, more beautiful, or easier to learn that the dominated language. Among the most successful imperial languages are Latin, Arabic, and English.."

Def. the better of the two definitions for me!

"Many even find that acquiring English is not a 'choice' but a necessity that they can not live without. "

Language shift vs. language death:

The process whereby a community of speakers of one language becomes bilingual in another language, and gradually shifts allegiance to the second language is called [|assimilation]. When a linguistic community ceases to use their original language, [|language death] is said to occur.
 * Language shift**, sometimes referred to as **language transfer** or **language replacement** or **assimilation**, is the progressive process whereby a speech community of a [|language] shifts to speaking another language. The rate of assimilation is the percentage of individuals with a given mother tongue who speak another language more often in the home. The data is used to measure the use of a given language in the lifetime of a person, or most often across generations within a linguistic community.

In [|linguistics], **language death** (also **language extinction** or **linguistic extinction**, and rarely **linguicide** or **glottophagy** [|[1]] ) is a process that affects [|speech communities] where the level of [|linguistic competence] that speakers possess of a given [|language variety] is decreased, eventually resulting in no [|native] and/or fluent speakers of the variety. Language death may affect any language idiom, including [|dialects] and [|languages].

Personally, I can see how English could be an imperialist. If nothing else I see a lot of American english speakers forcing the opinion of the English language as the "true" and dominant language in the US. I've heard expressions of "Learn English, you're in America." When Americans go and visit other countries on vacation, most do not even attempt to learn the basics of the language even for temporary purposes. English speakers to me seem to have a sense of entitlement and force their needs upon others. Maybe I've got the wrong idea of this imperialism thing but it was a pretty interesting article! ~Ruby