Michael A. Morris,
emeritus professor at Clemson University (South Carolina), has recently
published Language Politics of Regional Integration: Cases from the Americas (Palgrave Macmillan US, 2016).
In a world globalising across boundaries and cultures,
where economic interdependence increases dramatically, languages may come to be
seen as non-tariff barriers to free-trade flow. Assessments need to be made of
the measures taken by various states and/or implemented through particular
free-trade treaties to manage (be it implicitly or covertly) the relationships
between the de facto imperial lingua franca and various national languages not
to mention aboriginal languages. Economic forces and, it must be added, also
military alliances and intelligence networks (like the so-called Echelon or
Five Eyes network which includes only English-speaking states) promote the
dominance of English. Inevitably tensions and conflicts arise at various levels
and they need be analysed.
In his book Michael A. Morris sets out to rate a
number of cases of language politics in the Americas with the help of a
multi-level analysis. He compares various North and South American groupings
and whenever possible introduces parallels with extra-American groupings (in
particular the European Union). His aim is to provide a conciliatory strategy
allowing consensus to be forged and tensions lessened. His book is a tool that
could help reduce or solve problems arising from a hegemonic lifestyle imposed
at the expense of biodiversity and cultural diversity.
Whereas a country like Canada imposes Canadian content
quotas on cultural productions (and quotas on the use of French songs on
radio), one should be reminded that cultural protectionism is not exclusive to
Canada: the US practice of film remakes is a clear example of cultural
protectionism favouring the Hollywood film industry. This instance of a covert
cultural and linguistic policy shows a lack of respect for cultural diversity.
In most countries films in foreign languages are either dubbed or subtitled.
But even greater social forces are at play and
jeopardise the promotion of various national languages or even the preservation
of most aboriginal languages in a context where parents tend to see the use of
the ancestral tongue as hindering social upward mobility.
