This book examines the role of language in the present and past creation of social, cultural, and national identities in Europe. It considers the way in which language may sometimes reinforce national identity (as in England) while tending to subvert the nation-state (as in the United Kingdom).
After an introduction describing the interactive roles of language, ethnicity, culture, and institutions in the character and formation of nationalism and identity, the book considers their different manifestations throughout Europe. Chapters are devoted to Britain and Ireland; France; Spain and Portugal; Scandinavia; the Netherlands and Belgium; Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg; Italy; Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic; Bulgaria, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Albania, Slovenia, Romania, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo; Greece and Turkey; the Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, the Baltic States, and the Russian Federation. The book concludes with a consideration of the current relative status of the languages of Europe and how these and the identities they reflect are changing and evolving.
Chapter 1: Introduction: Nationalism, Language, Europe ; Chapter 2: Britain and Ireland: The Varying Significance of Language for Nationalism ; Chapter 3: France: 'One State, One Nation, One Language?' ; Chapter 4: The Iberian Peninsula: Conflicting Linguistic Nationalisms ; Chapter 5: Northern Europe: Languages as Prime Markers of Ethnic and National Identity ; Chapter 6: The Low Countries: A Study in Sharply Contrasting Nationalisms ; Chapter 7: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg: The Total Coincidence of Nations and Speech Communities? ; Chapter 8: Language and Nationalism in Italy: Language as a Weak Marker of Identity ; Chapter 9: Contrasting Ethnic Nationalisms: Eastern Central Europe ; Chapter 10: 'A People Exists and that People has its Language': Language and Nationalism in the Balkans ; Chapter 11: Greece and European Turkey: From Religious to Linguistic Identity ; Chapter 12: Coming to Terms with the Past: Language and Nationalism in Russia and its neighbours ; Chapter 13: Conclusions: Language and National Identity in Europe ; References ; Index
