INEQUALITIES OF MULTILINGUALISM: GLOBALIZATION, NATIONALISM AND MOTHER TONGUES

Abstract

My presentation highlights the intricate relationship between globalization, nationalismand mother tongues, arguing that ‘multilingualism’ does not merely refer to the distributionof many languages within a particular linguistic ecology, but also in what I call inequalitiesof multilingualism (Tupas, 2015; also Tupas & Salonga, 2016) which embed deep-seatedideological debates and unequal social relations unique to specific communities and/ornations. The tension between globalization and nationalism continues to animate andimpact the shape of language politics, but interestingly such tension has opened upideological and communicative spaces for the mother tongues. I will focus on such spaces,providing examples of recent initiatives in the region which have strategically helped somelocal languages to flourish again, albeit still in a limited way, especially in educationalsystems. Inequalities of multilingualism are hugely stacked against the flourishing of themother tongues, but it is precisely through our heightened awareness of such inequalitiesthat we can reasonably (re)claim the place of our local languages in our increasingly globalizing societies and communities.