Slovene Standard-language Ideology: National Elitism and Exclusion

Firstly, the historical background of the Slovenian linguistic situation is briefly presented, focusing on the transition from a multilingual to a planned idealized monolingual society, and on the gradual shift back to a... [ view full abstract ]

Firstly, the historical background of the Slovenian linguistic situation is briefly presented, focusing on the transition from a multilingual to a planned idealized monolingual society, and on the gradual shift back to a modern multilingual society in Slovenia. The historical background will serve for interpreting the current situation, whereas the focus of our presentation we will be the analysis of discourse during the conference “Slovene in Public Use: Status, Legislation, and Strategy”, which took place in December 2016 in the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia. We employ a qualitative approach based on content analysis, followed by critical discourse analysis, exposing how one group imposes power control over the other, and tries to influence policy makers for their own gain. The analysis shows that the key players in the Slovenia standard-language culture were very clearly defined, and that the language itself was defined with a prescriptive model based on the ideology of purism, which is merely another form of nationalism when we are dealing with standard language. The analysis shows how the position of power is used to preserve the privileged position of certain institutions, which are expected to direct the linguistic community and combat changes. We show how the institution of the Parliament is used to exclude university institutions—those that deal with Slovene in terms of its actual use and the needs of its speakers—and promote those that, alongside the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, claim to be the true custodians of Slovene, knowing what the needs of the Slovenian community are without researching them. Even though language standardization was key for forming Slovenian identity in historical terms, the present-day institutions with authority deal with Slovene in the same terms as was the case at the end of the 19th century, with national identity being the key element. This means that they, in spite of the modern multicultural and multilingual Slovenian society, aim to preserve and reinforce the current discriminative model based on standard-language ideology with exclusionary tendencies—based on national belonging on the one hand, and on a very strict, historically-centered language standard on the other.