Bilingualism

Opening words to the conference Bilingualism. The language as lieu de mémoirе (Sofia University, 2 November 2019) by the Director of the Institute for Literature, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The conference was sponsored by the French Institute in Sofia.

Languages which until the 18th and 19th century were only tools to communicate attained new roles with the appearance of the nation-states and nationalism. They were associated with national identity. It was assumed that every nation had a language and that every language group could claim a nationhood. Bilingualism was seen as a prestigious attainment provided the language next to the “language of the nation” is not associated with a nation or an ethnic group which is perceived as a threat to the nation. The unprestigious language which belongs to the “other” is suppressed or ignored. Cases from Greece and Turkey show that this preference/rejection practice is still experienced in our times as a problem of human rights.