普世语言、王朝语言与民族语言——近代以来欧洲语言的政治化及其权威模式

In medieval Europe, Latin, deemed as the ”cosmopolitan language”, enjoyed the privilege in religion, politics and culture. In early modern time, the Monarchy language, spoken by the royal society and intellectuals, began to take the place of Latin and became the prevailing language. During the ”language politicization” period in the end of 19th century, language was used as the cultural symbol in building the homogeneous and singular political unit- ”nation-state”, which caused the national language to flourish. In the 20th century, especially after World War Ⅱ, the language politicization went different directions: on one hand, small languages have been shrinking and withering quickly under the external pressure and temptation; on the other, movements opposing unequal language status and striving for more rights cropped up from time to time. In all, both the privileged and marginalized languages had to be sheltered in politics, which explained the nature of the language problem.