Linguicism

Abstract The article traces the origins of my concept linguicism (1986), with the definition “ideologies, structures and practices which are used to legitimate, effectuate, regulate and reproduce an unequal division of power and resources (both material and immaterial) between groups which are defined on the basis of language.” It unpicks the “perpetrators/agents” of linguicism (ideologies, structures, and practices). The unequal access to power and resources is (re)produced through (ideological) attempts at colonizing people's consciousness, through the processes of glorification of dominant/majority groups, their languages, cultures, norms, traditions, institutions, levels of development, etc., stigmatization of the Indigenous/minoritized groups, and rationalization of the relationship between them (what the dominant groups do is normalized and made to seem functional and beneficial to the minorities/subordinated groups). Most of the world's educational systems for minoritized groups reflect linguicism in their structures, ideologies, and practices. Concepts of power (as discoursal or as something one can have or not) and of language as a verb, (“languaging,” with no reality outside the context where we utter/sign something), or as constantly changing, but at the same time also as “real,” more concrete, possible to claim ownership of, write down, etc. are central to the reproduction of linguicism; the first in the pair can be harmful. We can learn from what physics knew a century ago: if light could behave both as waves and as particles, there is no contradiction between treating languages as processes and, at the same time , as concrete. If linguicism rules, it can lead to genocide, as defined in the UN Genocide Convention (1948). The “intent” required in the definitions can be seen in the results of educational actions. Some recent literature is listed.