Colonialism – A political factor of language change

The work below analyses colonialism as one of the most serious political factors that can lead to language change.   It discusses how colonial rule can have a detrimental impact on the educational system and language policy of countries, as social inequality is often proceeded by language inequality and language hierarchy. It explains how diverse the spectrum of colonial influence on language is, both qualitatively and in terms of outcome, and how colonization creates a new linguistic reality in which the language of the colonizer is perceived as the most prestigious. Eventually, it becomes dominant and substitutes the language of the colonized people in administrative and commercial bodies. It also examines how colonialism can lead to both endangerment and the creation of new languages. In scientific literature, such instances are referred to as "linguistic genocide", or "linguicide."    Muffwin, in his assessment of the language crossing caused by colonialism, wrote that the ecology of each such case is somewhat unique. Despite the similarities between them, what happens in one language environment is not necessarily repeated in the other.  The influence of colonialism on languages has been a subject of interest of linguistics, anthropology, and other scientific disciplines since the late 19th century. The study of the relationship between language and colonialism served two major purposes. Firstly, it was to critically examine colonial and neo-colonial language-related practices and secondly, to develop policies that would contribute to the “mental decolonization” of the formerly colonized population and the colonizers based on such critical research.  Hence, in linguistic works of this period, the issue of studying languages ​​functioning in colonial or postcolonial societies was one of the most crucial ones.