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Placing religious language policies

Locative to utopian

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Abstract
Religion is an important but understudied domain of language policy. Inspired by the work of Jonathan Z. Smith, an influential theoretician in the comparative study of religion, this article aims to advance research on the religious domain by mapping out two contrasting ‘topographies’ and their attendant language policies. A locative topography is a religious orientation that emphasizes fixity, sacrality, hierarchy, and purity, while a utopian (‘no-place’) typography valorizes freedom, movement, interconnection, and the transcendence of boundaries. The Russian Orthodox maintenance of Church Slavonic and Catholic support for Esperanto serve as respective examples, with the continuance of Latin in Catholicism presenting a mixed case. The article suggests that the locative-utopian distinction can also shed light on secular policies, such as the Russian government’s entrenchment of the Cyrillic alphabet and the widespread use of the Frutiger typeface in major world airports.
Abstraktaĵo
Religio estas grava sed nesufiĉe studita kampo de lingvopolitiko. Inspirita de la verko de Jonathan Z. Smith, influa teoriulo en la kompara studo de religio, ĉi tiu artikolo celas antaŭenigi esploradon pri la religia kampo per mapado de du kontrastaj “topografioj” kaj iliaj akompanantaj lingvopolitikoj. Loka topografio estas religia orientiĝo, kiu emfazas fiksecon, sakrecon, hierarkion kaj purecon, dum utopia (“senloka”) valorigas liberecon, movadon, interkonekton kaj la transcendecon de limoj. La rusa ortodoksa konservado de la eklezia slava kaj katolika subteno por Esperanto servas kiel respektivaj ekzemploj, kun la daŭrigo de la latina en katolikismo prezentanta miksitan kazon. La artikolo sugestas, ke la loka-utopia distingo ankaŭ povas lumigi sekularajn politikojn, kiel ekzemple la enradikiĝo de la cirila alfabeto fare de la rusa registaro kaj la ĝeneraligita uzo de la Frutiger-tiparo en gravaj mondaj flughavenoj.
Абстрактный
Религия является важной, но недостаточно изученной областью языковой политики. Вдохновленная работами Джонатана З. Смита, влиятельного теоретика в области сравнительного религиоведения, цель этой статьи — развитие исследований в религиозной сфере путем описания двух контрастных «топографий» и связанных с ними языковых политик. Локативная топография представляет собой религиозное направление, которое делает упор на неизменность, сакральность, иерархию и чистоту, в то время как утопический («не привязанный к определенному месту») этос прославляет свободу, движение, взаимосвязь и преодоление границ. Сохранение церковнославянского языка в Русской православной церкви и поддержка эсперанто католической церковью служат соответствующими примерами, а сохранение латыни в католицизме представляет собой смешанный случай. В статье предполагается, что различие между локативным и утопическим подходами может также пролить свет на светскую политику, такую как закрепление кириллицы российским правительством и широкое использование шрифта Frutiger в крупных аэропортах мира.
Article outline
  • Charting religious language policies
  • Locative language policy: Church Slavonic in Russian Orthodoxy
  • Utopian language policy: Esperanto in Catholicism
  • Locative and utopian: The bifurcation of Latin in Catholicism
  • From the sacred to the secular
  • Author queries
  • References
References (72)
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