Description
“A language is a dialect with an army and navy,” sociolinguist Max Weinrich once remarked, making a quip about the arbitrariness of the distinction between a ‘dialect’ and a ‘language’. Weinrich also highlighted that social and political conditions can impact a community’s perception of language and its status.
Language and dialect are part of who we are, they can unite us and they can also spark conflicts and violence. In this panel discussion we explore the role they play in shaping national identity and the world around us, what happens when one language becomes more dominant than another and the potential challenges faced by multilingual societies.
Two language experts – sociologist and writer Dr Keith Kahn-Harris and writer and activist Kübra Gümüsay, author of Speaking and Being – come together to deepen our understanding of the complex role that language plays in shaping our world, by illustrating the value of linguistic diversity and the problems that arise when certain languages are eroded, and what happens when our language is no longer fit for purpose.
Related Books
About the Authors
Keith Kahn-Harris
Dr Keith Kahn-Harris is a sociologist and writer, based in London. He is a senior lecturer at Leo Baeck College, an associate lecturer and honorary fellow at Birkbeck College, and he is the project director of the European Jewish Research Archive at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. His most recent books are The Babel Message: A Love Letter to Language (Icon) and (co-authored with Rob Stothard) What Does A Jew Look Like?
Kübra Gümüsay
Kübra Gümüsay is an award-winning writer from Germany. In her bestselling book Speaking and Being (Sprache und Sein) she examines how language dictates politics and shapes the way we think. In Germany the book sold over 120,000 copies and spent 13 consecutive weeks on Der Spiegel’s bestselling top 10 and was shortlisted for the WBG non-fiction book award. The English translation was published by Profile Books in 2022. Gümüsay was selected by Forbes Magazine as one of “30 under 30” in Europe in 2018 and also co-translated Amanda Gorman’s poetry collection ‘The Hill we Climb’ into German. Gümüsay is the founder of several award-winning campaigns and associations. In 2021 she was recipient of the Tarabya Artist in Residency Fellowship of the German Kulturakademie. In 2022, Gümüsay was a fellow at the Center for Research in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH) and Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence at Cambridge University.
About the Chair
Saeed Khan
Saeed Khan is Senior Lecturer in Near East & Asian Studies and Global Studies at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. He is also the co-founder of the Institute for Social Policy & Understanding, and a panelist on Turning Point for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
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