Language and National Identity in the Era of Globalization: The Case of English in Switzerland

Abstract

This article engages the intersection of language, national identity, nation state, English and discourses of (global) modernization, progress, and the transcendence of the national vis-à-vis an instructive case: Switzerland. It examines the rise of English in multilingual Switzerland and its potential impact on Swiss collective (national) identity. It reflects, as well, on the ways in which English’s spread might influence the ethic of multilingual reciprocity in the Swiss and global contexts. It is contended that despite significant shortcomings, multilingualism has survived and, to a large extent, even thrived in Switzerland precisely because that nation state has legally and normatively codified the protection of linguistic particularism and established multilingualism as a basic component of its national identity. Yet even state-sanctioned and officially codified multilingualisms deeply embedded in national mythology, such as in Switzerland, are potentially threatened by an incessant drive to modernize, globalize, and “Englishize.”