Abstract
Brussels has a long history of language conflict. The traditional Dutch-French language disputes that characterized large parts of the nineteenth and the early twentieth century resulted in a specific pacification model based on the institutionalization of the language cleavage between the Flemish and the Francophones. However, due to processes of immigration and the current multilingual nature of the population this model is put under pressure. The traditional political discourse based on the identification of the population with one of the two traditional communities no longer corresponds to the reality of everyday life. Rather than being used as the prime concept of identification with one of the traditional language groups, languages are used in a much more instrumental way in today’s Brussels. This article discusses the effect of this evolution on the traditional Dutch-French language conflict associated with Belgium’s capital city.
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©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Language conflict research: a state of the art
- Equal status, but unequal perceptions: language conflict in the bilingual city of Biel/Bienne
- Language conflict in Brussels: political mind-set versus linguistic practice
- Changements urbains et conflits sociolinguistiques: l’impact de la gentrification sur le français de Marseille
- Re-thinking language conflict: challenges and options
- Book Review
- Where were you, our friends on the inside? Language and contestation in Northern Ireland
- Small Languages and Small Language Communities 80
- Language and identity in the context of conflict: the case of ethnolinguistic communities in South Darfur State
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Language conflict research: a state of the art
- Equal status, but unequal perceptions: language conflict in the bilingual city of Biel/Bienne
- Language conflict in Brussels: political mind-set versus linguistic practice
- Changements urbains et conflits sociolinguistiques: l’impact de la gentrification sur le français de Marseille
- Re-thinking language conflict: challenges and options
- Book Review
- Where were you, our friends on the inside? Language and contestation in Northern Ireland
- Small Languages and Small Language Communities 80
- Language and identity in the context of conflict: the case of ethnolinguistic communities in South Darfur State