Language ideology and nation-state building in Meiji Japan

Анотація

Background: During the Meiji period (1868–1912) a national language (kokugo) as a symbol of Japanese nation became a marker of Japanese national beliefs and enhanced a sense of national identity of people. The ideas of what national language ought to be summed up in the modern ideology of national language.

Purpose: The purpose of the research is to investigate those historical factors that shaped language ideology in relation to the nation-state building process in Japan during Meiji period.

Results: The analysis shows that the ideology developed in two directions. The first one served the goal of constructing national identity and linguistic consciousness of Japanese people by establishing a homogenous standard of the national language. The second one aimed at external linguistic assimilation of regions colonized by Japan during the late nineteenth – early twentieth centuries and had characteristics of language imperialism.

Key words: language ideology, national language, language reform, nation-state building.