Language policy before language policy: monolingual multilingualism in Ramon Llull’s thought

Abstract

Llull followed the myth of Babel to design his ideal language regime: monolingualism. In chapter 94 of Blaquerna, thanks to Latin and to a careful planning, Llull’s monolingual dream will become real. Llull, multilingual because of birth, formation and will, realized that it was an utopic proposal, but he does not stop making it, coinciding with classical political philosophy, which have been understood as an instrument that make possible improving political action. From Llull onwards, many thinkers have defended monolingualism and have seen a negative element for coexistence, cohesion and progress in linguistic diversity. Authors such as Herder, Rousseau, Millet, Habermas, Patten, Kymlicka and Parijs, among many others, have chosen linguistic convergence as the best language planning option. The Lullian option to start from a lingua franca has also an obvious correlation nowadays: English, whose hegemony endangers linguistic diversity and causes situations of linguistic injustice. Thus, with the theoretical bias towards monolingualism, developing a normative theory of language policy is a really difficult challenge to achieve, because overcoming traditional thinking of understanting linguistic plurality as a problem is needed. On the contrary, fair linguistic policy must be based on a positive conception of linguistic diversity.

Keywords: language policy, Ramon Llull, monolingual multilingualism.