Late print-capitalism made Swiss multilingualism persist through a bilingual ruling class

Evidence

Finally, the persistence - in such a small country - of a large variety of sometimes mutually-unintelligible German idiolects suggests the late arrival of print-capitalism and standardized modern education to much of Swiss peasant society. … Hughes remarks that today ‘higher’ officials are expected to have a working knowledge of two federal languages, implying that the same competence is not expected of their subordinates. Indirectly, a similar point is made by the Federal Directive of 1950 which insists that ‘Educated German Swiss are certainly able to work in French, as are educated Italian Swiss.’ We have, in effect, a situation which at bottom is not too different from Mozambique’s - a bilingual political class ensconced over a variety of monolingual populations, with only this dissimilarity: the ‘second language’ is that of a powerful neighbour rather than of a former colonial ruler. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 484

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘bilingual political class over monolingual populations’ structure is exactly the colonial-elite configuration the Islamophobia readings build on. — connects to: Swiss language politics replaced religious segmentation after 1848 — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 483; Multilingual Switzerland is a product of the early nineteenth century — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 481; Language changes through class culture acquisition and hegemonic national languages (+2 more)

Related

• Multilingual Switzerland is a product of the early nineteenth century (similarity 0.85)
• Swiss language politics replaced religious segmentation after 1848 (similarity 0.83)
• Capitalism’s search for monoglot mass markets drove print vernacularization (similarity 0.81)
• Language changes through class culture acquisition and hegemonic national languages (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Multilingual Switzerland is a product of the early nineteenth century #qualifies (0.82) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 481
• Capitalism’s search for monoglot mass markets drove print vernacularization #corroborates (0.75) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 175
• Language changes through class culture acquisition and hegemonic national languages #expands (0.70)