La dialectique des dialectes

Idéologie et discours linguistique, dans la standardisation de la langue albanaise

Ani Rusi

pp. 55-66

in: AUC Interpretationes 2 (2), 2012.

Abstract

Throughought this article, we will expose how the Albanian communist regime achieves the standardization of the Albanian langue in order to use it as a tool for legitimating its power and homogenizing society. In such a project, as we will see, the support of linguists will be essential in order to scientifically justify a choice that otherwise would be considered arbitrary. This choice is that of the dialect, which will be taken as a model for the new “National Literary Language”. Albanian lingusits, complying with the Stalinist doctrine defended by the regime in power, try to show that such a choice, far from being arbitrary, was in fact the only scientifically legitimate one. Through the submission of the whole scientific community to its will, the Stalinist regime of Albania took advantage of the reputation of scientific discourse in order to justify its choice.