Language and conflict
Of the 6,000 or so contemporary languages, only a very few are in widespread international use. Mandarin Chinese has easily the greatest number of native speakers, but English has broader application because of its commercial and geographical spread and wide acceptance as a second language. Hindi has approaching a billion speakers. Only seven other languages are spoken by more than 100 million people.
Language is an important means by which peoples express their cultures. Equally, states may use an ‘official’ language as a tool to exclude those who do not speak it from full participation in society. Where such discrimination becomes acute, ethnic conflict may acquire a strong linguistic rights dimension. Even in the absence of overt political pressure, those who speak minority languages may feel that their language – and the culture that it underpins – are under threat. According to some estimates, more than two-thirds of the world’s languages face potential extinction.
World languages
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Conflicts in which linguistic differences are a signficant factor include...
Algeria
Balochistan
Baltic states
China
Corsica
Crimea
Euzkadi (the Basque Country)
Georgia
Guatemala
India
Kyrgyzstan
South Ossetia
Southern Cameroons
Tamil Eelam (Sri Lanka)
Transnistra
The text and maps on this page are adapted from Fields of Fire – An Atlas of Ethnic Conflict
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