• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Language, ethnicity and religion: a complex and persistent linkage
  • Contributor: SAFRAN, WILLIAM
  • Published: Wiley, 2008
  • Published in: Nations and Nationalism, 14 (2008) 1, Seite 171-190
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8129.2008.00323.x
  • ISSN: 1354-5078; 1469-8129
  • Keywords: Political Science and International Relations ; Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) ; Geography, Planning and Development ; General Mathematics
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:p><jats:bold>ABSTRACT. </jats:bold> Among the markers of ethnonational identity, language and religion have figured with equal prominence. In many cases, religion has been the bedrock of nation‐building; and even today, it is difficult to separate a number of national identities from their religious matrices. Religious identity is based on, and perpetuated in, narratives expressed in a specific language. Language and religion are related; in our secular age, however, that relationship is no longer consistent. The two may feed upon one another; language may substitute for religion; or religion may trump language. This article explores the varying relationships between language and religion.</jats:p>