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Language, war and peace: An overview

a
Lawrie Barnes
a
Department of Linguistics , University of South Africa , E-mail:
Published online: 31 May 2008.

To cite this article: Lawrie Barnes (2003) Language, war and peace: An overview, Language Matters:
Studies in the Languages of Africa, 34:1, 3-12, DOI: 10.1080/10228190308566188

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 3

Language, war and Peace: An Overview

Lawrie Barnes
Department of Linguistics
University of South Africa
bamela@unisa.ac.za
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Abstract

War and peace are an integral part of the history of humankind. Wars can have a
major effect on language as they bring about language contact situations which can
disturb and change the language ecology of a region. This can lead to either the death
of languages or the creation of new languages. Wars influence language change in
various ways, and are responsible for the creation of new words and expressions.
Warmongers manipulate and use language as one of their weapons. Peacemakers
have also seen the potential of language for promoting peace. Political battles are
often fought over language rights. Language issues are often inseparable from other
struggles. The relationship between war and language can be viewed from many
angles and this theme offers many possibilities for fruitful research.

War and peace

The history of the world is a patchwork of war and peace. Throughout the ages
there has always been a sense of a vanished Utopia, a Paradise lost, and a
hankering back to a Golden Age of Peace, but from the earliest records the planet
has been plagued by wars. Many historians and novelists have written about war
and speculated on its causes and its nature. Tolstoy's War and peace is probably
one of the most famous historical novels that have appeared on this theme. Today
war seems to be as much a part of our lives as it ever was. Will there ever be an
end to war? Some believe that the human race is constantly evolving towards a
higher state in which it will be able to overcome its warlike natures. Others
believe a New Age is dawning: the Age of Aquarius, a time of peace and
tranquility. Islamic militants divide the world into two camps: Dar el Harb ('the
House of War') and Dar es Salaam ('the House of Peace'). The House of Peace
belongs to those who submit to the will of Allah, while those outside the Islamic
world belong to the House of War. These two houses are destined to war
Copyright: Unisa Press Language Matters 2003, 34
 4 Lawrie Barnes
constantly until all have been subjugated in the House of War and submit to the
will of Allah. In contrast, the book of Revelation portrays a prophetic vision of
an apocalyptic time in which there is an escalation of war, culminating in a final
confrontation between the nations at the battle of Armageddon, preceding the
end of the world, and the Age of Eternal Peace.
At the end of the nineteenth century there was a mild sense of optimism amongst
the British that the twentieth century would usher in a time of peace and
prosperity. Britannia ruled the waves, and a large portion of the world to boot.
There was a belief that the sun could never set on the Union Jack. The Pax
Britannia was rudely ruffled by a war with a bunch of 'backward' Boers at the
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southern tip of Africa. So the twentieth century was born in war. Two major
world wars were to follow; then the Cold War, ending with the seemingly
miraculous fall of communism at the close of the century. Against the backdrop
of tension in the Middle East, the twenty-first century started on perhaps a less
optimistic note than the previous century, but any hope of 'peace in our time'
was finally shattered by the shock of the September 11 twin-tower disaster which
gave rise to the retaliatory Bush wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Peace of Vereeniging

Looking back over the past century in South Africa, there is much room for
speculation on the effects of the Anglo-Boer War (South African War, 1899-
1902). On 31 May 2002 the hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Peace of
Vereeniging which concluded the Anglo-Boer War was celebrated. What exactly
did this 'peace' mean for South Africa? Initially it meant a victory for British
imperialism: a further step towards the fulfilment of Rhodes's dream of British
control of Africa from Cape to Cairo. It was just part of the larger picture, paving
the way for the hegemony of English throughout the world, establishing English
as the global international language of the twentieth century. In southern Africa it
meant the birth of a new nation with the formation of the Union of South Africa
in 1910. The former Boer general, Jan Smuts, visionary and future prime
minister of South Africa, believed this meant the opportunity for reconciliation
between Boer and Brit and the establishment of an equal partnership between the
two white races in South Africa.

There were others of his countrymen who, fearing the crushing effect of British
hegemony, felt compelled to fight for the survival of their race and so began the
struggle for the rights of the Afrikaner. Hand in hand with the political conflict
went a struggle for language rights. Although South Africa was officially a
bilingual country and the equal rights of the two languages, Dutch and English,
were firmly entrenched in the constitution, Dutch was not really the language of
the people. The variety of Dutch spoken in South Africa was a far cry from the
 Language, War and Peace: An Overview 5

Dutch spoken in the Netherlands. The local variety was the product of the
language contact situation in the Cape Colony between Dutch colonists (as well
as other colonists from Europe), indigenous peoples (the Khoe and the San) and
slaves brought in from the East. This unique blend of languages, which they
called Afrikaans, became the symbol of a people seeking its own identity and
freedom from the domination of a superpower. The struggle for the establishment
and recognition of Afrikaans as an autonomous language, which had begun some
three decades earlier in the Cape Colony, was renewed with greater intensity
after the Anglo-Boer War. Combining the love of freedom that had grown out of
living life on a frontier with the discipline and determination of their Calvinistic
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heritage, the Afrikaners persevered in their struggle until the recognition in 1925
of Afrikaans as one of the official languages of South Africa. In the crucible of a
colonial mix of races, under pressure of political domination by a world power, a
peculiar alchemy had taken place, making it possible for Afrikaans to be born.
The birth of the new state had, in fact, given impetus to the birth of a new
language. The struggle for the fuller recognition of Afrikaans continued,
however, and in 1948 when the National Party came to power, Afrikaans became
the language of the dominant political party in the country. Afrikaans flourished
as never before and in the 1960s a new wave of creativity was unleashed in the
writing of the Sestigers (Afrikaans writers of the sixties) who did much to
establish the status of Afrikaans as a literary language.

But 1948 was also the catalyst for the intensification of another struggle that had
begun at the turn of the century: the struggle for fulfilment of the political and
social aspirations of the indigenous peoples. The awakening of African
nationalism had led in 1903 to the formation of the African National Congress
(ANC), who now spearheaded this struggle. Just as the struggle for Afrikaans
intensified when the Afrikaners came under British domination, so in 1948 when
the apartheid government came to power, the battle for the establishment of
majority rule and the recognition of the rights of the black people of South Africa
escalated. The political struggle now became an armed conflict with the
establishment of the armed wing of the ANC, Umkhonto weSiswe ('the Spear of
the Nation'), who lay waiting in neighbouring states for an opportunity to invade
the country. Meanwhile South Africa became embroiled in bush wars, in
particular the border war in South West Africa (now Namibia). In contrast to the
Afrikaner struggle, the political struggle of the ANC was not essentially linked to
the fight for language rights. The ANC, seeking to unite people from various
linguistic backgrounds, chose English as a 'neutral' language to be their 'official'
language of communication, but when the issue of the use of the Afrikaans
language in black schools erupted in the 1976 Soweto riots, the symbolic
significance of the two languages became reversed: Afrikaans became the
language of the oppressor, while English was seen as the language of the people.
 6 Lawrie Barnes
The significance of the Peace of Vereeniging for South Africa may be complex,
but in essence it brought together a number of diverse language and ethnic
groups into one political unit whose destinies became inextricably linked by the
stroke of a pen.

Language as the by-product of war

The effect of the phenomenon of war, and the ensuing peace, on language can be
viewed from many perspectives. No sociolinguist or scholar of the sociology of
language can fail to see the importance of the effects of wars on the language
ecology of a region. The Union of South Africa, resulting from the Peace of
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Vereeeniging, paved the way for the modern multi-ethnic and multilingual
democratic state with its complex linguistic ecology that South Africa is today.

In his contribution to the collection of articles in this volume, van Rensburg

invokes the truism that in times of war there are no winners. In some way or
another all are losers. He points out, however, that the only real winner in war is
language. Although the parties participating in a war never really gain by it, a
war typically brings people of different languages in close contact. These contact
situations invariably lead to the adaptation of the various languages concerned.
All languages in a contact situation are affected. Usually, the language of the
conqueror plays the dominant role, but there is no hard-and-fast rule and some
fascinating contradictory situations have arisen. Consider the case of the Roman
Empire. The language of the conquering Romans became the dominant language
of the empire. For instance, after Julius Caesar had conquered Gaul, it became a
model province of the empire, to such an extent that a wholesale language shift
took place in which the Gauls totally lost their languages (apologies Asterix
fans!) and adopted (and adapted) the language of their conquerors (a variety of
Latin). When the empire collapsed and the barbarian hordes moved in, the
Franks, who spoke a Germanic language, took control of Gaul. But in this case
the conquerors did not impose their language on the conquered. The reverse, in
fact, happened. The Franks adopted the local language, but not without doing
some severe damage! As a result of this contact situation, the French language
emerged, influenced by the language of the conquerors, but in essence still a
Romanic language. The story of the evolution of the other Romance languages
(Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian) is similar. In all cases the
conquering people adopted and adapted the language of the conquered.

The effect of war on the language ecology in South Africa is clearly visible. As
mentioned above, the Anglo-Boer War gave impetus to the development of
Afrikaans. The war stimulated an outpouring of literature in Afrikaans, pride in
the language and an active struggle for its use in schools. Afrikaans grew in
reaction to the suppressive policies of the conqueror. Ironically, the domination
 Language, War and Peace: An Overview 7
of the conquerors' language led to the growth of the language of the conquered.
However, there was an inevitable intermix between the two languages, English
and Afrikaans. Many English words and expressions have been absorbed into
Afrikaans (Ponelis 1999). Similarly, South African English has been heavily
influenced by Afrikaans. The linguistic history of South Africa over the past
century reflects an ongoing interplay between these two languages, virtually a
symbiotic relationship.

Against the backdrop of these two dominant languages, Afrikaans and English,
the African languages have been treated ambiguously. Although treated officially
as inferior by the colonial authorities, the indigenous languages were recognised
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and nurtured by the missionaries. With the formation of the Union of South
Africa, these languages were given a secondary status in the new state (Bekker
1999). After 1948 the apartheid government officially recognised nine African
languages for use in education and local government, but it was only after 1994
in the 'new' South Africa that these languages received full official status
together with English and Afrikaans at the national level. Whether this official
recognition will do much to change their status and will lead to their growth and
development is a moot point (Madiba 1999).

But in reality what is happening to these languages? Having been brought

together into one national state under the domination of the former colonial
languages, considerable signs of influence in terms of borrowings are seen in all
of them. What is significant is the number of mixed varieties to be found in
urban settings. Language contact has spawned varieties such as Fanakalo
(Adendorff 1995), Tsotsitaal or Flaaitaal (Makhudu 1995; Molamu 2003),
Iscamtho, a host of urban vernaculars (Mfusi 1992) and koines (Schuring 1985).

Military jargon and slang

Besides playing a role in language shift and the creation of new varieties of
languages, wars also play a role in the creation of new words and expressions
relating to the military milieu. The most obvious example is the creation of
military terminology. Although some of this terminology is very specifically
related to military matters, weaponry and so forth, many expressions find their
way into everyday language and so enrich the vocabulary and idiom of a
language. Consider the English expression lock, stock and barrel. This
expression, referring to the parts of a rifle, originated in the jargon of military
storemen. It has come into general use in English language today, and may be
used without any military connotations. Some expressions still in use today, such
as to throw down the gauntlet, go right back to the Middle Ages. The word
salary dates from even earlier times. It is derived from the Latin word for 'salt'
which was used as a means of payment for soldiers in Roman times.
 8 Lawrie Barnes
Every army in every age has created its own slang. Branford (1984) records the
slang of South African troops during the 1980s. It is an interesting study to see
how many of these expression have found their way into South African English
today. The commonly used expression, civvies day, referring to a day when
schools allow scholars to come to school in everyday clothes instead of their
school uniforms, bears testimony to the influence of military slang on today's
language.

Military nicknames or noms de guerre are a particular type of slang produced by

soldiers. Pfukwa's article examines the creation and use of noms de guerre
during the Rhodesian (Zimbabwean) bush wars of the 1970s. Guerrillas in this
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armed conflict developed many colourful nicknames, drawn from divergent

languages and cultures. These noms de guerre show high levels of linguistic
creativity. They were social statements projecting the guerrillas' ideologies and
feelings, and reflecting the sociocultural background of the bearer. Pfukwa
presents a wide range of data, from onomatopoeic names such as Chigawaga-
waga, simulating the staccato burst of a machine, names such as Bulala Zonke
('kill them all'), intended to instil fear in the enemy, to ethnic slurs and
inflammatory names, such as Pfutseki Mabhunu ('go away white farmers'),
intended to insult the enemy.

Some words that come into being as a result of war situations become
semantically loaded terms which evoke a whole world of experiences, feelings
and symbols. The word border (and grens in Afrikaans) is one such word. The
concept of a 'border war' is deeply woven into the fabric of southern Africa. As
a colonial people, the Dutch settlers were constantly extending the frontiers of
the Cape Colony. After the Dutch Colony's borders had finally been set at the
Fish River, because the colonist had now met the Bantu tribes who were
advancing southwards, a series of border wars ensued, the first of which occurred
in 1779. The wars continued for nearly a century after the British had taken over
the Cape. As an attempted solution, British - and later German - settlers were
brought in to help create a buffer. The border was shifted and a buffer strip
created between the Fish and the Kei rivers. To this day, this region bears the
name of Border (mainly reflected in the names of local sports teams). With the
Great Trek and the continual expansion of the settlers into the interior, numerous
new borders were created. Throughout colonial history there has been constant
cross-border contact between colonists and indigenous peoples. The concept of a
border war again gained significance in the 1980s when the war fought on the
border between South West Africa (now Namibia) and Angola dominated the
lives of many South African troops (Batley1992).

Roos examines the way in which Afrikaans prose writers use these semantically
loaded words. Words and images referring to past wars in South Africa are
 Language, War and Peace: An Overview 9
significant markers of an entire field of emotions, histories and symbolism. By
evoking these images and concepts related to the Anglo-Boer War, and other
wars, writers have forged links between different generations that create a living
intertextual framework for new narratives. Their symbolic value plays a
significant role in South African literature.

Language as the instrument of war

Language can be seen as a loaded weapon that can be used as an instrument of
war. From time immemorial men have used language to incite wars, to frighten
their enemies or exhort their troops to do battle. The 'war of words' is often as
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important as the battle itself. Military propaganda and war-speak are a source of
interest for any scholar interested in the way in which language can be
manipulated to achieve the ends of warmongers and power seekers.

Pieterse investigates the way in which language can be manipulated and used for
propaganda purposes. His article takes a broad sweep from Tzu's (1991) 25
centuries-old classic, The art of war, to the latest twenty-first century wars. His
focus falls on a seminal article by Merton (1968), written at the height of the
Vietnam War, which examines the way in which language is the basis of power, a
tool to gain and to wield power. Semantically loaded terms or phrases used
during various wars have undergone semantic shifts as they become tools for
gaining power. Language becomes a vehicle for deception ('truth is the first
casualty in war') and a variety of 'double-speak' is created. Pieterse investigates
Merton's hypothesis by examining the rhetoric used in a number of recent wars
since the Vietnam War. He identifies and analyses a range of expressions used in
wars. Some are masking expressions ('brutality smeared with peanut butter'),
such as freedom fighter, ethnic cleansing, pre-emptive strike and air support. He
demonstrates that ironic, euphemistic, dehumanising, sarcastic, sardonic and
hyperbolic terms all find their way into war-speak to create a complex
framework of terms and metaphors to gain power and manipulate both friend
and foe.
Evans shows how language was manipulated and corrupted for propaganda
purposes from the earliest times. He links the propaganda used in the days of the
Roman Empire to modern-day propaganda used in the media and by politicians.
The evidence he presents indicates that although one tends to think of such
phenomena as newspeak as contemporary modern inventions, at least 2000 years
ago in Romans times the same propaganda techniques were used. He contends
that the war-speak of the Ancients differs little from today's military rhetoric.
There is nothing new under the sun when it comes to the manipulation of
language. The elements of modern newspeak were all present in the war-speak of
the Ancients long before Orwell's 1984.
 10 Lawrie Barnes
A luta continual continued language activism
Although language may be a weapon in war, it may also be the issue about which
the battle is fought. Long after the last shots have been fired in a war, the battle
for language rights may continue or only begin. This was the case after the
Anglo-Boer War. It was only after the war was over that the real battle for the
recognition of Afrikaans began. It is not uncommon once peace has been
established and a new political dispensation comes into being, for a constitution
to be drawn up giving certain rights, including language rights, to the conquered.
It is, however, up to those who have been given the rights in principle to fight for
them to be put into practice. After the struggle for the establishment of a
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democratic South Africa had ended, a constitution was drawn up giving 11 of

South Africa's languages official status. This does not mean that these languages
were automatically empowered. Without language activism these rights could be
meaningless. Afrikaans, once one of the two official languages of South Africa
and in a favoured position, now since 1994 finds itself in the position of being
relegated to one of 11 official languages. The struggle for Afrikaans, which
began before the turn of the twentieth century, will have to continue into the
twenty-first century otherwise the language will go into decline (Cluver 1994).

It is against this backdrop that Kriel presents her views on the current language
debate in South Africa. She examines the continuing struggle for the rights of
Afrikaans in the 'new' South Africa. The present constitution allows linguistic
and cultural diversity, but this is an age of globalisation where smaller groups are
threatened by the global culture. As a reaction to this type of situation there is
often a counter-movement of nationalistic resurgence. New nationalistic
movements are very often language-based and nationalism is often a reaction
to the suppression of autonomous identity in a world submitted to cultural
modernisation and homogeneity. The speakers of Afrikaans find themselves in
such a world where the power of the global media language is a direct expression
of global culture. The fight to retain their language is a struggle to maintain their
cultural identity. The fight for language rights is therefore more than the assertion
of the right to use Afrikaans. What is at stake is the survival of an Afrikaans
identity. The loss of language means the loss of cultural identity and roots. In the
present-day language activism what is being protected is not Afrikaans per se,
but Afrikaans middle-class interests. It is disguised in a linguistic environment-
alism that attempts to form alliances with other minority languages. The
constitution allows such language activism. It opens the door for nationalists to
exploit the public and private sector resources for the purpose of ethnic
mobilisation. Language activism in the white Afrikaans-speaking community
constitutes, in essence, a nationalistic movement.
 Language, War and Peace: An Overview 11
Peace at last?
It is probably not surprising that few of the articles in this collection focus on
peace. There is one, however, that supports the view that language can be used
for attaining peace. Snyders proposes that there are two types of language: the
mechological and the ecological. Mechological language leads to conflict and is
characterised by 'rigidity, precision, ideology, addiction to hierarchy and
bureaucracy'. This type of language disrupts the ecological flow and balance and
leads to polarisation, arousing mutual negation and war. Ecological language
encourages the exploration of the truths of others and presents a way of survival
and the resolution of conflict. These two complementary languages are essential
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to human existence. If one could maintain the balance between them, would one
avoid war?

Now that the Cold War is over and the struggle between the superpowers has
ended, one may think that one is living in a time of relative peace. The United
States of America has become the 'guardian of peace' in the world: we should all
be able to enjoy the Pax Americana. Surely, in South Africa, at least, where the
Struggle is over, the people can finally enjoy the Peace of Vereeniging? By a
careful analysis of the language of the corporate world Weinberg deftly exposes
the insidious imperialism of giant corporations 'claiming to have a legitimate
link between democracy and the practice of a free market'. In the wake of the
collapse of Communism, and in a world dominated by the forces of
globalisation, people are becoming ever increasingly controlled by corporate
culture. The academic world is as much under this threat as any other sector of
society. This sensitive and provocative article begs the question: Can we sit back
complacently and allow ourselves to be raped of the values and liberties that we
have fought so hard to achieve over the centuries? A luta continua: the struggle
must continue!

The articles in this volume have presented a number of interesting, thought-

provoking and challenging perspectives on the theme of Language, War and
Peace. It is undoubtedly a topic that provokes many responses, a field for fruitful
interdisciplinary research. Much more can be said about this topic. Only the first
shots in a long campaign have been fired.

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 12 Lawrie Barnes
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