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Neoliberalism, linguistic commodification, and ethnolinguistic identity in multilingual Nepal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Bal Krishna Sharma  and
Prem Phyak
Bal Krishna Sharma*
Affiliation:
University of Idaho, USA
Prem Phyak
Affiliation:
Tribhuvan University, Nepal
*
Address for correspondence: Bal Krishna Sharma, University of Idaho, Department of English, 875 Perimeter Drive MS 1102 Moscow, Idaho 83844-1102, USAbalsharma@uidaho.edu
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Abstract

This article examines the consequences of neoliberalism in two separate domains of multilingual language use in the context of Nepal: language education and tourism. We show that institutions and individuals have appropriated and reproduced this ideology with their creative tactics, agency, and practices that both help them promote and commodify their ethnolinguistic identity and language skills while also allowing them to acquire multilingual repertoires in global languages such as English, German, Chinese, Japanese, and the indigenous local language Newari. We show that English as a global language does not always accord more cultural capital and economic value, nor is the teaching and learning of local indigenous languages always confined to the ideologies of identity politics and language preservation. We argue that while the ideologies of English as a global language and of indigenous languages as tools for ethnolinguistic identity do not disappear from the scene, new forces of globalization and neoliberalism bestow new meanings to multilingual repertoires and practices. (Neoliberalism, multilingualism, commodification, ethnolinguistic identity, Nepal)*

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Articles
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Language in Society , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , April 2017 , pp. 231 - 256
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

*

Both the authors would like to sincerely acknowledge the support by the Open Society Foundations through its two separate grants: Global Supplementary Grant and Civil Society Scholars Award. We are thankful to the editor Jenny Cheshire, and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on the earlier versions of the paper. In addition, Bal Krishna Sharma would like to thank several other funding sources for their generous financial support for the fieldwork: Dai Ho Chun Fellowship, TIRF Doctoral Dissertation Grant, and ‘Oihana Maika'i Fund.

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