[sudo-discuss] revolutionaries and the creation of new language

[Romy Ilano]

There is a yin and a yang to everything.

Here are a few examples of the "dark side" of reshaping language...


I've read a lot of history about the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the
Cambodian Khmer Rouge... these groups were very interested in reforming a
corrupt society, finding new ways of doing things. They are not shining
examples but I can say that their intentions started out pure.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge_rule_of_Cambodia#Establishing_the_Constitution_of_Democratic_Kampuchea

On the surface, society in Democratic Kampuchea was strictly
egalitarian<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egalitarian>.
The Khmer language <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_language>, like many
in Southeast Asia, has a complex system of usages to define speakers' rank
and social status. These usages were abandoned. People were encouraged to
call each other "friend", or "comrade" (in Khmer, មិត្ដ mitt), and to avoid
traditional signs of deference such as bowing or folding the hands in
salutation.

Language was transformed in other ways. The Khmer Rouge invented new terms.
People were told they must "forge" (*lot dam*) a new revolutionary
character, that they were the "instruments" (*opokar*) of the Angkar, and
that nostalgia for pre-revolutionary times (*chheu satek arom*, or "memory
sickness") could result in their receiving Angkar's "invitation" to be
deindustrialised and to live in a concentration camp.
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