Struggles over linguistic classification inevitably concern political stakes. Sociolinguists are theoretically aware that “language-dialect” disputes have political causes, though in practice find it difficult to tear themselves away from irrelevant linguistic facts. Even taxonomies of “dialects,” however, may have important political stakes. Slovak patriot Ľudovít Štúr twice used the politics of dialect classification to shape Slovak nationalism: once to justify the codification of a distinctively Slovak grammar and orthography, and separately to justify his particular

standardization.

Alexander Maxwell, Senior Lecturer, School of History, Philosophy, Political Science & International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington.

Main Research:

The Habsburg and Ottoman Empires and their successor states

Nationalism, particularly linguistic nationalism

Everyday life in Europe, 1750-1950

European cultural history

The social history of clothing

The history of sexuality

History teaching pedagogy

Publications: