Conference Agenda

Sweden is often hailed as a multilingual haven. While multilingualism is indeed sanctioned by the law, I illustrate how minority language policies are framed by three main principles that have characterized a colonial logic: census, maps and museum (Anderson 1991). For this purpose, I will focus on a language, Yiddish, which does not have a straightforward link to colonialism in Sweden, but has posed a series of challenges to legislators. I demonstrate how colonial principles of census, maps and museum were used to make sense of Yiddish and argue against its recognition as a national minority language. However, I will also show how language activists reacted through affective practices, which ultimately led to the official recognition of Yiddish. In this way, the talk not only seeks to engage with discussions about decolonial perspectives on language policy but also highlight a somewhat overlooked aspect of language policy, namely its affective dimensions.