ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the idea that language distinctions are rarely neutral, in the sense of not symbolising different identities or sets of identities. It explains the language and conflict, language and development communication is a particularly advantageous domain to investigate, since it may open latent social fissures, rivalries and tensions, many of which have a linguistic component. The chapter focuses on the political history of a particular region and the conflicts that may arise as a consequence of that history. It presents case study of geographically compact, multilingual region of northern Ghana, in which languages are strongly associated with the ethnic groups living there. The chapter explores the South African situation, because a violent conflict was directly caused by the imposition of an ex-colonial language on an indigenous population. The choice of particular languages, as well as of particular phonological and grammatical features of a language, almost always indexes a range of social parameters, including social status, ethnicity and gender.
