Revisiting some ideas about language poñicy and linguistic ideology throughout the XVIIIth Century in Spain

Abstract

In the present article, studies carried out by Francisco Sánchez-Blanco are used in order to analyze the existent relationship, on one hand, between the politics of the Absolutism and the ideology of the Enlightenment and, on the other hand, between the language policy and the connections among the wide range of linguistic communities within the Spanish monarchy during the XVIIIth century. After establishing the differences between Enlightenment and other concepts such as Absolutism or Nationalism, and a thorough study of the circumstances given not only in America but also in the Iberian peninsula (Catalan, Galician and Basque linguistic areas), the next step was to analyze the concept of «Statism» in the work of Burke in order to explain the measures taken by the kings of the Bourbon dynasty during the period mentioned above. However, an even more in-depth study will allow us to prove the appropriateness of the concept «Nationalism» regarding language policy when referring to the second half of the XVIIIth century