Give examples where conquered people imposed their language on people?

Answer 1

Note there are many examples of the conquered adopting the language of their conquerors, but not as many where this was done by imposition. The example about Spanish has more to do with the fact that in order to trade and do business with the Spaniards and understand the new laws imposed on them etc, the local Indians had to learn Spanish.

Answer 2

Throughout history, civilisations have waxed and waned. Empires flourished and floundered. The language of the conquerors became the language for the conquered.

The English language become the official language in nearly 70 colonies in the British Empire and later in the Commonwealth for business and for administration. However, even the powerful British cannot "imposed" their language. They were subtle in persuading their subjects to use their language through education and through defining it as the official language for dealing with them. The British subjects, whether Africians, Indians, Chinese, continue to speak their own language at home.

When the Japanese invade much of East Asia in WWII, the Japanese language was taught to the people they conquered. It was forgotten after the Japanese were defeated.

So, the use of language is an evolutionary process, and cannot be "imposed" on people overnight. Today, English become the "lingua fraca" for the world, and people and talk to one another in one common language. That process take 300 years to develop. Surely there is no "imposition" in the process - we speak English because we know it is the language that connects nearly everyone in the international community.

Answer 3

I'll give three examples, other than the obvious:
1. When the Incas conquered much of South America they imposed their language, Quichua, on the conquered peoples.
2. The Jamaican speak their version of English because they were an English colony.
3. Haitians speak a French creole (a language that combines two languages) because they were colonized by the French.
Conquered or colonized people are rarely allowed to retain their language in its traditional form.

Answer 4

We are actually in the process of being conquered in terms of language, although in reality what we're doing is creating a different kind of English, or so-called "Engrish," in our country.
From what I've gathered, a whole bunch of "Engrish" technical jargon coined by the conquered is sometimes taking over and even becomes the norm in a few industries worldwide.
That's one of the examples I can think of where conquered people imposed their language on conquerers' language. If that's what you meant.

Answer 5

There is one outstanding example that I know of ... Italy.

Italy was invaded numerous times by Germanic peoples in the early Medieval period, most notably by the Lombards, who dominated most of Northern Italy and large parts of the South from 569 to 774 AD. The Lombards spoke a Germanic language and retained their own code of law, but they very quickly adopted vulgar Latin as a spoken language and imitated other aspects of Italian culture such as dress. In this case, the language and culture of the conquered was regarded as superior by the conquerors. As a result, the germanic language of the Lombards has left only a few traces in the Italian lexicon. The Normans in Sicily are a similar case.

Answer 6

Some obvious examples are the Romance languages which evolved out of the Imperial Latin of the Roman Empire; English and Spanish in their former colonies and Russian in parts of the former Soviet Union. Some lesser known examples are Turkish in Asia Minor and Yakut (also a Turkic language) in Siberia. Most of these people orignally spoke Greek, Armenian or Tungus before becoming Turkic speaking.

Arabic in Egypt, Indic (Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi) in Northern India, Anglo-Saxon in England, Gaelic in Scotland (and maybe even Ireland), and Serbo-Croatian in Yugoslavia are also examples of languages which took hold either through conquest and / or elite dominance.

Answer 7

Did you mean that conquered people expand their language on invaders?
I don't think there are such cases. Invaders used toimpose their culture, language, and traditions. Though i can give examples of Mongol- tatrian invasion into Russia. Today all Tatarian people in Russia speak Russian and most kids are taught in Russian, although their language survived too.
but i really didn't understand what you mean, sorry.

Answer 8

"However, even the powerful British cannot "imposed" their language. They were subtle in persuading their subjects to use their language through education and through defining it as the official language for dealing with them."


Tell that to the Irish.

Answer 9

An obvious answer--South Americans were imposed Spanish by the Spanish.

Answer 10

England, which is why english has words from most languages in it.