Are some languages superior to others?
Well into the early years of the last century, some schools in Wales banned the use of the Welsh language both in the classroom and in the playground. The idea was to force children to use and become proficient in English. Some of these schools punished children caught speaking Welsh with the so-called Welsh Not, a sign that children caught disobeying this rule were forced to wear around their necks. The Welsh Not was brought about by teachers and school organisations, such at the National Society for Promoting Religious Education, rather than government policy, and its use came about via convention rather than law.
In southern France within living memory, Occitan-speaking children were greeted by signs on the classroom wall forbidding the use of their own language, and urging them: “Soyez propres, parlez français !” - “Be clean, speak French!” The implication was that their own ancient tongue was dirty, a mere dialect, only suitable for haggling in markets and other low pursuits. Similar policies discouraging the use of "minority" languages existed in the UK and elsewhere.
But is it true that some languages are superior? Some have larger vocabularies, others are more widely spoken, some have greater grammatical complexity. But all languages can express the full range of human thought and emotion. There is no such thing as an "inferior" language.
