This week: Irredentism and the war in Ukraine. That’s right, we’re getting a bit more serious than usual; sometimes it needs to be done. But, it’s still Learned so there are jokes in the footnotes and weirdness down the rabbit hole. Let’s get to it!
Irredentism, Rejected
Sometimes, learning a new word stems from less than ideal circumstances; sometimes the context that provides us with a new word are trying and stressful, particularly for those more directly affected than we may be. This week’s word comes from just such a context.
In a speech last February denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and affirming Kenya’s support of an independent Ukraine, Kenya’s permanent ambassador to the United Nations, Martin Kimani, said the following:
This situation echoes our history. Kenya and almost every African country was birthed by the ending of empire. Our borders were not of our own drawing. They were drawn in the distant colonial metropoles of London, Paris and Lisbon, with no regard for the ancient nations that they cleaved apart.
Today, across the border of every single African country, live our countrymen with whom we share deep historical, cultural and linguistic bonds.
…
We believe that all states formed from empires that have collapsed or retreated have many peoples in them yearning for integration with peoples in neighboring states. This is normal and understandable. After all, who does not want to be joined to their brethren and to make common purpose with them?
However, Kenya rejects such a yearning from being pursued by force. We must complete our recovery from the embers of dead empires in a way that does not plunge us back into new forms of domination and oppression.
We rejected irredentism and expansionism on any basis, including racial, ethnic, religious or cultural factors. We reject it again today1.
It is a powerful, moving piece of rhetoric and one that I would encourage everyone to watch. As others have noted, if you’re going to watch one speech, let it be this one. With all that said, and with the understanding that this is not a politics blog2 but a linguistics one, and with the understanding that I have nothing but admiration and hope for the Ukrainian people, let’s talk about some of the language used by Mr. Kimani.
He states that Kenya and its fellow African nations have rejected irredentism. What a fantastic, specific word. Here’s Merriam-Webster’s entry on irredentism:
: a political principle or policy directed toward the incorporation of irredentas within the boundaries of their historically or ethnically related political unit
And here’s the entry on irredenta:
a territory historically or ethnically related to one political unit but under the political control of another
So, to put it a little more clearly, irredentism is when a country attempts to re-acquire territories it formerly controlled, often for the purpose (real or imagined) of bringing the people of those territories back to their historic homeland. The term stems from a political movement in Italy in the latter days of the 19th century and early days of the 20th that attempted to divest Italian-speaking areas from Switzerland, among other places, and fold them into the newly formed Italian state3.
Since then, the term has been applied to a vast array of conflicts around the world, usually as a derisive label against expansionist and revisionist undertakings. As the Encyclopedia Britannica4 puts it:
because such a movement invariably means taking land from another state, irredentist claims have been known to provoke ethnic conflicts and territorial aggression.
And, with definitions like that, you’d be correct in assuming that there are dozens of examples of conflicts from throughout history that are often cited as irredentist movements. Britannica lists a pre-WWII German5 claim on parts of Czechoslovakia and Argentina’s annexation of the Falkland Islands among others, but Wikipedia6 gives us a full list (here), which includes both China’s assertion that Taiwain is part of China and the Kuril islands dispute between Japan and Russia. Most tellingly, perhaps, is that Russia has enough examples to warrant its own entry under “Russian Irredentism.”
And so, now what? As I said, Learned is not a political blog, nor do I want it to be. But part of being a citizen in this day and age is paying at least a modicum of attention to the world around us, even if only for a moment before heading back to our distractions. And when I poked my head up out of my distractions to learn more about what was happening in Ukraine, I found a word I hadn’t known; it’s one I may not be able to ever forget. And that’s important, too, because context matters. Just ask Ukraine.
Down the Rabbit Hole
Since this week’s main article was uncharacteristically serious, I thought I’d look for a fun rabbit hole to dive down. And so, this week, I’m trying to figure out why every self-help book I come across is swearing at me:
Why are there so many best-sellers right now with the F-word in the title?
What the F*ck Is Up With All These Sweary F*cking Book Titles?
What is With All of the Self-Help Books With Swear Words in the Title?
Short answer - they get your attention, they make you feel rebellious, and they make you laugh because they’re breaking an unwritten rule about what you can and can’t say in public. Still, all three articles are worth reading. Down the rabbit hole you go!
From the Archives
I’ve written about swearing a couple of times before. The first was back in 2018 in Learned Vol. 1, Issue 16: Sh*t Happens, which is really less about swearing than it is about poop and how much Japanese kids love it. Seriously, characters like Unchi-kun a.k.a. Mr. Poop and Oshiri-tante a.k.a. Detective Butt are incredibly popular but also, like, literal manifestations of their names. Mr. Poop is a walking, talking pile of poop and Detective Butt is an anthropomorphic butt who solves crimes. I wish I was kidding.
Anyway, the second issue about swearing is actually about swear words, specifically how we use them without using them: Learned Vol. 2, Issue 21: FUBAR. I mean, come for the explorations of FUBAR and SNAFU and stay for the Keats poem I quote at the end!
I’ve taken this transcript from NPR’s own transcript, which is available here along with a video of the full speech.
Generally, when people ask about my politics, I tell them I read Slate and the Atlantic and that most of my opinions come from those two sources, which at least has the virtue of being true if not completely honest.
Italy became a country in 1861, although that’s a bit like saying that the U.S. became a country in 1865 - it was a country before that, but it was not the same country that it would become.
Wikipedia gets all the credit these days, but the good old EB is still here and still enormously useful and relevant.
Writing the name of the political party that rose to power in 1930s Germany brings out the trolls, which is why I have avoided using it.
Interestingly, one of the criteria for something to be included on Wikipedia’s list is:
The territory must have a (real or imagined) past that is different from its current status (i.e. it is not just a border dispute).
It’s the “real or imagined” that I find so chilling. What happens when one ruler decides that the history they have invented is truer than what’s written in the history books? Seems like the news has been way too full of examples lately…