Linguistic Affinity

Last month, I described “Language Affinity” as representing the relationships that languages have with other languages. By adding “Group” to this, I’m describing how the principles of linguistic affinity actually become a useful, if not essential organising principle for our vision and ministry among all the indigenous minority language groups of Europe. To explain this significance for us, let me start with the scale and scope of the task.

The term Sprachspielen is German and means “language games.” It is a term coined by the philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein to describe the nuance and difference of meaning that words can have, depending on the rules of the context of the situation, or language game, in which they are used.