Language and Religion

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Sociology - Communication, grade: 1,3, Dresden Technical University (Institute of English and American Studies), course: Introduction to Sociolinguistics, language: English, abstract: This seminar paper deals with links and relations between language and religion. Exemplarily, it takes a closer look at the connections of language and the Baha'i Faith in general and, in particular, in Germany. Therefore, the paper focuses on the historical development of this world religion, beginning in 19th-century Iran, its evolution towards a global faith, and its establishment in Germany in the early years of the 20th century. This paper is also going to deal with religious teachings that influence the ethnic, racial, social and linguistic structure of this young world faith. Furthermore, an insight into statistics on the ethnical, racial, and cultural backgrounds of the global and the German Baha'i community respectively as well as conclusions about their linguistic composition will be provided. In the end, details about a survey conducted from February 06th 2013 to March 17th 2013 will be presented and elaborated on. Only little research has been conducted in the field of language and the Baha'i Religion - at least from a sociolinguistic perspective. Therefore, this paper serves as a good opportunity to deal with this challenge.