Decolonial Linguistics: From Fanon to Linguistic Phenomena Linked to the Historical Transformation of the Zone of Non-Being in the Global South

Alex Pereira de Araújo

decolonial linguistics; glottopolitics; zone of non-being; monolingualism; multiculturalism.

This work promotes a discussion about decolonial linguistics focused on the linguistic phenomena involved in the decolonization processes of the zone of non-being in this historical moment that witnesses the rise of the Global South as a counter-colonial, multicultural force that relies on multilateralism in geopolitical terms. Using the theoretical framework of pragmatic discourse analysis, this discussion seeks to show how Fanon and Aimé Césaire were able to lay the foundations for this alternative linguistics by highlighting, in their discourses, the ways in which language was used to subjugate bodies used in the exploitation of the riches of Africa, America, and Asia. The work developed by Labov on the linguistic discrimination suffered by African Americans also appears in the course of this discussion. Here, discourses are taken in their material reality as spoken or written things, that is, as social practices linked to specific cosmologies (or worldviews).

Received: 14 Jan 2026, Received in revised form: 17 Feb 2026, Accepted: 22 Feb 2026, Available online: 26 Feb 2026

10.22161/ijaers.132.7