The language barrier in the humanities : Measures of language self-citation and self-derivation - The case of biblical studies

Abstract

This study checks the language of cited references in research articles published in six different languages in the field of biblical studies in 1950 and 1980. For each group of source articles published in the same language, measures of language self-citation and 'linguistic isolation' were applied and their rates calculated. The findings indicate the existence of a Language barrier in all groups checked, with considerable differences regarding the extent of this barrier. Contrary to former findings in the sciences and the social sciences, English language scholars were found in this study to be relatively heavy users of foreign language research, while the opposite was true for the German ones. French, Italian and Spanish scholars revealed preference towards publications in French and German, with much lower use of English language ones.