Language Minorities

Johannes Feest

Legal concepts such as a national, official, or global language indicate a certain type of linguistic power relationship, one that defines linguistic dominance and inevitably creates minority languages and, thereby, linguistic minorities. This situation may contribute to language shift, language erosion, and, eventually, language death. Although the law can protect linguistic minorities, such attempts are a comparatively new phenomenon. National or international law does not protect most minority languages. Legal protection may take the form of group rights or individual rights. In the presence of cultural change and hybridization, it is, however, not at all clear whether law should attempt to preserve “endangered languages,” and, if so, at what cost. Tautologically speaking, minority languages are languages used by language minorities. Nevertheless, it is not clear what language and minority mean in this context. Linguists distinguish “language” from “dialect,” but sociologists and historians point out that the linguists' language is The ...

Users without subscription are not able to see the full content on this title. Please, subscribe or login to access all content on this website.