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Introduction: Minority Languages and Communities in a Changing World

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The Palgrave Handbook of Minority Languages and Communities

Abstract

This chapter contains a critical survey of current research on minority languages and communities. It outlines the key issues confronting speakers and policymakers in the face of migration and globalization. It also highlights the critically important role of the different historical treatments of multilingualism and minority language communities. The chapters are summarized concisely around the Handbook’s subheadings ranging from the politics of recognition and autonomy to roles of economic and linguistic markets and from ecologies of language socialization and linguistic landscape to the potentials and limits of social media in language revitalization and shift. The concluding section of this chapter contains a clear statement that there needs to be a rethink of existing theoretical frameworks in order to better understand language maintenance and shift in today’s minority language communities around the world.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In Lo Bianco, J. (2017) Resolving ethnolinguistic conflict in multi-ethnic societies, 28. April 2017, p. 1.

  2. 2.

    Giordano uses the typology developed by Michael Walzer (1997).

  3. 3.

    The notion NCA was developed byAustro-Marxists Karl Renner (2005) and Otto Bauer (2000).

  4. 4.

    European Parliament Resolution on Sign Languages (1988).

  5. 5.

    On models developed in the study of LM and LS phenomena, see, for example, Conklin and Lourie, in Clyne (2003, Chapter 2, pp. 53–54).

  6. 6.

    See Bamgbose (2000) and Koffi (2012); on prestige and status in language planning, see Haarmann (1990).

  7. 7.

    Kamwangamalu (2010, 2016).

  8. 8.

    On ways in which linguistic andeconomic variables influence one another, see Ginsburgh and Weber (2016a, b), Grin et al. (2010), and Hogan-Brun (2017).

  9. 9.

    See Tollefson (2013).

  10. 10.

    Bourdieu (1991).

  11. 11.

    For more information on language ‘vitality’, see UNESCO’s Language Vitality and Endangerment guide (2011), developed as a tool for Language Assessment and Planning.

  12. 12.

    On commodification see Heller (2010); on how language and culture are increasingly being associated less with rights and heritage (or ‘pride’) and more with economic benefits (or ‘profit’) see also Duchêne and Heller (2006).

  13. 13.

    UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report (2016).

  14. 14.

    Kathleen Heugh, Interview on 15 February 2017.

  15. 15.

    Cf. Piller (2016).

  16. 16.

    Language Atlas, UNESCO: http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/

  17. 17.

    See footnote 11 on measuring language vitality and endangerment and also the Ethnologue’s EGIDS scale https://www.ethnologue.com/about/language-status

  18. 18.

    For calculations on language extinction risk, see Amano et al. (2014).

  19. 19.

    See Jones (2015a).

  20. 20.

    On the potentials of new speakers, see O’Rourke, Pujolar and Ramallo (2015).

  21. 21.

    Blommaert (2010).

  22. 22.

    See Salzburg Statement for a Multilingual World

    https://issuu.com/salzburgglobal/docs/salzburgglobal_statement_586

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Gabrielle Hogan-Brun

  2. Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

    Bernadette O’Rourke

Authors
  1. Gabrielle Hogan-Brun
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  2. Bernadette O’Rourke
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Correspondence to Gabrielle Hogan-Brun .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Gabrielle Hogan-Brun

  2. Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

    Bernadette O’Rourke

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Hogan-Brun, G., O’Rourke, B. (2019). Introduction: Minority Languages and Communities in a Changing World. In: Hogan-Brun, G., O’Rourke, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Minority Languages and Communities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54066-9_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54066-9_1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-54066-9

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