Minority Languages, National Languages, and Official Language Policies

Gillian Lane-Mercier, Denise Merkle, Jane Koustas, Gillian Lane-Mercier, Denise Merkle, Jane Koustas

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780773555884
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Public Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In a context where linguistic and cultural diversity is characterized by ever-increasing complexity, adopting official multilingual policies to correct a country's ethno-linguistic, socio-economic, and symbolic imbalances presents many obstacles, but the greatest challenge is implementing them effectively. To what degree and in what ways have official multilingualism and multiculturalism policies actually succeeded in attaining their goals? Questioning and challenging foundational concepts, Minority Languages, National Languages, and Official Language Policies highlights the extent to which governments and international bodies are unable to manage complex linguistic and cultural diversity on an effective and sustained basis. This volume examines the principles, theory, intentions, and outcomes of official policies of multilingualism at the city, regional, and national levels through a series of international case studies. The eleven chapters – most focusing on lesser-known geopolitical contexts and languages – bring to the fore the many paradoxes that underlie the concept of diversity, lived experiences of and attitudes toward linguistic and cultural diversity, and the official multilingual policies designed to legally enhance, protect, or constrain otherness. An authoritative source of new and updated information, offering fresh interpretations and analyses of evolving sociolinguistic and political phenomena in today's global world, Minority Languages, National Languages, and Official Language Policies demonstrates how language policies often fail to deal appropriately or adequately with the issues they are designed to solve.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• Tables and Figures
• Acknowledgments
• INTRODUCTION Toward an Ethos of Diversity
• “Diversity Is Diverse”: Complex Diversity and Deep Diversity
• 1 Choosing Concepts for Sustainable Diversity Management Policies
• Problematizing the Ethos of Diversity: Majority National Languages and Official Language Policy
• 2 Multilingualism without Multiculturalism? The Case of Luxembourg
• 3 The Future of Multilingualism in Post-Soviet Central Asia:The Case of Kazakhstan
• Protecting and Revitalizing Endangered Traditional Minority Languages
• 4 Minority Language Protection in Italy and Local Initiatives to Protect Francoprovençal in Apulia
• 5 Dyw un iaith byth yn ddigon – One Language Is Never Enough: Language Policy and Translation in Modern Wales
• 6 International Models of Language Policy and Language Planning: Official Bilingualism in Ireland and Sociolinguistic Reality
• Indigenous Languages and Official Language Policy: The Canadian Example
• 7 Language, Education, and the Structuring of Canada’s Social Sphere
• 8 Indigenizing Language Policy in Canada: Redressing Racial Hierarchies in Language and Education
• Decolonization and Official Language Policy: The African Example
• 9 The Promotion of Languages in Nigeria: An Example of Problematic Official Multilingualism in Africa
• 10 Denying Linguistic and Cultural Pluralism in Algeria: An Official Model of Diversity Management
• Challenging the Limits of Official Language Policy
• 11 Challenging the Borders of Nation: Language and Translational Language Policy in the Plurilingual Romani Context
• AFTERWORD
• Contributors
• Index