Language and Minority Rights PDF Download

Author: Stephen May
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113683706X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
The second edition addresses new theoretical and empirical developments since its initial publication, including the burgeoning influence of globalization and the relentless rise of English as the current world language. May’s broad position, however, remains largely unchanged. He argues that the causes of many of the language-based conflicts in the world today still lie with the nation-state and its preoccupation with establishing a 'common' language and culture via mass education. The solution, he suggests, is to rethink nation-states in more culturally and linguistically plural ways while avoiding, at the same time, essentializing the language-identity link. This edition, like the first, adopts a wide interdisciplinary framework, drawing on sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, sociology, political theory, education and law. It also includes new discussions of cosmopolitanism, globalization, the role of English, and language and mobility, highlighting the ongoing difficulties faced by minority language speakers in the world today.

Author: Douglas A. Kibbee
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027218323
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
The contributions to this volume cover a broad range of issues in language policy that are hotly debated in every corner of the globe. The articles included investigate the implications of language policies on the notion of language rights as the issues are played out in very specific circumstances — from the courtroom in Australia to the legislature in California to the educational system in England to the administrative practices of the European Commission. The authors explore conflicts between basic conceptions of fairness in justice, administration and education on the one hand, and political and economic realities on the other. Articles focus on langage issues in the United States, Canada, Brazil, England, France, Slovakia, Russia, Sri Lanka, Australia and several African states. Other articles consider the implications of new supernational agreements — the European Union, NAFTA, GATT, the OAU — on language issues in the signatory states. In sum the volume offers an extensive presentation of current issues and practices in language policy and linguistic human rights.

Author: William D. Davies
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108655475
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 451

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Book Description
As the colonial hegemony of empire fades around the world, the role of language in ethnic conflict has become increasingly topical, as have issues concerning the right of speakers to choose and use their preferred language(s). Such rights are often asserted and defended in response to their being violated. The importance of understanding these events and issues, and their relationship to individual, ethnic, and national identity, is central to research and debate in a range of fields outside of, as well as within, linguistics. This book provides a clearly written introduction for linguists and non-specialists alike, presenting basic facts about the role of language in the formation of identity and the preservation of culture. It articulates and explores categories of conflict and language rights abuses through detailed presentation of illustrative case studies, and distills from these key cross-linguistic and cross-cultural generalizations.

Author: V. Pupavac
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137284048
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
Exploring language rights politics in theoretical, historical and international context, this book brings together debates from law, sociolinguistics, international politics, and the history of ideas. The author argues that international language rights advocacy supports global governance of language and questions freedoms of speech and expression.

Author: James Hawkey
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319745972
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
This book presents a detailed sociolinguistic study of the traditionally Catalan-speaking areas of Southern France, and sheds new light on language attitudes, phonetic variation, language ideologies and minority language rights. The region’s complex dual identity, both Catalan and French, both peripheral and strategic, is shown to be reflected in the book’s attitudinal findings which in turn act as reliable predictors of phonetic variation. The author’s careful discursive analysis paints a clear picture of the linguistic ideological landscape: in which French dominates as the language of status and prestige. This innovative work, employing cutting-edge mixed methods, provides an in-depth account of an under-examined language situation, and draws on this research to propose a number of policy recommendations to protect minority rights for speakers of Catalan in the region. Combining language attitudes, sociophonetics, discourse studies, and language policy, this will provide an invaluable reference for scholars of French and Catalan studies and minority languages around the world.

Author: Eduardo D. Faingold
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030330125
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description
This book examines the language policies relating to linguistic rights in European Union law and in the constitutions and legal statutes of some European Union member states. In recent years, the European Union has seen an increase in claims for language recognition by minority groups representing a considerable population (such as Catalan in Spain and Welsh in the UK). Additionally, there is a developing situation surrounding the official use of English within the European Union in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. In light of these two contexts, this book focuses on the degree of legal protection afforded to linguistic groups in the European Union. It will be of interest to students and scholars of language policy, EU law, minority languages and sociolinguistics.

Author: Fernand de Varennes
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004479252
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 552

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Book Description
One of the most vexing issues in many of the world's so-called ethnic or minority conflicts is the question of language use by the State and its citizens. While international and national law has traditionally viewed language preference to be within a State's prerogative - at least when involving governmental activities and machinery - this position has proved to be a continuous source of acrimony and conflict, and wrong in some respects. Language, Minorities, and Human Rights is the most complete book ever written on the topic, providing for the first time an analysis of every aspect of language and the law. In addition to presenting a theoretical model for language's particular position and relevance in human rights, it constitutes an invaluable reference document by including the provisions of close to 100 international, multilateral and bilateral instruments involving language rights, as well as the constitutional provisions of 140 countries dealing with language. By addressing little explored areas such as the language rights of indigenous peoples, non-citizens and even the use of script, in addition to more traditional topics such as nationalism and language, freedom of expression and non-discrimination, Language, Minorities and Human Rights proposes a complete descriptive picture of language and human rights as well as proposing a number of suggestions on how to address and balance the many problems currently caused by the linguistic demands of various individuals and the interests of states in nation building.

Author: Sandra Del Valle
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 9781853596582
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
A comprehensive review of the legal status of minority languages in the USA. It also provides the historical and political context for the legal manoeuvring that culminated in landmark civil rights victories. All of the major cases in the USA concerning language rights are discussed in detail and in a manner that should be easily accessible to the non-legal audience. The topics range from the English-only movement to consumer law, and from employment discrimination to international law.

Author: Alexandra Grey
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501512552
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
China has had constitutional minority language rights for decades, but what do they mean today? Answering with nuance and empirical detail, this book examines the rights through a sociolinguistic study of Zhuang, the language of China’s largest minority group. The analysis traces language policy from the Constitution to local government practices, investigating how Zhuang language rights are experienced as opening or restricting socioeconomic opportunity. The study finds that language rights do not challenge ascendant marketised and mobility-focused language ideologies which ascribe low value to Zhuang. However, people still value a Zhuang identity validated by government policy and practice. Rooted in a Bourdieusian approach to language, power and legal discourse, this is the first major publication to integrate contemporary debates in linguistics about mobility, capitalism and globalization into a study of China’s language policy. The book refines Grey’s award-winning doctoral dissertation, which received the Joshua A. Fishman Award in 2018. The judges said the study “decenter[s] all types of sociolinguistic assumptions." It is a thought-provoking work on minority rights and language politics, relevant beyond China.

Author: Will Kymlicka
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191586110
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Disputes over language policy are a persistent feature of the political life of many states around the world. Multilingual countries in the West such as Belgium, Spain, Switzerland and Canada have long histories of conflict over language rights. In many countries in Eastern Europe and the Third World, efforts to construct common institutions and a shared identity have been severely complicated by linguistic diversity. Indigenous languages around the world are in danger of disappearing. Even in the United States, where English is widely accepted as the language of public life, the linguistic rights of Spanish-speakers are hotly-contested. Not surprisingly, therefore, political theorists have started to examine questions of language policy, and how they relate to broader issues of democracy, justice and rights. This volume provides the reader with an up-to-date overview of the emerging debates over the role of language rights and linguistic diversity within political theory. It brings together many of the leading political theorists who work in the field, together with some of the most important social scientists, with the aim of exploring how political theorists can conceptualize issues of language rights and contribute to public debates on language policy. Questions of language policy are not only of enormous political importance in many countries, but also help to illuminate some of the most important debates in contemporary political theory, including questions of citizenship, deliberative democracy, nationalism, multiculturalism, identity politics, group rights, the liberal-communitarian debate, and so on. The thirteen essays in this volume highlight both the empirical constraints and normative complexities of language policy, and identify the important challenges and opportunities that linguistic diversity raises for contemporary political theory.