Language Minorities

Definition of Terms

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 “victorious language” that has emerged through complex historical processes and the elimination or subordination of other languages or dialects. Therefore, one should understand language in a broad sense, including even nonspeech forms of communication, especially sign languages.

The concept of minority is equally in need of clarification. Rather than using a merely arithmetical criterion, one should indicate by this term any nondominant group in a given political context. Minority language is, therefore, any symbolic system of communication in a local, national, or international context in which the official language is another language. By this definition, most languages are minority languages in most countries (even if people do not recognize them as such). Similarly, in a global context, one could argue that all languages other than English are minority languages.

Becoming a Minority Language

A language can arrive at a minority status in many ways. Historically, the most important ways are the following.

First, rulers made one language the official or state language in order to facilitate the administration of a large empire. Typically, one regional language (for example, Castilian in Spain) gained this dominant, symbolic status in the course of building a nationstate or empire. Rulers in Castile neglected other languages or, worse, repressed or relegated them to the status of mere dialects. Ideologically, some scholars buttressed this trend with romantic theories. For example, Johann Herder (1744–1803) identified Volk(or a people) with “language.” In this context, linguistic minorities are likely to think about secession and the creation of their own nation-state. One option of the host state is to grant one or more minority languages the status of an official state language. For instance, the South African Constitution enumerates eleven official languages.

Second, international agreements may subdivide or extend existing nation-states, especially after major wars. Therefore, homogeneous cultural and linguistic groups sometimes find themselves on both sides of a national border and have to abide by the official language of the particular state. Their main option, apart from fighting to reverse the takeover, is to gain the status of a protected minority in the new state. After the First World War, states followed this last option in five so-called minority treaties, concluded between the Allied Powers and some of the newly established or enlarged states.

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