Minority language

From Free net encyclopedia

A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a country.

In Europe and in some other parts of the world, like in Canada, minority languages are often defined by legislation or constitutional documents and afforded some form of official support. The term, for example, appears in the Constitution of Canada in the heading above section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees minority language educational rights.

Some minority languages are simultaneously also official languages, including the Irish language (Gaelic) in the Republic of Ireland. Likewise, some national languages are minority languages, insofar as they are the national language of a stateless nation.

Controversy

Minority languages are occasionally marginalised within nations for a number of reasons. These include the small number of speakers, the decline in the number of speakers, and their occasional consideration as uncultured, primitive, or simple dialects when compared to the dominant language. They are also occasionally viewed as a threat, for example the rise of Celtic languages in the UK (Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Cornish) is viewed by some to be support for separatism, thus as a threat to the political establishment. Immigrant minority languages are often also seen as a threat and as indicative of the non-integration of these communities. Both of these perceived threats are based on the notion of the exclusion of the majority language speakers. Often this is added to by political systems by not providing support (such as education and policing) in these languages.

In Brazil there are many minority languages, for example, Guaraní, an Amerindian language, Riograndenser Hunsrückisch and Italian or Talian. In other words, some of these languages are native to the region or spoken by the region's indigenous peoples, others are the so-called immigrant languages. However, there is this belief amongst some of the Brazilian population and in the minds of some Brazilian intellectual circles that only Portuguese is really spoken in the land... that any other languages are insignificant, that is if they indeed do exist.

Signed languages are often not recognized as true natural languages even though they are supported by extensive research. In the United States, for example, American Sign Language is the most used indigenous language yet almost the only indigenous language which lacks official government recognition.

See also

• Regional language
• European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
• German as a Minority Language
• Language policy
• Language revival
• Sign Languageca:Llengua minoritària

eo:Minoritata lingvo fr:Langue minoritaire nl:Minderheidstaal