Cross-nationally, urbanization is associated with the decline of minority languages and a shift towards national and official languages. But the processes that link urbanization with language shift have not been adequately documented. In this paper we consider the relationship between cities and language shift from a sociolinguistic perspective,…

Studies the links between cultural diversity within a country and that country's export performance and identifies the basis for such a relationship. Findings indicate that any association between the growth in ethnic groups in Australia and the direction and growth of Australian exports towards recent emigrant countries is weak and irregular. (29…

Examines statistics on minority illiteracy from the 1990 Chinese national census across age groups in relation to China's changing language policy among three types of minority communities: those with writing systems of historically broad usage; those with historically limited usage; and those without functional writing systems. (Author/VWL)

Analyzes the self-report questions on language and ethnicity used in population censuses. Attempts to show the methodological consequences of specific question phrasings for the measurement of language maintenance and shift and of ethnic group maintenance and assimilation. Supports the analysis with examples from U.S. and Canadian censuses. (SED)