The aspects of the de jure or overt language policy attract many researchers, which is reasonable given the importance of legislation in nation-building. Scholars also pay attention to the de facto and covert language policies, which include informal and non-written aspects of language policy that can shed light on practical problems on the…

In this paper, we present Singapore's language policy as a case of flexible responsiveness to demographic and societal shifts as a result of high migration. The particular need to accommodate the enhanced linguistic diversity among the linguistically heterogeneous Indians, previously served by Tamil, has led to the "semiofficial"…

Two social roles for language have been distinguished by Edwards--the communicative and the symbolic. Using data from a survey of public attitudes to Gaelic in Scotland, the article investigates the extent to which people's view of language may be characterised as relating to these roles. Respondents were grouped, using statistical cluster…

Responds to an article by Strubell, "Language, Democracy, and Devolution in Catalonia," arguing that the nationalism that already exists is viewed as the norm and suggesting that the Catalan nationalism and its attempts at affirmative action are menacing. The paper worries that demographic realities might push Catalan nationalism into…

Data-based analysis of the language situation among the Circassian ethnic minority group is presented in this paper. All internal, external, ethnopolitical, sociolinguistic and demographic factors influencing this situation are examined. It is argued that although most empirical evidence indicates a gradual process of ethnic language attrition and…

Argues that in Europe over several centuries, the relationship between democracy and language policy in multilingual countries has been complex, noting that Catalan has thrived in democratic periods where devolution has advanced, and the causes of most problems facing Catalan are nonlinguistic. The paper examines language and democracy, language…

Focuses on issues raised in the late 1990's by the debate about the second major piece of language legislation in Catalonia. Catalonia is a region where devolution and language policies in favor of regional language may have reached limits that are not so much imposed by the national state as by demographic developments within Catalonia itself and…

The aim of this paper is to study the Finnish spoken in the Swedish Torne Valley, its use and development during the 1960s and the 1990s, and how it differs now from the Finnish spoken in the same area in the early 1960s. The study also examines which people speak Finnish in this valley today and in what contexts, as well as how the Finnish…

Socioeconomic profiles of two Canadian communities are presented in which the language spoken, an official language, is also a minority language: the French-speaking Acadian minority in an area of Prince Edward Island, and an anglophone minority in the Gaspe Peninsula. The profiles are designed to establish a comparative base from which to assess…

The report explores the situation of francophone minorities in Canada and outside Quebec, focusing on the concepts of assimilation and community vitality in language-minority communities. Chapter 1 looks at the concepts of assimilation and community vitality both in Canada and internationally. Chapter 2 gives a broad description of the policy…

This book analyzes the evolution of the language situation in Canada over the last 45 years, drawing heavily from census data taken between 1951 and 1996. Chapters discuss: the evolution of the English language in Canada, including the size and distribution of the English native-language population, use of English as a home language, knowledge of…

Addresses three critical issues challenging South African and U.S. efforts to improve teacher quality: equity, demographics, and violence. Both countries want education to ameliorate long-standing racial inequities by improving teacher qualifications; both face increasing enrollments and teacher shortages; and both have high crime rates. (Contains…

This paper analyzes the demographic, sociolinguistic, and educational status of Basque in the whole of the Basque country: the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC), Navarre in Spain, and the Northern Basque Country in France. It also discusses English as a third language within the bilingual educational system in the BAC. In terms of demography, 22%…

This report contains tabular presentations of trends in national and provincial statistics on Canadian families. Included are: (1) changes in demographic characteristics from the 1970s to the 1990s; (2) population by age group; (3) ethnic heritage; (4) mother tongue; (5) religion; (6) rural/urban living arrangements; (7) living alone or living in…

This paper reviews previous social science knowledge about non-English speaking background (NESB) immigrant communities in rural Australia with the aim of systematising what has been a diverse and fragmented literature. We propose a number of unifying themes which suggest the outlines of an emerging social science of ethnic minorities in rural…