A historical survey of French regional language legislation and analysis of the present state of the seven regional idioms in education, media, and government are used to illustrate the languages' severe persecution and contamination. Organizations promoting the less-used languages and the upcoming barrier-free European market accord are…

The theory and practice of assistance to speech communities whose native languages are threatened are examined. The discussion focuses on why most efforts to reverse language shift are unsuccessful or even harmful, diagnosing difficulties and prescribing alternatives based on a combination of ethnolinguistic, sociocultural, and econotechnical…

This regional dossier aims to provide concise, descriptive information and basic educational statistics about minority language education in a specific region of the European Union--the southwestern part of France, also known as the North Basque country. Details are provided about the features of the educational system, recent educational…

On the basis of detailed analyses of 10 threatened language-in-society constellations and three formerly endangered but now secure constellations, this book develops a closely argued theory of worldwide efforts on behalf of reversing language shift (RLS). It also applies this same line of reasoning to the problems of maintaining the…