The common market of the South is a new linguistic and cultural area. The resurgence of innermost identities within member states proves that Mercosur identity can neither be universal nor specific. The outcome of this quest for identity will depend on the ability to carefully handle an area of cultural diversity and a place of common allegiance…

Examines why language planners in the Philippines argue the way they do concerning critical language issues in the country. Suggests discursive "strategies of forgetting" are employed across complex structures of relations shaped by decades of colonialization, Filipino elite collaboration, and current neocolonial and global conditions.…

Distinguishing between language management and language policy, examines the politics of language in Benin from independence to the present. Describes the politics of language in Dahomey, the early policies of Benin, and the Republican politics of language, arising from the national constitutional convention and striving to address the needs of…

Provides a brief discussion of the historical use of language policy and language planning in the South African context and explores recent developments in South Africa with respect to language policy. Identifies and discusses possible lessons for efforts to promote linguistic diversity in multilingual settings. (Author/VWL)

The new English translation of Paolo Rossi's classic study, "Logic and the Art of Memory," presents a useful opportunity to examine contemporary efforts to understand what its subtitle calls "the quest for universal language." At the same time, a seventeenth-century philosophical romance, Thomas Urquhart's, "Jewel," affords a good test case for…

Proposes two new models of language planning. The first develops a three-level view of language planning and aims to develop a more strategic approach. The second, the Integrated Planning model, is designed to facilitate a comprehensive and integrative approach to reinforcing targeted languages. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the fifth volume of the "Etimologia Vortaro de Esperanto" (Etymological Dictionary of Esperanto). The dictionary provides not only the etynom of each Esperanto term, but also the etymology of the ethnic language words from which the editor derived the terms in question. (Author/VWL)

Language emerges and changes primarily through communication; therefore communication technologies play a key role in the history of language change. With writing losing its earlier hegemony over communication, the question arises as to whether this will lead to the erosion of human language and thought. (Author/VWL)

The linguistically mixed marriage stands at he crossroads of important factors in the future of French in North American and Catalan in Europe: reversing language shift. While Quebec and Catalonia appear strikingly similar, strong evidence indicates that demographic, linguistic, socioeconomic, and even lifestyle factors may make linguistic exogamy…

Catalogues the various diacritics that are used for spelling different languages, describing what they look like and what they are used for. Also analyzes the problems of using accented letters in a multilingual computing environment and discusses the extent to which these problems have been resolved, with particular reference to Unicode.…

Group autonomy is often invoked as a tool to accommodate linguistic diversity and remedy potential conflicts in multilingual societies. Analyzes two different modes of group autonomy--namely territorial and personal models--and assesses their ability to adequately respond to demands of linguistic recognition. (Author/VWL)

Examines the expanding role of English in the world and considers whether it is necessary and should be reversed. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the study of the unprecedented revival of the Hebrew language in Palestine during 1890-1914. The study focused on status planning but corpus planning also served as a critical component. Examines codification during the revitalization period. (Author/VWL)

This case study of non-Jewish support of Yiddishism in Estonia examines the arguments Paul Ariste--a famous Estonian linguist who learned Yiddish as a young man--used in a Yiddish-language speech in the general context of Yiddishist ideology. (Author/VWL)

Discusses legislation aiming to protect the Greek Language in Cyprus. The shift from a laissez-faire attitude toward legal intervention in the 1980s is examined in reference to a set of interrelated factors that distinguish this period from previous periods of history in Cyprus. (Author/VWL)