Reflection on a Multidisciplinary Approach to “Minority Languages” as a Linguistic Object in Europe

Abstract

The theme of minority languages includes the idea of functional asymmetry, often present in relationships between linguistic expressions, although such contact must be considered broadly by including “languages” as well as language variants at any level or, in a more common way, as “lects”. So, we first refer here to “languages”, being linguistic expressions that can be distinguished from that mass of lects as emergent and institutionally recognized forms. This paper, after reminding the meanings of terms such as “minority”, “minoritized”, as well as language minoritization and, conversely, linguistic revitalization processes. Quantitative in demolinguistic terms or qualitative in terms of status, which characterizes the primary meaning of “minority language” is combined with the difficulties of the implementation in its favor of language planning measures. As a result, the minority language has become a complex object that remains fundamentally sociolinguistic, initially as well as on arrival, but which requires a multidisciplinary approach that is as coordinated as possible with those of law, political sciences, psycholinguistics and didactics.