Abstract:
This chapter explores the issue of language rights for ethnolinguistic minorities in modern nation-states. It examines why the nation-state system has privileged national languages at the expense of minority languages and why it continues to be preoccupied with the establishment and reinforcement of public monolingualism. Drawing on both sociolinguistics and political theory, the chapter argues that recognizing and expanding the rights of minority language speakers allow for the rethinking of nation-states in more culturally and linguistically diverse ways. This better reflects the interests of the increasingly multilingual populations of nation-states, particularly in this era of globalization, while also better acknowledging the postmodernist emphasis on multiple linguistic identities.
