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Description:
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Current academic discussions and public debates frequently focus on the
importance of defending languages against various kinds of dangers. Many
focus on defending institutionalized languages against multilingualism, or
conversely defending minority languages against the incursion of larger
ones. This book challenges such a view, to argue that the discussions in
question are not about language itself, but rather that we are witnessing,
on the terrain of language, ideological struggles which are centrally about
the position of nation states and of minorities in the new globalized world
order. Covering a wide-range of languages from different sociolinguistic
perspectives, this book is essential reading for academics interested in
language endangerment and sociolinguistics.
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