Linguistic Human Rights (LHR) is a fast growing new area of study combining the principles of national and international law with the study of language as a central dimension of ethnicity. Implementation of these principles is aimed at ensuring that no state or society violates these basic rights.
This path breaking study broadens our knowledge of the important role of language in minority rights and in social and political struggles for LHRs. Exploring the interactions of linguistic diversity, biodiversity, the free market and human rights, the contributors present case studies to highlight such issues as Kurdish satellite TV attempting to create a virtual state on the air through trying to achieve basic LHR’s for Kurds in Turkey; the implementation of LHRs in the Baltic states; language rights activism in Canada; the spread of English as an international language; and the obstacles met in education by Roma and the Deaf in Hungary because of lack of appropriate LHRs.
Language: A Right and a Resource is a valuable multi-disciplinary text which can be used in a variety of different areas of study in the legal profession, linguistics, cultural and political studies.
Tibor Várady is professor emeritus at Emory University, and professor emeritus at the Central European University. Parallel with his scholarly work, he published prose works and essays in several languages including fourteen literary books.
Robert Phillipson is Associate Professor of English at the University of Roskilde, Denmark, is the author of Linguistic Imperialism, Oxford University Press, 1992, and the editor of Rights to Language: Equity, Power and Education, in press, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas is Associate Professor at the University of Roskilde, Denmark and part-time Reader in Minority Education and Linguistic Human Rights at the University of Ostrobothnia, Abo Akademi, Finland. She is the author of Linguistic genocide in Education: survival or linguistic diversity? In press, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Miklós Kontra is Professor of Linguistics at , and Head of the Department of Sociolinguistics in the Linguistics Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest.
List of maps
list of tables
List of Figures
List of Contributors
Acknowledgement
Introduction
Conceptualizing & implementing LHRs (Miklós Kontra, Tibor Várady, Robert Phillipson, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas)
GENERAL ISSUES
International languages and international human rights (Robert Phillipson)
Heroes, rebels, communities and states in language rights activism and litigation (Angéline Martel)
“Don’t speak Hungarian in public!”—A documentation and analysis of folk linguistic rights (Miklós Kontra)
The common language problem (Mart Rannut)
LEGAL ISSUES
Existing rights of minorities and international law (Fernand de Varennes)
The Slovak state language law (Bart Driessen)
MARKET ISSUES
Market forces, language spread and linguistic diversity (François Grin)
Linguistic diversity, human rights and the “free” market (Tove Skutnabb-Kangas)
Language rights in the emerging world linguistic order: The state, the market and Communication technologies (Amir Hassanpour)
LANGUAGE PLANNING ISSUES
Separating language from ethnicity: The paradoxes of strict language policies and increasing social harmony in the Baltic States (Uldis Ozolins)
Language policy in a changing society: problematic issues in the implementation of International Linguistic Human Rights standards (Ina Druviete)
EDUCATION & ETHNICITY ISSUES
The recognition of sign language: A threat or the way to a Solution? (István Muzsnai)
LHRs problems among Romani and Boyash speakers of Hungary among Romani and Boyash speakers in Hungary with Special Attention to education (Andrea Szalai)
Contempt for LHR in the service of the Catholic Church (Klára Sándor)
Index
