Language Loss and the Ethnic Identity of Minorities
Publisher: ECMI Volume: 16 pages, pdf Description: With the enlargement of the European Union, language, as a crucial element of ethnic identity, has recently again advanced to the focus of the European political and social stage. In the European tradition, language has become a major marker of belonging to a particular ethnic or national group. Recent conflicts in South Eastern Europe, but also along regional borders in Western Europe - as in Catalunya or Corsica - have often revolved around issues of language. These conflicts have demonstrated that the reality in most European countries differs from the traditional image of linguistically homogeneous states and is further questioned by the demand for recognition by regional speakers who have become ethnic or regional minorities in this nation-state system.