Minority languages are part of the continent's shared cultural heritage and there is a broad consensus that it is important to protect and encourage linguistic and cultural diversity during the process of continuing European integration. But what legislative and policy instruments can be effective? Are there conflicts between language rights and the social policy demands of nation building? How are general European concerns reflected or challenged within individual countries? This volume illustrates the intellectually productive debate among sociolinguists, linguistic anthropologists, language activists and policy makers. The contributions focus on the current status of minority languages within a 'Europe of the regions', the future prospects for minority languages in the continuing process of European integration, and the effectiveness or otherwise of current national and European frameworks in ensuring future linguistic and cultural diversity.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures Preface Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors PART I: INTRODUCTION Minority Languages in Europe: An Introduction to the Current Debate; G.Hogan-Brun & S.Wolff When a Language is 'Just Symbolic': Reconsidering the Significance of Language to the Politics of Identity; C.O'Reilly PART II: LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORKS Devising an Adequate System of Minority Protection in the Area of Language Rights; K.Henrard Facilitating or Generating Linguistic Diversity: The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages; M.N.Craith The Practitioner's Perspective: Minority Languages and Linguistic Minorities in the Work of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities; J.Packer PART III: CASE STUDIES Ethnic Germans as a Language Minority in Central and Eastern Europe: Legislative and Policy Frameworks in Poland, Hungary and Romania; S.Wolff & K.Cordell Baltic National Minorities in a Transitional Setting; G.Hogan-Brun Politics and Language Rights: A Case Study of Language Politics in Croatia; V.Pupavac 'Minor' Needs or the Ambiguous Power of Translation; C.Millan-Varela On Policies and Prospects for British Sign Language; G.H.Turner The Changing Status of Romani in Europe; D.W.Halwachs PART IV: CONCLUSION Language, Nationalism and Democracy in Europe; S.May Index

Author Biography

GABRIELLE HOGAN-BRUN FIL is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, UK. Her research fields are language and migration, language ideologies, language policy, with particular focus on Central/Eastern Europe. Among her main recent publications are Language Policies and Practices in the Baltic States (with U. Ozolins, M. RamonienAo & M. Rannut, in polity series of Current Issues in Language Planning, 2007), the guest-edited the special journal issues Language and Social Processes in the Baltic States surrounding EU Accession (in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2005), and Baltic Sociolinguistic Review (in Journal of Baltic Studies, 2005). She is Editor of the journal Current Issues in Language Planning, and of the book series Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities. She has also directed the British Academy funded Baltic Language and Integration Network (BLaIN; www.blain-online.org). STEFAN WOLFF is Professor of Political Science at the University of Nottingham, UK, where he also directs the Centre for International Crisis Management and Conflict Resolution. He has written extensively on ethnic conflict and conflict resolution, and his publications include Disputed Territories: The Transnational Dynamics of Ethnic Conflict Settlement (2002), Managing and Settling Ethnic Conflicts (2002, with Ulrich Schneckener), The Ethnopolitical Encyclopaedia of Europe (2004, with Karl Cordell), Autonomy, Self-governance and Conflict Resolution (2005, with Marc Weller), and Ethnic Conflict: A Global Perspective (2006). He is co-chair of the Specialist Group on Ethnopolitics of the UK's Political Studies Association and the founding editor of the group's journal Ethnopolitics.