Does officiality secure the future of a language? Does
independence warrant
the presence of a language in all the social fields? In what ways
can
multilingualism be organized? What kind of a relation can there be
between language, nation
and state?
These questions, among others, will be discussed focusing on
Catalan. Catalan is spoken by approximately 10 million speakers in
four different European states. It is one of the twenty most used
languages on the Internet; present in various fields and official
in some regions. Despite that, in the Catalan speaking zone other
languages are still more usual; a general feeling of language
endangerment exists; some regional individuals and institutions
disagree on the identity of the language; and some confusions arise
from the limited scope of officiality.
Other contexts will also be considered, thus getting an approach
to the most general concepts regarding society and language in a
multilingual European context.
Initial structure:
1. Catalan context and general concepts on sociolinguistics
2. Language diversity, ideologies and attitudes
3. Languages in contact
4. Bilingualism and multilingualism
5. Substitution and language maintenance
6. Language policies and language laws
7. Language in different domains. Analysis
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