MINORITY

LANGUAGE
WHAT IS MINORITY
LANGUAGE?

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MINORITY LANGUAGE

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 The term “minority language” enjoys a
natural, but problematic, definition. In
the most straightforward sense, a
minority language is simply one spoken
by less than 50 percent of a population in
a given region, state or country.

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The key criterion here is the size of the
speaker population within a specific
geographic context: an individual
language may be a minority language
in one region or state but a majority
language in another

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THE TERM MINORITY LANGUAGE IS

USED TO DESCRIBE “LANGUAGES THAT
HAVE NO STANDARDIZED
ORTHOGRAPHIES, STANDARD VARIETIES,
WRITTEN LITERATURE AND
METALANGUAGES”
(EMENANJO, 1990; BLEAMBO, 1999)

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 ACCORDING TO THORNBERRY (2004), IN THEIR

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REPORT ON MINORITY LANGUAGES IN EUROPE ,
THE TERM MINORITY LANGUAGE REFERS TO
LANGUAGES THAT ARE TRADITIONALLY USED
WITHIN GIVEN TERRITORY OF A STATE BY
NATIONALS OF THAT STATE WHO FORM A GROUP
NUMERICALLY SMALLER THAN THE REST OF THE
STATE’S POPULATION AND WHICH IS DIFFERENT
FROM THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE STATE

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