This volume presents a comprehensive introduction to the connection between language and ethnicity. Since the "ethnic revival" of the last twenty years, there has been a substantial and interdisciplinary change in our understanding of the connection between these fundamental aspects of our identity. The distinguished sociolinguist Joshua Fishman has commissioned over 25 previously unpublished papers on every facet of the subject. The volume is divided into two sections, the first examining disciplinary perspectives on the subject; the second uses the prism of geography, looking at the subject...

A selection of Professor Fishman's writings, during the past two decades, on language and ethnicity in minority perspective, this volume concentrates on six major topics: - What is ethnicity and how is it linked to language? - Language maintenance and language shift in ethnocultural perspective - The ethnic dimension in language planning - Language and ethnicity in education: the bilingual minority focus - Elites and rank-and-file: contrasts and contexts - Ethnolinguistic homogeneity and heterogeneity: national and international causes and consequences. Each major topic is prefaced by a...

Defenders of threatened languages all over the world, from advocates of biodiversity to dedicated defenders of their own cultural authenticity, are often humbled by the immensity of the task that they are faced with when the weak and the few seek to find a safe-harbour against the ravages of the strong and the many. This book provides both practical case studies and theoretical directions from all five continents and advances thereby the collective pursuit of reversing language shift for the greater benefit of cultural democracy everywhere.