Language Conflict and Language Rights

William D. Davies is Professor and Chair of Linguistics at the University of Iowa. He has published four books, three edited volumes, and sixty-seven articles and book chapters, largely on the morphology and syntax of various languages, including Balinese, Basque, Choctaw, English, Fula, Javanese, Madurese, Sundanese, and Telugu. He is also an Associate Editor of Oceanic Linguistics. Stanley Dubinsky is a Professor of Linguistics and former director of the Linguistics Program at the University of South Carolina. He has published three books, four edited volumes, and sixty-one articles and book chapters on the syntax and semantics of various languages, including English, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, and two Bantu languages (Chichewa and Lingala).

• Introduction; Part I. Language and the Speaker: 1. The sounds and sounds systems of language; 2. Words and word structure; 3. Grammar and the organization of words into expressions; 4. Language change and variation – languages vs. dialects; Glossary for Part I; Further readings and resources for Part I; Part II. Language in the World: 5. Language and personal identity – personal names in the world; 6. Language and cultural identity – language and thought; 7. Language and national identity; 8. The role of writing systems; 9. Framing language rights in the context of human rights; Further readings and resources for Part II; Part III. A Typology of Language Conflicts: Introduction to Part III; 10. Indigenous minorities; 11. Geopolitical minorities; 12. Minorities of migration; 13. Intra-linguistic (dialectal) minorities; 14. Competition for linguistic dominance; Further readings and resources for Part III; Part IV. Language Endangerment, Extinction, and Revival: 15. Linguistic taxonomy, ecology, and ownership; 16. Language revitalization and revival; Further readings and resources for Part IV; References; Language index; Country/territory index; General index.

'This book will be a delight to teach, learn from or just read. Davies and Dubinsky have given us an extremely useful introduction to the vast and topical field of language conflicts and language rights. After a review of basic notions in linguistic science for the non-professional reader, they take up the issues of identity, language rights in the context of human rights, and present a typology of language conflicts. These include indigenous minorities such as the Sami in Norway or the Ainu in Japan, geopolitical minorities like the Hungarians in Slovakia or Hispanics in Southwest US, migrating minorities such as the Roma in Europe and Puerto Ricans in the US, then intra-linguistic minorities like African American English speakers in the US, and finally, conflicts arising from competition for linguistic dominance are discussed in detail, e.g. Flemish vs. Walloons in Belgium and French vs. English in Canada. Carefully planned, well researched and reader-friendly, this textbook will be used profitably on any continent where university courses are offered on the life and death of human languages and the fate of their speakers.' Miklós Kontra, Károli Gáspár University, Budapest, Hungary