Survival and Development of Language Communities

F. Xavier Vila is an associate professor in the Department of Catalan Philology and Director of the University Centre for Sociolinguistics and Communication at the Universitat de Barcelona. He has published widely in the areas of sociolinguistics, demolinguistics and language policy, including Survival and Development of Language Communities: Prospects and Challenges (Multilingual Matters, 2013).

• 1. F. Xavier Vila and Vanessa Bretxa: The Analysis of Medium-Sized Language Communities 2. Jiří Nekvapil: The Main Challenges Facing Czech as a Medium-Sized Language: The State of Affairs at the Beginning of the 21st Century 3. J. Normann Jørgensen: Challenges Facing Danish as a Medium-Sized Language 4. Maja Bitenc: Slovene, between Purism and Plurilingualism 5. Anat Stavans: Challenges Faced by a Medium-Sized Language Community (MSLC) in the 20th Century: The Case of Hebrew 6. Delaney Michael Skerrett: Challenges for the Estonian Language: A Poststructuralist Perspective 7. Uldis Ozolins: A Small National Language and its Multilingual Challenges: The Case of Latvian 8. Emili Boix-Fuster and Jaume Farràs I Farràs: Is Catalan a Medium-Sized Language Community too? 9. F. Xavier Vila: Challenges and Opportunities for MSLCs in the 21st Century: A (Preliminary) Synthesis

Just as growing interest in scale challenges the theoretical dichotomy of micro-macro, the conceptualization of medium-sized languages allows a fresh approach to varieties that are more robust than 'endangered' minority languages but too small to seem secure, much less 'dominant'. This volume brings welcome views of linguistic sustainability within a globalized market economy and multilingual societies.