Language and Minority Rights: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Politics of Language

The first edition of Language and Minority Rights, an outstanding interdisciplinary analysis of the questions and issues concerning minority language rights in modern nation-states, is now regarded as a key benchmark in the field of language rights and language policy, drawing together debates on language from widely different academic fields, including the sociology of language, ethnicity and nationalism, sociolinguistics, social and political theory, education, history and law, and illustrating these debates via a wealth of different national contexts and examples.

The second edition of this provocative and groundbreaking book is a timely and useful revision of its core arguments and examples, addressing new theoretical and empirical developments since its initial publication. Stephen May’s basic position, however, remains unchanged – he argues for a non-essentialist understanding of language rights, while at the same time outlining why language rights are both necessary and legitimate, particularly for minority groups. This volume is essential reading for students, teachers and researchers in the sociology of language, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, language policy and planning, sociology, politics, and education.