ANTH 217 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Political Question, Language Change, Language Shift
Document Summary
Language obsolescence: the complete displacement of one language by another in a population of speakers. 90% of the world"s population speaks the 100 most used languages. 10% of the world"s population speak the rest of the world"s languages: small population speaks a large amount of languages, large population speaks a small amount of languages. An official language is a language that is given a unique status in the constitution of countries, states and other territories. It is typically the language used in a nation"s legislative bodies. Total number of official languages = less than 100. English is official in more than 70 countries. French has official or co-official status in 29. This reflects the balance of power in global linguistic market place. Refers to relative importance of language as a commodity/resource. Stable bilingualism: two languages don"t interfere with each other(generation all learn two languages[german])
