Edited by Hans-Ingo Radatz
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 27] 2020
► pp. 71–84
When we accept that languages condition the well-being of speakers, how should we reconsider the concept of “language”? Does it only refer to the official language, the one that is used as a reference to situate ourselves in one place or another within the social structure, or does it also refer to all the other registers and dialects contained within it? If linguistic well-being depends on a satisfactory relationship between spaces of interaction, identities and lects, then linguistic rights should not only look at languages (this deals with interlinguistic rights), but also at all the underlying linguistic material, that is to say, at dialects, registers, oral languages (this deals with intralinguistic rights). A language is somewhat like a Russian doll: each figure is a doll, but when they are one inside the other, they are not a doll, they are a matryoshka, which is a different thing.