Article published in:
Revisiting Linguistic Territoriality in Contemporary Europe
Edited by Till Burckhardt, John Coakley and László Marácz
[Language Problems and Language Planning 45:2] 2021
► pp. 121–141

Linguistic territoriality under stress

European perspectives

| Université de Genève
| Queen’s University Belfast | University College Dublin
| University of Amsterdam
This article revisits a well-known dichotomy (the ‘territorial’ and ‘personal’ principles) and develops a four-element classification of state approaches (from the most generous to the most menacing, from the perspective of speakers of minority languages). The article examines the implications for language policy of geographically dispersed or spatially concentrated patterns of distribution of speakers of particular languages. We begin by exploring the general literature on language policy, focusing in particular on the territorial and personal principles, the use of ‘threshold rules’ at municipal and other subnational levels, and the hybrid language regimes that are often a consequence of sociolinguistic complexity. We consider the extent to which responses to linguistic diversity across Europe may be understood by reference to these principles and categories. We explain why we have selected particular case studies (the Baltic republics, Transylvania, Switzerland, Belgium and Ireland) for further exploration. We conclude that, notwithstanding the value of the typologies we consider, real-life cases are almost invariably more complex, with states implementing policies that defy categorisation, that may change over time, and that may treat different language minorities by reference to different principles.
Keywords: language policy, jus sanguinis , jus soli , personality principle, territoriality, non-territorial autonomy, hybrid systems
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 24 November 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.00074.bur

Full-text

Linguistic territoriality under stress
References

References

Alesina, A., Baqir, R., & Easterly, W.
(1999) Public goods and ethnic divisions. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(4), 1243–1284. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Alesina, A., Devleeschauwer, A., Easterly, W., Kurlat, S., & Wacziarg, R.
(2003) Fractionalization. Journal of Economic Growth, 8(2), 155–194. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Aparicio Fenoll, A., & Kuehn, Z.
(2016) Does foreign language proficiency foster migration of young individuals within the European Union? In: M. Gazzola and B.-A. Wickström (Eds.), The economics of language policy (pp. 331–355). Cambridge (MA)/London: MIT Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Arcand, J.-L., & Grin, F.
(2013) Language in economic development: Is English special and is linguistic fragmentation bad?, in E. Erling and P. Seargeant (Eds.), English and Development: Policy, Pedagogy and Globalization (pp. 243–266). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Badie, B.
(2014) La fin des territoires: Essai sur le désordre international et sur l’utilité sociale du respect. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Barkey, K., & Gavrilis, G.
(2016) The Ottoman millet system: Non-territorial autonomy and its contemporary legacy. Ethnopolitics 15(1), 24–42. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Batory, A.
(2010) Kin-state identity in the European context: Citizenship, nationalism and constitutionalism in Hungary. Nations and Nationalism, 16(1), 31–48. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bowring, B.
(1994) Report of a Second Mission to the Republic of Latvia on behalf of the Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’homme and the Bar of England and Wales Human Rights Committee. London: Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’homme.Google Scholar
Brubaker, R.
(1992) Citizenship and nationhood in France and Germany. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
(1996) Nationalising states in the old ‘new Europe’ – and the new. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 19(2), 411–437. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Burckhardt, T.
(2018) Linguistic disenfranchisement and labour mobility in Europe. In: M. Gazzola, B.-A. Wickström and T. Templin (Eds.), Language policy and linguistic justice: Economics, philosophical and sociolinguistic approaches. (pp. 313–335). New York/Berlin: Springer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2021) Linguistic territoriality in Switzerland: Exploring the roots of a constitutional principle. Language Problems and Language Planning, 45(3), 188–218.Google Scholar
Burckhardt, T., & Gazzola, M.
(2018) Le plurilinguisme européen après le Brexit. Quels effets sur la participation démocratique et la mobilité des citoyens européens ? in J.-C. Barbier (Ed.), Un retour des nations en Europe ? Réflexions sur la crise politique de l’Union européenne (p. 75–103). Paris: La Documentation Française.Google Scholar
Cardinal, L., & Léger, R.
(2017) La complétude institutionnelle en perspective. Politique et Sociétés, 36(3), 3–14. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2018) The politics of multilingualism in Canada: A neo-institutional approach. In: P. A. Kraus and F. Grin (Eds.), The politics of multilingualism (pp. 19–37). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cardinal, L., & Sonntag, S.
(2015a) Traditions étatiques et régimes linguistiques: Comment et pourquoi s’ opèrent les choix de politiques linguistiques? Revue internationale de politique comparée, 22(1), 115–131. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cardinal, L., & Sonntag, S. K.
(Eds.) (2015b) State traditions and language regimes. Montreal, QC/Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen’s Press-MQUP.Google Scholar
Chouinard, S.
(2014) The rise of non-territorial autonomy in Canada: Towards a doctrine of institutional completeness in the domain of minority language rights. Ethnopolitics, 13(2), 141–158. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Coakley, J.
(2012) Nationalism, ethnicity and the state: Making and breaking nations. London: Sage. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2016a) Introduction: dispersed minorities and non-territorial autonomy. Ethnopolitics, 15(1), 1–23. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2016b) Conclusion: Patterns of non-territorial autonomy. Ethnopolitics, 15(1), 166–185. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(Ed.) (2017) Non-territorial autonomy in divided societies: Comparative perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
(2018) National identity and the ‘Kohn dichotomy’. Nationalities Papers, 46(2), 252–271. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2021) Geographical retreat and symbolic advance: Language policy in Ireland. Language Problems and Language Planning, 45(3), 240–261. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Csata, Z., & Marácz, L.
(2016) Prospects on Hungarian as a regional official language and Szeklerland’s territorial autonomy in Romania. International Journal of Minority and Group Rights, 23(4), 530–559. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Csata, Z., Hlatky, R., Liu, A. H. and Young, A. P.
(2021) Ethnic polarization and human development: The conditional effects of the territoriality principle in Transylvania, Romania. Language Problems and Language Planning 45(3), 165–187. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
De Schutter, H.
(2008) The linguistic territoriality principle – a critique. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 25(2), 105–120. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2021) Personality and territoriality in theory and in Belgium. Language Problems and Language Planning 45(3), 219–239. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dembinska, M., Marácz, L., and Tonk, M.
(2014) Introduction to the special section: Minority politics and the territoriality principle in Europe. Nationalities Papers, 42(3), 355–375. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Easterly, W., & Levine, R.
(1997) Africa’s growth tragedy: Policies and ethnic divisions. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112(4), 1203–1250. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Florida, R.
(2005) Cities and the creative class. London: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gazzola, M.
(2006) Managing multilingualism in the European Union: Language policy evaluation for the European Parliament. Language Policy, 5(4), 393–417. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Grin, F.
(1994) Immigrant and autochthonous language rights: A territorial approach to multilingualism. In: T. Skutnabb-Kangas, R. Phillipson & M. Rannut (Eds.), Linguistic Human Rights (pp. 31–48). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
(2003) Language policy evaluation and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2010) L’aménagement linguistique en Suisse. Télescope 16(3), 55–74.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, W.
(1989) Liberalism, community and culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, W., & Patten, A.
(2003) Introduction: Language rights and political theory: Context, issues, and approaches. In: W. Kymlicka & A. Patten (Eds.), Language rights and political theory (pp. 1–51). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Laponce, J. A.
(1987) Languages and their territories. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
(1993) Do languages behave like animals? International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 103(1), 19–30. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Loughlin, J., Kincaid, J. & Swenden, W.
(Eds.) (2013) Routledge handbook of regionalism and federalism. Abingdon: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Macartney, C. A.
(1934) National states and national minorities. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Marácz, L.
(2011) Language policies in Central and East European States with Hungarian minorities: Implications for linguistic rights protection of national minorities in the EU. In I. Horváth and M. Tonk (Eds), Minority politics within the Europe of Regions (pp. 155–184). Cluj-Napoca: Scientia.Google Scholar
(2020) Multilingualism in the Hungarian Kingdom (1867–1918): Nature, legal basis and practice. In A. Nuč & A. Wolf (Eds.), Das habsburgische Babylon, 1848–1918 (pp. 59–72). Wien: Praesens Verlag.Google Scholar
May, S.
(2012) Language and minority rights: Ethnicity, nationalism and the politics of language. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
McRae, K. D.
(1975) The principle of territoriality and the principle of personality in multilingual states. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 1975(4), 33–54.Google Scholar
(1978) Bilingual language districts in Finland and Canada: Adventures in the transplanting of an institution. Canadian Public Policy, 4, 331–351. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1983) Conflict and compromise in multilingual societies. Switzerland. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press.Google Scholar
(1986) Conflict and compromise in multilingual societies. Belgium. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press.Google Scholar
(1997) Conflict and compromise in multilingual societies. Finland. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press.Google Scholar
(2007) Toward language equality: Four democracies compared. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 187/188, 13–34. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Nimni, E.
(Ed.) (2005) National cultural autonomy and its contemporary critics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
(2007) National-cultural autonomy as an alternative to minority territorial nationalism, Ethnopolitics, 6(3), 345–364. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Nimni, E., Osipov, A., & Smith, D. J.
(Eds.) (2013) The challenge of non-territorial autonomy: Theory and practice. Oxford: Peter Lang. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Royal Commission
(1967) Report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism: General introduction: Book 1: Official languages. Ottawa: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Safran, W.
(1997) Citizenship and nationality in democratic systems: Approaches to defining and acquiring membership in the political community. International Political Science Review, 18(3), 313–335. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Scholte, J. A.
(2005) Globalization: A critical introduction. London: Macmillan International Higher Education. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Scott, J. B.
(1930) Nationality: jus soli or jus sanguinis . American Journal of International Law, 24(1), 58–64. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Slama, S.
(2017) Jus soli, jus sanguinis, principes complémentaires et consubstantiels de la tradition républicaine. Pouvoirs 2017/1 (160), 19–34. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Smith, D. J., & Cordell, K.
(Eds.) (2008) Cultural autonomy in contemporary Europe. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Smith, D. J., & Hiden, J.
(2012) Ethnic diversity and the nation state: National cultural autonomy revisited. London: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Stojanović, N.
(2010) Une conception dynamique du principe de territorialité linguistique: la loi sur les langues du canton des Grisons. Politique et sociétés, 29(1), 231–259. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Parijs, P.
(2004) Europe’s linguistic challenge. Archives Européennes de Sociologie/European Journal of Sociology/Europäisches Archiv für Soziologie, 45(1), 113–154. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2011a) Linguistic justice for Europe and for the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2011b) The linguistic territoriality principle: Right violation or parity of esteem? In P. De Grauwe & P. Van Parijs (Eds.), The linguistic territoriality principle: Right violation or parity of esteem? [Re-Bel e-book 11] (pp. 5–20). Brussels: Re-Bel Initiative.Google Scholar
Vizi, B.
(Ed.) (2016) Territoriality, language rights and minorities – European perspectives, Special Issue, International Journal of Minority and Group Rights, 23(4). CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wickström, B.-A.
(2019) The percentage rule for minority language rights: Inadequate or discriminatory, Język. Komunikacja. Informacja, 14, 72–84.Google Scholar
(2020) On the political economy of minority rights. Three ways to manipulate a minority: goals, rules, and border poles. European Journal of Political Economy, 64: CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Williams, C. H.
(2013) Linguistic minorities in democratic context. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar