Abstracts
Abstract
It is assumed that language policy can influence the language in which parents choose to raise their children. A basic model of language transmission in the family is outlined and the effect of different policies on the vitality of a minority language is analyzed. It is argued that the habitation patterns and numerical strength of the minority have a strong influence on the cost effectiveness of various policy measures. It is shown that by classifying language policies into four distinct categories we can assign different policies to different minorities in a cost-effective manner, based on the size of the jurisdiction where the minority lives and its numerical strength within it. We provide a general intuitive discussion and a specific example to support the general analysis.
Keywords:
- vitality of minority language,
- language policy,
- cost-effectiveness analysis,
- structure of costs
Résumé
Il est supposé que la politique linguistique puisse influencer le choix de la langue dans laquelle les parents élèvent leurs enfants. Cet article trace les grandes lignes d’un modèle simple de transmission linguistique dans la famille et analyse l’effet de différentes politiques sur la vitalité d’une langue minoritaire. Il est avancé que la taille de la population minoritaire et sa concentration sur le territoire ont une forte influence sur le rapport coût-efficacité des différentes mesures politiques. Il est démontré qu’en classant les politiques linguistiques en quatre catégories différentes, nous pouvons attribuer différentes politiques à différentes minorités de manière rentable en fonction de la taille du territoire où la minorité vit et l’importance numérique de la minorité dans le territoire considéré. Nous fournissons une discussion intuitive générale et un exemple spécifique à l’appui de l’analyse générale.
Mots-clés :
- vitalité de la langue d’une minorité,
- politique linguistique,
- analyse coût-efficacité,
- structure de coûts
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Appendices
Acknowledgements
I thank the two anonymous referees of this journal for many constructive comments from which the article has clearly benefited. Part of this work was carried out in the Research Group Economics and Language (REAL) in Berlin, which received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (Project MIME – grant agreement 613344). This support is gratefully acknowledged.
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