Languages across Borders

Abstract

Regional and minority languages generally acquired their disadvantaged status during the process of nation state formation in the nineteenth century. ‘They found themselves excluded from the state level, in particular from general education’ (Extra and Yagmur 2002: 19). New political boundaries divided medieval empires and long-established language communities. Physical movement of population did not necessarily occur, but the change in nation-state borders generated new national minorities (Kockel 1999: 265). For example, the Danish minority in Schleswig-Holstein was created by changes in the border between Denmark and Germany rather than by any movement of the people.