Language Planning and Minority Language Development

The evolution of the linguistic world map reflects the progressive decrease of spoken languages around the planet, as well as the disappearance of linguistic systems in the context of language contact. The analysis of the causes of this loss allows us as well to identify a great number of endangered languages, for which the institutional support becomes essential in order to foster their preservation. The analysis of legal documents, of general or particular nature, within the framework of linguistic rights, will allow us to find those contexts of use in which those languages can be supported by institutions. Besides, the analysis will allow us to pinpoint different actions varying from mere preservation, sometimes almost only by documentary means, of minority languages, to the development of policies intended to really guarantee the use of languages in the public domain, such as education, mass media, and public administration, from which these had been absent in previous times.