The Definition of "Linguistic Minority". Linguistic versus Legal Perspectives

The concept of “linguistic minority” constitutes the topic of different fields of research, among which linguistics and law represent the most prominent ones. In fact, it is well known that human rights includes, among the others, the right of linguistic minorities to maintain the own language and culture. In the past, the linguistic and legal perspectives have not (sufficiently) interacted with evident negative consequences. The normative apparatus which should guarantee linguistic minorities is far from being adequate (i.e. inefficient in most cases) with respect to the complexity of the phenomenon represented by “minorities”. This consideration suggests, at least for the future, a much more strong and effective interaction between the legal and the linguistic perspectives which should rely, first of all, on an agreed definition of the concept and typology of “linguistic minority”. This paper try to compare the different typologies of “linguistic minorities”, which emerge from a classification based on one side on linguistic criteria, on the other side on legal ones providing a further step towards the desired harmonization.