Accommodating Linguistic Difference: Five Normative Models of Language Rights

Abstract

Five language rights models: human rights model, ‘old’ minority rights model, ‘new’ minority rights model, indigenous peoples rights model, and official-language rights model – Different philosophical and legal foundations and very different concerns: personal autonomy and development, social integration and cohesion, ethnocultural preservation, and political integration – Sociological and historical context of each state is key factor in the type of linguistic accommodation sought by minorities