In sociolinguistics, a minoritized language is a language that is marginalized, persecuted or banned. Language minoritization stems from the desire of large nations to establish a common language for commerce and government, or to establish homogeneity for ideological reasons. Minoritized languages are typically restricted to a smaller range of domains than dominant languages, and frequently one-way bilingualism develops when speakers of minoritized languages learn the dominant language, but not vice versa. Speakers of minoritized languages face various consequences, including reduced educational achievement and language shift in favor of the dominant language.
Minority vs. minoritized
A minoritized language differs from a minority language, which means a language used by a small number of speakers, or alternately to a language with lesser numerical or political power in a given context. There are cases in which a language is minoritized while being spoken by a majority of the population, such as some indigenous languages during the colonization of Africa, when colonial languages were favored. Spanish is minoritized in the United States but the dominant language in Latin America, where indigenous languages are minoritized. The term "minoritized" is sometimes used in preference to "minority" because it draws attention to the power differential between languages.
The defining characteristic of minoritization is the existence of a power imbalance between it and the dominant language. One sign that a language is minoritized is if its speakers develop one-way bilingualism—they learn the dominant language, but speakers of the dominant language do not learn the minoritized language. Another frequent symptom of minoritization is the restriction of the language to a limited range of domains. A language excluded from use in government and formal education might only be used at home and social situations. Because of the above, speakers of the minoritized language became a subset of speakers of the dominant language; for instance, all speakers of Scottish Gaelic are also speakers of English, but most English speakers in Scotland do not speak Gaelic. In contrast, speakers of a dominant language can carry out all functions of daily life using their native language. Speakers of the dominant language typically use the greater prestige of the dominant language to prevent speakers of the minoritized language from changing the situation to one more favorable to the minoritized language. They use "amnesia" and "normalization" to confuse the reality with what should be, and therefore legitimize the situation in which some languages are minoritized. For example, many "liberal" criticisms of language planning for minoritized language communities assert that intervention in favor of minoritized languages is equivalent to the policies that caused the language to become minoritized in the first place, such as linguistic legislation, elitism, exclusion of minoritized languages from formal education, and even forced population transfer.
Consequences
In Engaged Language Policy and Practices, the authors cite three studies that have shown that students' academic achievement suffers if policies are implemented that minoritize their native language. Nancy Dorian has argued that the "Western language ideology" favoring monolingualism has fostered an "ideology of contempt" for minoritized languages. The process of minoritization can lead to language shift in favor of the dominant language.
Examples
In Russia, speakers of Ös and Tofa, were ridiculed for or banned from speaking their languages.
The Guarani language of Paraguay, although spoken by a majority of nationals, is seen as a clear example of minoritized language, due to the socioeconomic and political prevalence of Spanish. Organisations such as Yvy Marãe'ỹ are advocating against this trend.
As of 2019, pupils in Southern China get punished if they speak their mother tongue, Cantonese. Public signs encourage people to use the central government's language Mandarin with these words: "Use civilized language – Be a civilized person.”, implying that the local language is uncivilized.
