Volume: 28  Number: 5  Page: 385–399  doi:10.2167/jmmd389.0

Some Thoughts on Extrinsic Linguistic Minorities

Christina Bratt Paulston, Szidonia Haragos, Lifrieri Verónic and Wendy Martelle Department of Linguistics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

This paper defines and provides examples of a category of linguistic minorities that we call extrinsic minorities. Three case studies are summarised to illustrate the spectrum of linguistic heterogeneity of extrinsic minorities, and the linguistic consequences. These cases show a continuum of how they fit into our definition of extrinsic minorities: Russians in Latvia are the most prototypical; Hungarians in Transylvania are less prototypical; while Slovenes in Austria reflect the least prototypical case. One main conclusion is that the norm amongst extrinsic minorities is language maintenance with very slow shift, if at all. We conclude by identifying several social factors that contribute to the linguistic course of extrinsic minorities.

Keywords: extrinsic linguistic minorities, language maintenance, Latvia, Transylvania, Carinthia, Styria

© 2007 C.B. Paulston et al.

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