Language Rights and the Law in Scandinavia

Language Rights and the Law in Scandinavia Synopsis

This book examines the language policies in the constitutions, legal statutes, and regulations of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland. In these countries and territories, modern descendants of Old Norse (North Germanic) are spoken today: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. In addition, there are regions of Scandinavia where speakers of minority languages were conquered or incorporated, with their languages suppressed or neglected, as well as recent developments in the status and use of English, and immigrant populations who do not speak a Scandinavian language as their native language. This book adopts a comparative approach to trace the development of language policies and rights in Scandinavia, and it will be of interest to students as well as scholars of European and Scandinavian studies, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, education, political science, and law.