Minority languages may be marginalised within nations for a number of reasons. These include having a relatively small number of speakers, a decline in the number of speakers, and popular belief that these speakers are uncultured, or primitive, or the minority language is a dialect of the dominant language. Support for minority languages is sometimes viewed as supporting separatism, for example, the ongoing revival of the Celtic languages in the British Isles and France (
Irish,
Welsh,
Scottish Gaelic,
Manx,
Cornish and
Breton). The dominant culture may consider use of immigrant minority languages to be a threat to unity, indicating that such communities are not integrating into the larger culture. Both of these perceived threats are based on the notion of the exclusion of the majority language speakers. Often this is added to by political systems by not providing support (such as education and policing) in these languages. Speakers of majority languages can and do learn minority languages, through the large number of courses available. It is not known whether most students of minority languages are members of the minority community re-connecting with the community's language, or others seeking to become familiar with it.
Controversy Views differ as to whether the protection of official languages by a state representing the majority speakers violates the human rights of minority speakers. In March 2013, Rita Izsák, UN Independent Expert on minority issues, said that "protection of linguistic minority rights is a human rights obligation and an essential component of good governance, efforts to prevent tensions and conflict, and the construction of equal and politically and socially stable societies". In Slovakia for example, the Hungarian community generally considers the 'language law' enacted in 1995 to be discriminatory and inconsistent with the European Charter for the Protection of Regional or Minority languages. The Majority Slovaks believed that minority speakers' rights are guaranteed, in accordance with the highest European standards, and are not discriminated against by the state language having preferential status. The language law declares that "the Slovak language enjoys a preferential status over other languages spoken on the territory of the Slovak Republic." As a result of a 2009 amendment, a fine of up to €5,000 may be imposed for a misdemeanor from the regulations protecting the preferential status of the state language, e.g. if the name of a shop or a business is indicated on a sign-board first in the minority language and only after it in Slovak, or if in a bilingual text, the minority language part is written with bigger fonts than its Slovak equivalent, or if the bilingual text on a monument is translated from the minority language to the dominant language and not vice versa, or if a civil servant or doctor communicates with a minority speaker citizen in a minority language in a local community where the proportion of the minority speakers is less than 20%.
Sign languages are often not recognized as true natural languages, although extensive research supports the case that they are independent languages. Speakers of
auxiliary languages have also struggled for their recognition. They are used primarily as second languages and have few native speakers.
Numerical thresholds •
Belgium: From
Belgium's founding in 1830, the government had promoted
French as the sole national language. The marginalised
Dutch-language community, generally known as
Flemish people, gradually managed to emancipate itself through the
Flemish Movement, and in 1898 the Equality Law () first recognised Dutch as equal to French in judicial matters (legal documents). The 1919 annexation of the mostly German-speaking
Eupen-Malmedy area in to Belgium also led to a movement for the recognition of German as a local minority language. By 1930, a rough agreement had emerged that Belgian citizens should be able to communicate with the authorities in their native language in the municipalities where it constituted the majority of speakers. According to the "Law of 28 June 1932 on the use of languages in administrative matters" ( ), the
municipalities of Belgium were considered "bilingual" if speakers of a minority language constituted at least 30% of the municipal population, which meant that the linguistic minority was entitled to certain rights. To determine these percentages, reference was made to the linguistic census ( ). The first census, held in 1846, was widely regarded as scholarly reliable regarding the numbers of speakers; however, from the second linguistic census of 1886 onwards, the methodology of the census changed, pressure on citizens to report speaking or knowing the French language increased, more and more cases of fraud were found, and the reliability of the results was increasingly questioned by scholars and Flemish activists. For example, a 1933 investigation concluded that in 22 of the 23 language border municipalities in which the 1930 census was conducted, the results were incorrect, and in each case, the incorrect results favoured the French language; moreover, some 'language inspectors' tasked with checking the accuracy results had received death threats. The legal effect of the censuses was that certain previously monolingually-Dutch municipalities became bilingual or even monolingually-French, and further stimulated the
Francization of Brussels. The most controversial language census of 1947 led to an uproar of Flemish protest and the eventual abolition of the controversial language censuses. Finally, the Belgian language border was made permanent in 1963. The remaining 27
Municipalities with language facilities have been a continuous source of controversy in Belgian politics, focusing on the interpretation and legality of the 1997
Peeters directive, which held that the facilities were temporary measures that should eventually be abolished after the French-speaking minorities in the Dutch-language area had sufficiently learnt the Dutch language. •
North Macedonia: The
Ohrid Agreement of 13 August 2001 included provisions for altering the official
Languages of North Macedonia, with any language spoken by more than 20% of the population becoming co-official with the
Macedonian language at the state level and the
municipal level. As of 2002, only the
Albanian language qualified under this criterion as a co-official language at the state level, and in certain municipalities, and was thus recognised as such. ==Languages lacking recognition in some countries==