Minoritized language

In sociolinguistics, a minoritized language is a language that is marginalized, persecuted, or banned. Language minoritization stems from the tendency 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 language 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 may face various consequences, including reduced educational achievement and language shift in favor of the dominant language. 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, as Carmen Silva-Corvalán notes: Spanish is, however, the dominant language in Latin America, where local indigenous languages are minoritized. The term "minoritized" is sometimes used in preference to "minority language" because it draws attention to the power differential between languages. Nancy Dorian, Kathryn A. Davis, and Prem Phyak have argued that there is a "Western language ideology" which applies social Darwinism to linguistics. This ideology allegedly idealizes monolingualism, denies the benefits of multilingualism, and disdains non-standard language varieties. Because such non-standard varieties are labeled deficient, a hierarchy of languages is created. Some authors have drawn a connection between anti-immigration sentiment, especially anti-German sentiment, and English-only education in the US.