Majoritized and Minoritized Languages
Cameron Keaton
Learning Objectives
- What is a majority or minority language?
- What is an example of a majoritized or minoritized language?
- How can we integrate minoritized languages into institutions?
- What does learning minoritized languages do for power and access when it comes to language learning and culture?
What is a majoritized language?
A majoritized language is one that is spoken by most of a country or community and also a language that has relatively more influence and power in that community compared to other languages. (Nordquist, 2019) When you think of languages in your schooling, which ones do you think of? If you went to school in the United States, do languages such as Spanish or French come to mind? The language you should think of most is English because if you are American, it is spoken in 99% of your classes. This is the primary language in the U.S. and is spoken in every class I’ve ever taken. Even in language classes I’ve taken in French or Arabic, I have always had English present in the class. English is not only a majority language in the U.S.; we can say it is ‘majoritized‘ because it has been given the most power and status in our schools. A majority language means that the language is just in the majority, not that it is given power. A majoritized language is given power by the society in which is presides.
Minoritized vs Minority and Majority vs Majoritized:
Minoritized language is a language that could be a majority language, but is minoritized in a certain country or region. This could be through colonization or other factors, but minoritized languages are made that way through colonialization or other outside factors. A minority language is a language that has always had less speakers. An example of minoritized in the U.S. could be indigenous languages that were colonized. A minority language could be American Sign Language as has always a language with less speakers and wasn’t made that way. The difference between a minoritized and minority language is that a minoritized language could be a majority language in a different region, context, or time-period. In the U.S. Punjabi and Japanese are “minoritized” in the U.S. compared to English, even though they are some of the most spoken languages around the world.
Author’s Perspective
For the most part, academic institutions continue to teach and speak the same majority of languages that are considered to be most important, but not all schools do this. In middle school, I attended a very resource-rich school, and I had the chance to take Arabic, a less-commonly-taught language. In the U.S., Arabic would be considered a minoritized language because it is less widely spoken and has less power in U.S. society, even though it is a majority language in the Middle East. When I later attended a school that didn’t have access to these resources, I noticed languages like Arabic were not offered. This is a theme that has stayed consistent even as I began college.
The power and importance of minoritized languages:
When we lose languages, we lose history and culture. Learning a language isn’t just about the language; it’s about learning a community’s cultural history. For instance, I am currently enrolled in a class about the creative writings of Indigenous women, and it is quite evident that with language learning comes learning about a culture. In these classes, the professor has made a great effort to include Indigenous voices and languages. He begins most classes with videos of these women speaking these languages, which has been extremely powerful. Being able to hear these Indigenous languages, as well as being able to understand their stories, gave me a new perspective on Indigenous women and their stories.
So why is it so important to practice learning minoritized languages in school? Well, because these languages tell us stories about the culture and history of the language speakers, they are a must-have. If we get rid of these languages, or if we don’t teach them, a ton of history and culture goes with them. The difficulty of this stabilization means that learning these minoritized languages is becoming more important than ever. As time goes on, we, as language learners and linguists, need to attempt to learn these minoritized languages. We need to do our best to continue keeping these languages alive. So, if given the chance, spread awareness because these languages are crucial to our history.
What can we do about it?
These colonial languages, such as English and Spanish, also give their speakers more power in the world. The speakers have a chance to gain access to more cultures, both educational and even within the international business world. For example, about 17-25% of the world speaks English. This is over 1.3 billion English speakers(Lyons). This is why these languages are so popular, as they give you way more access to the world than, say, minority languages. Academic institutions sometimes fail to even attempt to integrate minoritized languages into their curriculum because it gives their students less power. Prioritizing majority languages gives your students more power, so why shouldn’t they be prioritized? To counter that point, I found that my experiences learning Arabic is one of the most valuable language-learning experiences in my life. There are benefits to both learning majoritized and minoritized languages, and I have found that, in my experience with Arabic, taking the time to learn a minoritized language could open up new cultural viewpoints that stick with you for the rest of your life.
I challenge institutions to include more minoritized languages in their curriculum, as well as to market and advertise them better because they could change someone’s life.