In modern linguistics, it is widely accepted that all human languages are equally sophisticated systems of communication. However, in many people’s subjective viewpoints some languages are more equal than others. Social attitudes establish hierarchies for languages and their speech communities that cannot be ignored when we are learning languages. For this reason, in the first section of this chapter we want to introduce some key terms that will help us discuss the role of power and access in language learning.

Majority and Minority Languages 

Triggs (2021) defines a majority language as one used and spoken by most people in a population. For example, when you think of a language in the U.S., what do you think? It is probably English because it is widely used by the majority of people in the country.

On the other hand, the term minority language originally refers to language(s) used by relatively small populations. For example, American Sign Language (ASL) is used by Deaf/deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States. However, most scholars prefer the term minoritized for a minority language because it highlights the status of speakers. Lane et al. (2017) define speakers of minority languages as “linguistically marginalised social actors” who belong to non-dominant language communities (p. 8). For example, indigenous languages in the U.S. are the minoritized languages of minoritized communities.

Majority is Majori-tized and Minority is Minori-tized!

This is the tricky part that is important to understand –  majority and minority languages are not inherently more or less important. It is through social and historical processes that they are made to be majoritized and minoritized, gradually and often strategically. In the case of majority languages, they are often declared to be the standard or official language in a specific context.

“Who declares this?”, you might ask.

The answer is simple. Groups with economic and political power have the ability to majoritize and standardize one language variety over others. The power could be the power of colonizers who used language as a tool to implement their expansion and control of new lands and peoples. For example, the hegemony of English in today’s world is strongly linked to the days of British colonization when colonized people’s speech and cultures in places such as present-day Pakistan, India, Kenya, and South Africa were devalued and suppressed through the imposition of English.

Decolonising the Mind, by universally acclaimed Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, highlights these issues of language and power. wa Thiong’o (1986) explains two important steps colonizers took in the past to majoritize and minoritize languages: demolish an existing system of culture and intentionally replace local languages with new ones.

He says,

Therefore, it is crucial to understand that minority languages are not necessarily just defined as the languages of a numerical minority but are rather languages subjected to the active process of minoritization (Tendero, 2017). Let’s dive into this point more deeply below to understand the nuances of this subject.

A majoritized language is not necessarily the language of the majority of people

Here is an important consequence of this power dynamic to understand: a majoritized language is not always the language of the majority. For example, English is often majoritized in former colonies where it is not the first language of the majority of people. It can also be an official language in countries where a very small percentage of the population speaks English yet it still dominates the language landscape.

For more information on where English is spoken around the world, look over this Berlitz article about the 67 countries that have English as an official language. Notice how much of the population actually speaks English in each country.

No doubt, this is a paradox but it remains a reality. Just as a majoritized language might be a language spoken by a minority of people, a language with the highest numerical representation in a country might become minoritized if it has lower socio-political status.

At the end of this section, assess your understanding.