Language conflict

Language conflict can arise in societies where there are two or more communities of speakers. When two or more distinct linguistic groups come into contact, various interpretations can be given about the consequences of that situation. A very frequent situation of linguistic conflict is when in a country there are linguistic minorities or immigration processes where speakers of foreign origin become a significant percentage of the total population. They can also occur when a region or country is governed by a prestigious or empowered minority that speaks a different language from the majority of the population.

Introduction

Faced with the stable or static situation of language contact, offered by the diglossia model, in situations of linguistic conflict two (or more) linguistic groups constitute communities with antagonistic interests in which the respective languages tend to be seen as elements in competition.

According to some models of linguistic conflict, language contact always implies a situation of imbalance in which one of the linguistic groups is dominant and the other or others are dominated or oppressed. For some authors, this is a dynamic situation, neither deterministic nor irreversible, but rather explicable based on social conditions, in conflictive situations there are several possible solutions that range from the disappearance by substitution of the dominated language to overcoming the situation of imbalance through a process of recovery of status, of the symbolic capital and the communicative value of the dominated language.