Language as a human right - the place of minority languages in national policy : A comparative study between Sweden and France.

This text compares the language policies of Sweden and France with the aim to see how these two countries define and treat their minority languages. Two indicators of language rights were developed by using “Linguistic human rights” (Skutnabb-Kangas, Phillipson & Rannut 1995:1–22) as a starting point. The first concerns the right to exist as a group in the two countries, while the other deals with learning and developing the minority languages. Some emphasis is also placed on multilateral agreements as both the chosen countries are members of the European Union and the United Nations. The definitions used by the two countries concerning minority languages have some notable differences – not the least because the French definition includes patois or French dialects. Despite some flaws concerning legislature that could be made more specific and ongoing work to strengthen the official languages against the influence of English that inadvertently has negative consequences for minority language users, both countries fulfill the demands stipulated by the indicators used in this work. However, this work does not cover application and perception of the legislature and therefore to get a complete understanding of the subject further research needs to be done