TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: My Language IsMy Homeland 7
Chapter 2: Linguistic Policies, Disenfranchisement, and Standardization 16
1. Linguistic Diversity: A Brief Look at the Past 16
2. Linguistic Standardization: Roots, Benefits, and Some Examples 18
3. Some Painful Aspects of Standardization 21
4. HowMany Languages: IsMore theMerrier, or Is Small Beautiful? 26
5. Summary 28
Chapter 3: Linguistic, Genetic, and Cultural Distances: How Far Is Nostratic? 29
1. Languages and Dialects 30
2. Distances between Languages 33
3. Distances between Groups 48
4. Summary 55
Chapter 4: DistancesMatter 56
1. International Trade 57
2. Migrations 63
3. Literary Translations 65
4. The Eurovision Song Contest: Is Voting Political or Cultural? 74
5. Summary 82
Chapter 5: Individual Communicative Benefits 84
1. Modeling Language Learning 86
2. Demand Functions for Languages 93
3. Private Returns on Languages 98
4. Summary 107
Chapter 6: Diversity and Disenfranchisement Indices 108
1. Fractionalization and Polarization Indices 110
2. Disenfranchisement Indices 126
3. Links between Fractionalization, Disenfranchisement, and Communication Indices 137
4. Summary 139
5. Appendix: Numerical Calculation of the Various Disenfranchisement Indices 140
Chapter 7: Diversity and Disenfranchisement: Applications 142
1. Fractionalization and Polarization Indices 143
2. Disenfranchisement Indices: The Example of the EU 151
3. Summary 160
Chapter 8: Multilingualism in the European Union: A Case Study in Linguistic Policy 162
1. Twenty-three Languages, and More to Come 162
2. Possible Solutions 177
3. Summary 199
Conclusions 201
Bibliography 205
Index 223
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