S08: Multilingual names, minority names
  
 

3. Linguistic minorities
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Linguistic minorities:

  • Spatially concentrated autochthonous groups within a state, that do not have the same mother tongue as the official state language.

  • Linguistic minorities can or cannot have official status in education, law, administration, etc.

Minority name/toponym: Name locally used to designate a geographical object situated in an area where minority language speakers are concentrated.


Current linguisic minorities in Western Europe

 

Linguistic minorities might disappear through assimilation or being swamped.

Riviera with part of Kingdom of Savoie in 1860 (Italian map)


1878 Carte de l’Etat Major
Only French names: first linguistic manipulation

 
 
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Copyright United Nations Statistics Division and International Cartographic Association, July 2012