Book review : Small is multilingual : language and identity in micro-territories

Abstract

This book collects a variety of highly interesting case studies that cast light on the sociolinguistic situation in eleven so-called ‘micro-territories’. Five chapters address islands (Balearic Islands, Gozo, Malta and Grenada compared, Sardinia, Taiwan) and five address landlocked territories (Andorra, Aosta, Aragon, Aran Valley, Luxembourg). One instantly notes the extreme variety of the cases at stake: in terms of size, population, legal status, history, geography and linguistic structure. Moreover, the editors’ choice for the term ‘micro- territories’ is rather original: ‘territory’ is a term that includes all possible variations of legal/ constitutional status; ‘micro’, on the other hand, evokes an even tinier size than the more common ‘small’ and it does not seem to fit all cases in the book: Taiwan, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands are certainly not ‘micro’ in terms of size and population. However, the book’s introduction cites the established literature on small jurisdictions, and considers different terminological options. In the end, useful criteria are presented to defend the use of the term ‘micro-territories’: on one hand, the dependence – direct or indirect, to some degree – of such territories on foreign countries or on the states that they belong to; on the other, the sociolinguistic reality of the weaker languages spoken in the territories. [excerpt]