Harold Schiffman, Linguistic culture and language policy. (The politics of language.) London: Routledge, 1996. Pp. xii, 351.

Abstract

This is an important contribution to the growing debate about the close links of polities to language, which is the innermost component of a nation and its culture, and the main support of the latter. Thus the book will be highly attractive to anyone interested in sociolinguistics and nation-building. It contains four parts: a general reflection on how language policy and linguistic culture have been perceived by scholars up to now, followed by studies of three national situations where these problems have been faced – France, India, and the US – with emphasis in each country on an important regional case (Alsace, Tamil Nadu, and California). Schiffman is able to speak about each case through personal experience of living and working on the spot.