Abstract
Language rights and Slavic languages is a contribution of the International Commission for the literary Slavic languages for XV International Congress Slavicists in Minsk. It is preparing the publication of the same thematic block of the congress.
The monograph offers the first part of the collection of articles by leading experts on various aspects of the legislative process - from a theoretical perspective on language rights through contributions focused on the currently most exposed examples of the application of language rights in multilingual communication Slavic communities or their successor states. One paper focuses on the functioning of the language law in terms of a dominant majority language.
The collection does not ignore the unique position Lusatian Serbian position in the minority language. The final paper is devoted to language rights in the European Union and its application in Slavic countries.
The second part of the book provides the result of extensive research of language rights in 12 countries with a dominant Slavic population and in the Upper and Lower Lusatia. Experts answered 13 questions mapping language rights in the legal documents: constitutions, laws of language in the legislation governing the media, cultural institutions , language issues in the context of citizenship , entrepreneurship , education.
Other questions concern the problems of terminology : the use of terms such as the state language , the official language , the language of public relations, internal and external language paperwork , teaching language , the national language , written language , etc. , as well as the concepts of minority , minority language , etc. The question the enforceability of the legislation relating to the language was raised.
The research results are presented from two perspectives - as Comprehensive overview of language rights in the Slavic countries (ranked by questions) and as language rights in the Slavic countries (sorted by country).