Mike Maxwell wrote:
> On this side of the Atlantic, the term seems to be "low density
> languages", although I've also heard "less commonly taught languages"
> used for languages which have few computational resources (perhaps
> because the two sets of languages largely overlap, at least here in the
> US). I traced the term "low density language" back to Congressional
> testimony in the late 1980s, where the sense was maybe more like
> languages which don't have large enrollments in college language
> classes. The term seemed to be "in the air" (the speaker did not make
> it up), but I haven't succeeded in tracing it any further back.
In Europe, the official terms in EU institutions seem to be:
a) "Lesser-used languages" - as in the "European Bureau for Lesser-Used
Languages" - http://www.eblul.org (corresponds to Somer's "minority languages").
b) "Regional and Minority Languages" - as in the EU's "European Charter for
Regional or Minority Languages"
Other terms often seen are:
c) Under-resourced languages, less-resourced languages (corresponds to
Somers' "minor" languages).
Of course, "lesser-used" is not necessarily the same thing as
"less-resourced", as Harold Somers pointed out (though I find the terms given
here much clearer than his terms).
The term "minority language" can occasionally be perceived as derogatory by
speakers of that language, so the above terms are perhaps to be preferred.
Best regards
Briony Williams
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