Glottopolitics is a sociolinguistic concept coined by Jean-Baptiste Marcellesi and Louis Guespin. [1] The concept later became a critical perspective for the study of the political in langauge and the linguistic in the political. [2] [3] Some scholars also consider it a subdisicpline of sociolinguistics. [4]
It may be defined as any action taken by society to manage language interaction. Glottopolitics is constantly at work; it is a continuum that ranges from minuscule acts to considerable interventions, ultimately concerning language itself: promotion, prohibition, change of status, etc. There can be no social community without glottopolitics. [5] It is a social practice from which no one can escape (people "do glottopolitics without knowing it", whether they are ordinary citizens or ministers of the economy).