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AbstractAgainst the background of a concise overview of Ulrich Ammon'soeuvrethis article first of all provides a constructive-critical account of some of the key concepts and questions that guided his macrosociolinguistic work on pluricentric languages and variation in German. In what follows, an attempt is made to further develop some of Ammon's thoughts through emphasising the elasticity of the concept of pluricentricity and arguing for a creative use of the concept of "roofing" when describing the intricate interplay of standard and nonstandard varieties especially in language contact zones.

AbstractAfter a broad overview of the history and the areas of focus of research on language conflict, this article pays particular attention to a number of selected features of societal language conflict. A discussion of the causes, the visibility, the manifestations, the discursive focal points, the management and the outcomes of the management of societal language conflict precedes a sketch of methodological approaches in language conflict research. The snapshot of language conflict research ends with a list of research desiderata.

Cette contribution proposeun panorama général des activités de politique et planification linguistiques qui, au sein des minorités linguistiques indigènes de l'Union européenne, visent à prévenir le changement de langue au niveau social. La contribution cherche en outre à illustrer le rôle de la politique et de la planification linguistiques dans l'aménagement des conflits linguistiques. Elle se termine par une liste de quelques desiderata susceptibles d'alimenter la recherche sur les phénomènes extralinguistiques du contact de langue en Europe (au sein des minorités linguistiques indigènes et au-delà). ; This contribution seeks to provide a general overview of language policy and planning actions that, in the context of the EU's 'old' language minorities, are meant to counter societal language shift. It also illustrates the role of language policy and planning in the management of language conflict and lists a number of research desiderata that could help to fuel research on extralinguistic phenomena of language contact in European language minority settings (and beyond).

Today's European Union counts ca. 80 minority speech communities that are represented by ca. 40 to 70 million of the ca. 450 EU-inhabitants. The majority of these communities still have difficulties to secure the intergenerational transmission of the minority language. EU-sponsored projects (e.g. Euromosaic and SMiLE) as well as other scientific publications clearly confirm that most of the minority speech communities still are subject - though to a different degree - to societal language shift. In an attempt to reverse societal language shift minority speech communities tend to rely on minority language education. After broadly describing the general situation of autochthonous European minority speech communities and the European discourse that surrounds them this contribution examines a few possible prerequisites needed to turn minority language education into an essential part of attempts to reverse language shift. (DIPF/Orig.)

In this article, we reflect on the extent to which 'new speaker' research feeds into recent theoretical discussions in language policy scholarship, especially in connection to the discursive and ethnographically oriented perspectives which of late have become increasingly prominent. We begin with a brief overview of the 'new speaker' concept, its theoretical and empirical origins, and then we situate the discussions on 'new speakers' against the background of traditional language policy research. Thereafter the bulk of the article is dedicated to developing two main arguments: first, we provide an overview of the language policy themes that are already present in 'new speaker' research; and secondly, we elaborate on how 'new speaker' studies can contribute to current discussions in the field of language policy. We conclude with a short overview of future research directions that, in our view, can strengthen the link and the mutual benefits of the connection between 'new speaker' and language policy scholarship.