ABSTRACT
The reflection began in the 19th century with the German scholar Wilhelm von Humboldt and the notion of ‘world-view’, potentially falsifiable scientific hypothesis about the influence of language upon thought and culture. Language shift has attracted much attention from the point of view of linguistic diversity, where shift has often been assimilated with loss, both from a global and from a local perspective. The linguistic relativity hypothesis postulates that language influences culture, but strictly speaking, claims that language and culture are intertwined also reflect the converse hypothesis: namely, that culture influences language. The promotion of a simplified equation between language and culture, in place of sophisticated scientific hypotheses, serves evident purposes as an effective strategy to promote – and fund – the preservation of minority languages and linguistic diversity. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
