ABSTRACT

It is over a century now since Ronjat’s (1913) study of his son Louis’ simultaneous development in French and German, which came to be considered the naissance of family language policy (FLP) research. This study also gave rise to the concept originally developed by Ronjat’s friend Grammont of the une-personne unelangue strategy, later to become known as the one-parent one-language (OPOL) strategy. In turn, this strategy came to be one of the central frameworks for FLP research (see, for example, Leopold, 1939-1949; De Houwer, 1990; Döpke, 1992; Lanza, 1997; Kasuya, 1998; Barron-Hauwaert, 2004; Takeuchi, 2006; MishinaMori, 2011; Palviainen and Boyd, 2013). It was not until nearly a century later, however, that the term FLP came into being, appearing in Luykx’s (2003, p. 39) account of Spanish-Aymara families:

While these efforts [minority language schools] are laudable [. . .], it is the gradual displacement of Aymara by Spanish in functions that have traditionally been the former’s stronghold (i.e. the domestic ones) that may prove definitive for the future survival of the language. For this reason, it is necessary to expand our current conception of ‘language policy’ to include not only the sphere of official state actions, but also decisions made at the community and family level. Such decisions are often implicit and unconscious, but they are no less crucial to determining the speed and direction of language shift. In this regard we may refer to family language policy as an important area for both research and activism.