ABSTRACT
As the social sciences divided into different disciplines during the 19th century, the field of linguistics emerged as a positivist social science. According to Wallerstein, the disciplines divided along certain axes, with the opposition of the past, represented by the study of History versus the present represented by Economics, Political Science, and Sociology. Dissemination of the national languages was due to political reasons more so than the nature of the languages or the number of speakers of those languages. The colonial expansion of Spain and Portugal through the evangelization of indigenous communities was part of the larger imperialist project of the Catholic Church. The colonial language policy changed during the 18th century when the authorities began to further restrict the use of indigenous languages in the colonies. Alfonso Reyes’ perspective on language synthesizes the evolutionary and the neocolonial approaches. The 1998 Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights gives various fundamental linguistic rights.
