ABSTRACT
Demography has received numerous definitions. The majority of these have “population” as a central reference point and allude to its structure and evolving dynamics. Demography’s versatility stems from the nature of the phenomena that demographic factors entail: biological, sociocultural, and psychological. These characteristics create important links between demography and sociology, economy, statistics, geography, human ecology, medicine, and genetics. When the interests of demographic studies are combined with those of linguistic studies, the possibility of speaking of linguistic demography or demolinguistics arises. The term demolinguistics spread during the second half of the twentieth century, starting in the 1960s and ’70s. As for linguistics, there has historically been an interest in the relationship between languages, populations, and geography, but this interest had not adopted a demographic perspective until a few decades ago. Natural languages spread within specific geographies to such an extent that demographic rates or indices affect the populations who speak those languages. Languages, as a human characteristic, have the ability to intervene in demographic processes such as the formation of homes or migrations. At the same time, population dynamics directly influence the configuration of communities and their languages’ vitality. Population censuses are the fundamental meeting point in understanding the connection between linguists, demographers, and statisticians.
