Equal recognition,consolidation or familiarization?

Abstract

A number of theorists have tried to determine how liberal states should respond to the language recognition claims made by minority groups. Liberal multiculturalists defend the ‘equal recognition’ of minority and majority languages, liberal neutralists advance the ‘consolidation’ of a single unified language, and democratic liberals argue for ‘familiarization’ of the majority and the minority population as the fairest response to the groups’ claim. In this article, I illustrate and test these responses with the case of the Muslim minority of Western Thrace, a group that has resided in Greece since Ottoman times and has been the subject of competitive Greek and Turkish relations. Contextual analysis in this article will show that when minority groups are part of antagonistic interstate relations, a priori individual and collective rights approaches cannot ensure that their members are treated fairly. I argue that familiarization of linguistically diverse group members provides the fairest response to the claims of linguistic minorities. This is grounded on the democratic ideal of participation in common institutions under conditions of non-domination.