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- Title
The Economics of Language: Implications for Portuguese.
- Authors
Bragues, George
- Abstract
Portuguese is among the top ten most spoken languages in the world. Despite this preeminent status among the more than 7,000 living languages, Portuguese is more vulnerable to future losses in the number of speakers than appears to be the case from the summary statistics of linguistic usage. To assess the current state and future prospect of Portuguese, we apply the economics of language. Based on the insights drawn from this field, Portuguese comes to sight as largely owing its current position to government support of the language in Lusophone countries, most particularly the Big 4 of Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, and Brazil. The usage of Portuguese does not appear to have been significantly raised by the wage, income, and investment considerations that the economic model confirms as being significant drivers of language adoption. There are few signs that this will change in the future. As such, the most likely, if not best case, scenario for Portuguese is that it retains its current share among global languages.
- Subjects
PORTUGUESE language; WAGES; INCOME; INVESTMENTS; LANGUAGE &; languages; MODERN philosophy
- Publication
Portuguese Studies Review, 2019, Vol 27, Issue 2, p223
- ISSN
1057-1515
- Publication type
Article