The language conflict of Hungarians in Slovakia can be described as geopolitically generated. Historically, many Slovakian tribes were oppressed under Hungarian rule. However, with the shifting of borders, the once majority population can become a minority in a short time span. The dissolution of the Austria-Hungarian empire displaced many Hungarians in Slovakia. The Treaty of Trianon of 1920, which formally ended World War I, redrew the borders of the former empire and created a new state, Hungary. Many ethnically Hungarian peoples were left outside of the newly declared nation. Previously, many Slovaks in Hungary were mistreated and had little language rights, and the shifting balance of power allowed some Slovaks to act on their prejudice against Hungarians. This conflict still causes tension between Slovaks and Hungarians, especially with language laws passed as recently as 2009 that mandate the use of Slovak in public life.
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The Roma people have a long history of statelessness that has contributed to their current language conflict situation. Influenced by many different languages, the Romani language is a collection of diverse dialects [Lee, 1998]. The Roma have been heavily discriminated against since their original migration into Europe in the 14th century CE [Kenrick, 2007]. While they and their language are Indo-European, they are racially distinct from other Indo-European and non-Indo-European (e.g., Hungarian, Estonian) peoples who migrated into Europe before them. Without any widely recognized literary, historical, or religious traditions of their own, the Roma have never “belonged” in any country they settled in, nor collectively organized themselves into a coherent “nation”. Today they remain stateless and scattered, making it difficult to provide them with any uniform legal defense or social protections. . Romani is currently listed as “definitely endangered” on the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger [2017], meaning that Romani children are no longer learning the language as their mother tongue in their homes. As a consequence of this, there is an ongoing effort to codify and then propagate a standard dialect of Romani to help revitalize and protect their language.
The language conflict on both the island of Puerto Rico and within mainland US Puerto Rican communities has been present since the United States gained control of the island from the Spanish in 1898. Prior to the colonial shift, Puerto Rico had been a Spanish speaking island for almost 400 years, before English was suddenly introduced in 1902. As such, this can be characterized as a geopolitical minority conflict: both English and Spanish have been official languages in Puerto Rico since 1902, but Spanish has always been the chosen language of the majority of the population and remains the language of official business on the island. There is also a large population of Puerto Ricans living in the mainland United States who face different challenges as full citizens confronted with the stigmas that come from being looked upon as immigrants because of their language. While people of the island fight to protect the Spanish language as their cultural heritage, many Puerto Ricans living on the mainland remain proud of their bilingual identities. Meanwhile, the debate over statehood for the island continues as it has for over a century.
The conflict between Okinawan and Japanese languages hinges on the problem of definition. The current Japanese government views the conflict as an intralingual issue, since they claim Okinawan is a mere dialect of Japanese. The Okinawan people see their language as distinct from Japanese and have since the 19th century. Therefore, they view the language dispute as a geo-political minority conflict. In 1879, the Ryūkyūan islands were annexed and became a Japanese prefecture. Standardization efforts began with the promotion of second language education, with “Okinawa Conversation” – a bilingual Okinawan-Japanese textbook – used in all schools by 1880 [Heinrich, 2005]. The 1907 Ordinance to Regulate the Dialect enforced the sole use of Standard Japanese in schools and public offices, wherein schoolchildren were taught to monitor and enforce language use between their peers [Heinrich, 2005]. With the 1931 Movement for the Enforcement of the Standard Language, attempts to enforce Standard Japanese entered all forms of Ryūkyūan society [Heinrich, 2005]. While Japan has stopped actively suppressing the language, most native Okinawan speakers today are elderly, and many of the current generation cannot understand it at all. Some younger people are attempting to revitalize their language, but Okinawan, along with the other Ryukyuan languages, is slowly dying out.