Comparing Minority Languages - a Case Study of Flemish Sign Language and Upper Sorbian

Abstract This paper compares some sociolinguistic aspects of Flemish Sign Language (the language signed in Flanders, the northern part of Belgium) and Upper Sorbian (a West Slavonic language spoken in the east of Germany). For both languages, the following aspects are discussed: establishing the number of signers/speakers; policies which lead to a situation of unstable diglossia; the domain in which both languages are being used; disrupted transmission patterns; (absence of) written tradition; (absence of) formal standard; language rights and the grounds on which these rights are granted; and attitudes towards the languages and their speakers/signers. To end with, the future vitality of VGT and USo is discussed.