Resumen de Ecological aspects of language contact or how to investigate linguistic minorities
This contribution concerns minorities in danger of losing their languages in quite distinct sociolinguistic situations. This description of the contact linguistic background in three areas of ‘Old Belgium’ gives credence to the assumption that an ecological approach is of prime importance in the analysis of linguistic/ethnic contact areas in which one or more languages or varieties are in danger of dying out. At the same time, the contribution reveals which kind of data collection methods are able to discover the real language situation in such areas, and which conceal the linguistic realities.
