THE GAME-THEORY OF LANGUAGE REGIMES

The logic of globalization suggests that world languages such as English will begin to challenge national vernaculars in such a way as to threaten their existence as living languages. The power of nationalism suggests that groups supporting national vernaculars will use all political resources to stem the tide of globalization. This paper analyzes the micro rationality of language choice, seen as an n-person tipping game. It demonstrates that for many postcolonial states, multilingual outcomes for individuals is a powerful equilibrium. The maintenance of multilingual repertoires rather than the replacement of competing languages in all domains by English, the paper concludes, will be the mark of the emerging world language system.