THE GAME-THEORY OF LANGUAGE REGIMES

The logic of globalization suggests that world languages such as Engli sh will begin to challenge national vernaculars in such a way as to th reaten their existence as living languages. The power of nationalism s uggests that groups supporting national vernaculars will use all polit ical 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 lan guages in all domains by English, the paper concludes, will be the mar k of the emerging world language system.