Language policy and language conflict in Afghanistan and its neighbors : the changing politics of language choice / edited by Harold F. Schiffman.

Afghan languages in a larger context of Central and South Asia / Harold F. Schiffman and Brian Spooner -- Language policy in Afghanistan: linguistic diversity and national unity / Senzil Nawid -- Locating 'Pashto' in Afghanistan: a survey of secondary sources / Walter Hakala -- Persian, Farsi, Dari, Tajiki: language names and language policies / Brian Spooner -- Reversing language shift in Kazakhstan / William Fierman -- Language policy and language development in multilingual Uzbekistan / Birgit Schlyter -- The fate of Uzbek language in the 'other' Central Asian republics / William Fierman -- Pashto language policy and practice in the North West Frontier Province / Robert Nichols -- A 'vernacular' for a 'new generation'? Historical perspectives about Urdu and Punjabi, and the formation of language policy in colonial Northwest India / Jeffrey M. Diamond -- Balochi: towards a biography of the language / Brian Spooner -- Resources for the study of language policies and languages of Afghanistan and its neighbors / Cynthia Groff -- Conclusion / Harold F. Schiffman.

Language policy in Central Asia, Afghanistan and the immediately surrounding neighboring countries has a long and varied history. The Iranian revolution of 1978, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan since 2001 have left the area in a state of flux. This volume gives a better picture about what is official and explicit, what is not official but implicit or general practice, and what the likely future developments might be. It is very clear that multilingualism, whether it involves Persian, Russian or English in addition to other languages, not only has long been a part of the scene, but will probably continue to be so.

Includes bibliographical references and index.