Language policy in Bolivia

Abstract

This article distinguishes between language policy and linguistic policies. The first one is also named the politics of language, which interprets the essentials of language diversity as a problem, as rights or as linguistic capital. It analyzes at the national and international level, whereas linguistic policies are the constraints that can be understood from linguistic rights and they follow a certain language policy. These constraints are measures at the intra­national level. Then, the plurilingualism of Bolivia is overt thanks to the recognition of languages at the meso and macro level, say, in the community and in the society.