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Providing an innovative approach to the written displays of minority languages in public space this volume explores minority language situations through the lens of linguistic landscape research. Based on very tangible data it explores the 'same old issues' of language contact and language conflict in new ways.
The Romance languages offer a particularly fertile ground for the exploration of the relationship between language and society in different social contexts and communities. Focusing on a wide range of Romance languages – from national languages to minoritised varieties – this volume explores questions concerning linguistic diversity and multilingualism, language contact, medium and genre, variation and change. It will interest researchers and policy-makers alike.
This volume brings together a selection of articles about research conducted on language acquisition in the Baltic States, in Latvia and Lithuania; a field which has witnessed massive growth in recent years. It will stimulate the reader to ask questions, think of solutions, argue and propose counterarguments with regards to language acquisitions in this region. The driving force in this field is dialogue and argumentative discussion, not utilitarian notes and advice, and, through detailing a range of views on language acquisition problems and perspectives, this volume achieves that aim.
The present volume grew out of the 30th International LAUD Symposium, held on April 19–22, 2004 at the University of Koblenz-Landau in Landau, Germany. The conference, "Empowerment through Language", was centrally concerned with the concept of power and/or empowerment as observed in the status and use of language(s) and their speakers in bilingual and multilingual communities. The book discusses the theoretical issues inherent in the relation between language and power, the empowerment strategies involved in language policy and language planning situations, and the issue of language endangerment in Africa, i.e., the fate of minority languages and their speakers and the sociopolitical facto...
This book focuses on linguistic landscapes in present-day urban settings. In a wide-ranging collection of studies of major world cities, the authors investigate both the forces that shape linguistic landscape and the impact of the linguistic landscape on the wider social and cultural reality. Not only does the book offer a wealth of case studies and comparisons to complement existing publications on linguistic landscape, but the editors aim to investigate the nature of a field of study which is characterised by its interest in ‘ordered disorder’. The editors aspire to delve into linguistic landscape beyond its appearance as a jungle of jumbled and irregular items by focusing on the variations in linguistic landscape configurations and recognising that it is but one more field of the shaping of social reality under diverse, uncoordinated and possibly incongruent structuration principles.
This edited collection provides an overview of linguistic diversity, societal discourses and interaction between majorities and minorities in the Baltic States. It presents a wide range of methods and research paradigms including folk linguistics, discourse analysis, narrative analyses, code alternation, ethnographic observations, language learning motivation, languages in education and language acquisition. Grouped thematically, its chapters examine regional varieties and minority languages (Latgalian, Võro, urban dialects in Lithuania, Polish in Lithuania); the integration of the Russian language and its speakers; and the role of international languages like English in Baltic societies. T...
This volume considers the linguistic borders between languages and dialects, as well as the administrative, cultural and mental borders that reflect or affect linguistic ones; it comprises eight articles examining the mental borders between dialects, dialect continua and areas of mixed dialect, language ideologies, language mixing and contact-induced language change. The book opens with Dennis R. Preston’s review article on perceptual dialectology, showing how this field of study provides insights on laymen’s perceptions about dialect boundaries, and how such perceptions explain regional and social variation. Johanna Laakso problematizes the common notion of languages as having clear...
As speakers of different languages interact, language contact will occur. Language contact will necessarily lead to language change for both parties involved in such contact. As languages change, the issue of competence becomes problematic. Who has the right to say what language will be taught in schools, or what kind of language will be published in the press and spoken in the media in a world where languages constantly change? The articles in this collection refer to several language areas in Europe, from the North (Scandinavia), the South (Spain / Balkan), the East (Ukraine / Russia), as well as the Center (Austria / Germany) and includes one contribution on Canada. They present different cases of language competence and assessment, languages in contact in different settings, and language changes which are related to applied linguistics, both from a sociolinguistic and an educational linguistic point of view. (Series: Poetry - Truth - Language / Dichtung - Wahrheit - Sprache - Vol. 11)
In the rich tradition of mobile communication studies and new media, this volume examines how mobile technologies are being embraced by Indigenous people all over the world. As mobile phones have revolutionised society both in developed and developing countries, so Indigenous people are using mobile devices to bring their communities into the twenty-first century. The explosion of mobile devices and applications in Indigenous communities addresses issues of isolation and building an environment for the learning and sharing of knowledge, providing support for cultural and language revitalisation, and offering the means for social and economic renewal. This book explores how mobile technologies are overcoming disadvantage and the tyrannies of distance, allowing benefits to flow directly to Indigenous people and bringing wide-ranging changes to their lives. It begins with general issues and theoretical perspectives followed by empirical case studies that include the establishment of Indigenous mobile networks and practices, mobile technologies for social change and, finally, the ways in which mobile technology is being used to sustain Indigenous culture and language.
This Handbook is an in-depth appraisal of the field of minority languages and communities today. It presents a wide-ranging, coherent picture of the main topics, with key contributions from international specialists in sociolinguistics, policy studies, sociology, anthropology and law. Individual chapters are grouped together in themes, covering regional, non-territorial and migratory language settings across the world. It is the essential reference work for specialist researchers, scholars in ancillary disciplines, research and coursework students, public agencies and anyone interested in language diversity, multilingualism and migration.