Multilingual Practices in Language History

Multilingual Practices in Language History PDF Author: Päivi Pahta
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501504940
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Texts of the past were often not monolingual but were produced by and for people with bi- or multilingual repertoires; the communicative practices witnessed in them therefore reflect ongoing and earlier language contact situations. However, textbooks and earlier research tend to display a monolingual bias. This collected volume on multilingual practices in historical materials, including code-switching, highlights the importance of a multilingual approach. The authors explore multilingualism in hitherto neglected genres, periods and areas, introduce new methods of locating and analysing multiple languages in various sources, and review terminology, theories and tools. The studies also revisit some of the issues already introduced in previous research, such as Latin interacting with European vernaculars and the complex relationship between code-switching and lexical borrowing. Collectively, the contributors show that multilingual practices share many of the same features regardless of time and place, and that one way or the other, all historical texts are multilingual. This book takes the next step in historical multilingualism studies by establishing the relevance of the multilingual approach to understanding language history.

Multilingual Practices in Language History

Multilingual Practices in Language History PDF Author: Päivi Pahta
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501504940
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Get Book

Book Description
Texts of the past were often not monolingual but were produced by and for people with bi- or multilingual repertoires; the communicative practices witnessed in them therefore reflect ongoing and earlier language contact situations. However, textbooks and earlier research tend to display a monolingual bias. This collected volume on multilingual practices in historical materials, including code-switching, highlights the importance of a multilingual approach. The authors explore multilingualism in hitherto neglected genres, periods and areas, introduce new methods of locating and analysing multiple languages in various sources, and review terminology, theories and tools. The studies also revisit some of the issues already introduced in previous research, such as Latin interacting with European vernaculars and the complex relationship between code-switching and lexical borrowing. Collectively, the contributors show that multilingual practices share many of the same features regardless of time and place, and that one way or the other, all historical texts are multilingual. This book takes the next step in historical multilingualism studies by establishing the relevance of the multilingual approach to understanding language history.

Language Diversity in the Sinophone World

Language Diversity in the Sinophone World PDF Author: Henning Klöter
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000201481
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Language Diversity in the Sinophone World offers interdisciplinary insights into social, cultural, and linguistic aspects of multilingualism in the Sinophone world, highlighting language diversity and opening up the burgeoning field of Sinophone studies to new perspectives from sociolinguistics. The book begins by charting historical trajectories in Sinophone multilingualism, beginning with late imperial China through to the emergence of English in the mid-19th century. The volume uses this foundation as a jumping off point from which to provide an in-depth comparison of modern language planning and policies throughout the Sinophone world, with the final section examining multilingual practices not readily captured by planning frameworks and the ideologies, identities, repertoires, and competences intertwined within these different multilingual configurations. Taken together, the collection makes a unique sociolinguistic-focused intervention into emerging research in Sinophone studies and will be of interest to students and scholars within the discipline.

Standard Languages and Multilingualism in European History

Standard Languages and Multilingualism in European History PDF Author: Matthias Hüning
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027200556
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Explores the roots of Europe's struggle with multilingualism. This book argues that, over the centuries, the pursuit of linguistic homogeneity has become a central aspect of the mindset of Europeans. It offers an overview of the emergence of a standard language ideology and its relationship with ethnicity, territorial unity and social mobility

Multilingualism: A Very Short Introduction

Multilingualism: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: John C. Maher
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191038075
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
The languages of the world can be seen and heard in cities and towns, forests and isolated settlements, as well as on the internet and in international organizations like the UN or the EU. How did the world acquire so many languages? Why can't we all speak one language, like English or Esperanto? And what makes a person bilingual? Multilingualism, language diversity in society, is a perfect expression of human plurality. About 6,500-7,000 languages are spoken, written and signed, throughout the linguistic landscape of the world, by people who communicate in more than one language (at work, or in the family or community). Many origin myths, like Babel, called it a 'punishment' but multilingualism makes us who we are and plays a large part of our sense of belonging. Languages are instruments for interacting with the cultural environment and their ecology is complex. They can die (Tasmanian), or decline then revive (Manx and Hawaiian), reconstitute from older forms (modern Hebrew), gain new status (Catalan and Maori) or become autonomous national languages (Croatian). Languages can even play a supportive and symbolic role as some territories pursue autonomy or nationhood, such as in the cases of Catalonia and Scotland. In this Very Short Introduction John C. Maher shows how multilingualism offers cultural diversity, complex identities, and alternative ways of doing and knowing to hybrid identities. Increasing multilingualism is drastically changing our view of the value of language, and our notion of the part language plays in national and cultural identities. At the same time multilingualism can lead to social and political conflict, unequal power relations, issues of multiculturalism, and discussions over 'national' or 'official' languages, with struggles over language rights of local and indigenous communities. Considering multilingualism in the context of globalization, Maher also looks at the fate of many endangered languages as they disappear from the world. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Standard Languages and Multilingualism in European History

Standard Languages and Multilingualism in European History PDF Author: Matthias Hüning
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 902727391X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
This volume explores the roots of Europe's struggle with multilingualism. It argues that, over the centuries, the pursuit of linguistic homogeneity has become a central aspect of the mindset of Europeans. In its extreme form, it became manifest in the principle of 'one language, one state, one people'. Consequently, multilingualism came to be viewed as an undesirable aberration. The authors of this volume approach the relationship between standard languages and multilingualism from a historical, cross-European perspective. They provide a comprehensive overview of the emergence of a standard language ideology and its intricate relationship with matters of ethnicity, territorial unity and social mobility. They explain for different European language areas in what ways the emergence of standard languages had an impact on multilingual policies and practices. Its comparative approach makes this volume an important resource for linguists, researchers from different philologies and social historians.

Multilingual Texts and Practices in Early Modern Europe

Multilingual Texts and Practices in Early Modern Europe PDF Author: Peter Auger
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000833038
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
This collection offers a cross-disciplinary exploration of the ways in which multilingual practices were embedded in early modern European literary culture, opening up a dynamic dialogue between contemporary multilingual practices and scholarly work on early modern history and literature. The nine chapters draw on translation studies, literary history, transnational literatures, and contemporary sociolinguistic research to explore how multilingual practices manifested themselves across different social, cultural and institutional spaces. The exploration of a diverse range of contexts allows for the opportunity to engage with questions around how individual practices shape national and transnational language practices and literatures, the impact of multilingual practices on identity formation, and their implications for creative innovations in bilingual and multilingual texts. Taken as a whole, the collection paves the way for future conversations on what early modern literary studies and present-day multilingualism research might learn from one another and the extent to which historical texts might supply precedents for contemporary multilingual practices. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in sociolinguistics, early modern studies in history and literature, and comparative literature.

Beyond the Mother Tongue

Beyond the Mother Tongue PDF Author: Yasemin Yildiz
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823241300
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Monolingualism-the idea that having just one language is the norm is only a recent invention, dating to late-eighteenth-century Europe. Yet it has become a dominant, if overlooked, structuring principle of modernity. According to this monolingual paradigm, individuals are imagined to be able to think and feel properly only in one language, while multiple languages are seen as a threat to the cohesion of individuals and communities, institutions and disciplines. As a result of this view, writing in anything but one's "mother tongue" has come to be seen as an aberration.

English as a Local Language

English as a Local Language PDF Author: Christina Higgins
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 1847696937
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
When analyzed in multilingual contexts, English is often treated as an entity that is separable from its linguistic environment. It is often the case, however, that multilinguals use English in hybrid and transcultural ways. This book explores how multilingual East Africans make use of English as a local resource in their everyday practices by examining a range of domains, including workplace conversation, beauty pageants, hip hop and advertising. Drawing on the Bakhtinian concept of multivocality, the author uses discourse analysis and ethnographic approaches to demonstrate the range of linguistic and cultural hybridity found across these domains, and to consider the constraints on hybridity in each context. By focusing on the cultural and linguistic bricolage in which English is often found, the book illustrates how multilinguals respond to the tension between local identification and dominant conceptualizations of English as a language for global communication.

The Many Faces of Multilingualism

The Many Faces of Multilingualism PDF Author: Piotr Romanowski
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501514695
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Multilingualism has become an increasingly common global phenomenon especially in the last two decades. Therefore, multilingual programmes have now been regarded as a cornerstone of education systems in many countries around the world. Learning multiple languages helps us plug into a globalised world and strengthen links with a multitude of speakers from a diversified reality we live in. Thanks to the researched cases described in the chapters, further developments aimed at fostering multilingual practices in the contemporary world will be enhanced. The chapters included in the present volume, provide an overview of current theory, research and practice in the field. They deal with such prominent research topics as multilingual education, language policies, language contact, identity of multilingual speakers, to name only a few. The selected chapters focus on the numerous and heterogeneous relations between languages. They also incorporate a series of contextualized studies with diverse research designs applied in different settings across the globe. This volume constitutes a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly material on multilingualism from twelve different countries. It is a thought-provoking collection that provides a series of rich insights into the way multilingualism is practised in international contexts. It is ideally designed for academics, upper-level students, educators, professionals and practitioners seeking linguistic and pedagogical guidance on multilingualism.

Multilingual Brazil

Multilingual Brazil PDF Author: Marilda C. Cavalcanti
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131722731X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
This book brings together cutting edge work by Brazilian researchers on multilingualism in Brazil for an English-speaking readership in one comprehensive volume. Divided into five sections, each with its own introduction, tying together the themes of the book, the volume charts a course for a new sociolinguistics of multilingualism, challenging long-held perceptions about a monolingual Brazil by exploring the different policies, language resources, ideologies and social identities that have emerged in the country’s contemporary multilingual landscape. The book elucidates the country’s linguistic history to demonstrate its evolution to its present state, a country shaped by political, economic, and cultural forces both locally and globally, and explores different facets of today’s multilingual Brazil, including youth on the margins and their cultural and linguistic practices; the educational challenges of socially marginalized groups; and minority groups’ efforts to strengthen languages of identity and belonging. In addition to assembling linguistic research done in Brazil previously little known to an English-speaking readership, the book incorporates theoretical frameworks from other disciplines to provide a comprehensive picture of the social, political, and cultural dynamics at play in multilingual Brazil. This volume is key reading for researchers in linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, cultural studies, and Latin American studies.