The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages

The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages
Author: Peter K. Austin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 581
Release: 2011-03-24
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 113950083X

It is generally agreed that about 7,000 languages are spoken across the world today and at least half may no longer be spoken by the end of this century. This state-of-the-art Handbook examines the reasons behind this dramatic loss of linguistic diversity, why it matters, and what can be done to document and support endangered languages. The volume is relevant not only to researchers in language endangerment, language shift and language death, but to anyone interested in the languages and cultures of the world. It is accessible both to specialists and non-specialists: researchers will find cutting-edge contributions from acknowledged experts in their fields, while students, activists and other interested readers will find a wealth of readable yet thorough and up-to-date information.

Contact Languages

Contact Languages
Author: Peter Bakker
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2013-06-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1614513716

This volume deals with several types of contact languages: pidgins, creoles, mixed languages, and multi-ethnolects. It also approaches contact languages from two perspectives: an historical linguistic perspective, more specifically from a viewpoint of genealogical linguistics, language descent and linguistic family tree models; and a sociolinguistic perspective, identifying specific social contexts in which contact languages emerge.

Motives for Language Change

Motives for Language Change
Author: Raymond Hickey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2003-01-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1139433679

This specially commissioned volume considers the processes involved in language change and the issues of how they can be modelled and studied. The way languages change offers an insight into the nature of language itself, its internal organisation, and how it is acquired and used. Accordingly, the phenomenon of language change has been approached from a variety of perspectives by linguists of many different orientations. This book, originally published in 2003, brings together an international team of leading figures from different areas of linguistics to re-examine some of the central issues in this field and also to discuss new proposals. The volume is arranged into sections, including grammaticalisation, the typological perspective, the social context of language change and contact-based explanations. It seeks to cover the subject as a whole, bearing in mind its relevance for the general analysis of language, and will appeal to a broad international readership.

Language Contact and Contact Languages

Language Contact and Contact Languages
Author: Peter Siemund
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2008
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027219273

This new volume on language contact and contact languages presents cutting-edge research by distinguished scholars in the field as well as by highly talented newcomers. It has two principal aims: to analyze language contact from different perspectives – notably those of language typology, diachronic linguistics, language acquisition and translation studies; and to describe, explain, and elaborate on universal constraints on language contact. The individual chapters offer systematic comparisons of a wealth of contact situations and the book as a whole makes a valuable contribution to deepening our understanding of contact-induced language change. With its broad approach, this work will be welcomed by scholars of many different persuasions.

Language

Language
Author: Annikki Koskensalo
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2012
Genre: Education
ISBN: 364310801X

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)

Language Change in Contact Languages

Language Change in Contact Languages
Author: J. Clancy Clements
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2011
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027202559

The studies in Language Change in Contact Languages showcase the contributions that the study of contact language varieties make to the understanding of phenomena such as relexification, transfer, reanalysis, grammaticalization, prosodic variation and the development of prosodic systems. Four of the studies deal with morphosyntactic issues while the other three address questions of prosody. The studies include data from the Atlantic creoles (Saramaccan, Sranan, Haitian Creole, Jamaican Creole, Trinidadian Creole, Papiamentu), as well as Singapore English. This volume, originally pulished as special issue of Studies in Language 33:2 (2009), aims to make the work of several language contact experts available to a wider audience. The studies will be of use to any student or scholar interested in different approaches to contact-induced language processes, particularly as they relate to morphosyntax and prosody.

Language Contact and Change in the Americas

Language Contact and Change in the Americas
Author: Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2016-04-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027267332

This unique collection of articles in honor of Marianne Mithun represents the very latest in research on language contact and language change in the Indigenous languages of the Americas. The book aims to provide new theoretical and empirical insights into how and why languages change, especially with regard to contact phenomena in languages of North America, Meso-America and South America. The individual chapters cover a broad range of topics, including sound change, morphosyntactic change, lexical semantics, grammaticalization, language endangerment, and discourse-pragmatic change. With chapters from distinguished scholars and talented newcomers alike, this book will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in internally- and externally-motivated language change.

Language Contact

Language Contact
Author: Muriel Norde
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2010-03-03
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027288437

The study of languages in contact is an ever-relevant topic in linguistics, especially at present times when increasing globalization leads to a number of new contact situations. This volume features ten papers on various aspects of language contact by leading specialists in the field. In these papers, contact-induced change in a wide variety of languages is approached from various perspectives, reflecting the current state of affairs in language contact studies. The first main theme in the volume is related to the linguistic effects of migration, both in the present and in the past, and both in the standard language spoken by ethnic minorities, and in immigrant languages that are influenced by the standard. The second theme concerns border areas, a traditional treasure trove for the study of contact phenomena. The third theme is about contact effects without physical contact, as well as the role played by translators in this process.

Language Contact

Language Contact
Author: Yaron Matras
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2020-09-10
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1108574130

Language contact occurs when speakers of different languages interact and their languages influence one another. Drawing on the author's own first-hand observations of child and adult bilingualism, this book combines his original research with an up-to-date introduction to key concepts, to provide a holistic, original theory of contact linguistics. Going beyond a descriptive outline of contact phenomena, it introduces a theory of contact-induced language change, linking structural change to motivations in discourse and language processing. Since the first edition was published, the field has rapidly grown, and this fully revised edition covers all of the most recent developments, making it an invaluable resource for researchers and advanced students in linguistics.

When Languages Collide

When Languages Collide
Author: Brian D. Joseph
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2003
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780814209134