Upper Sorbian Language Policy in Education

Upper Sorbian Language Policy in Education
Author: Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2023-02-13
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9004510745

The book provides an insight into the revitalization of the Upper Sorbian language through education. It discusses the trials and tribulations of being new speakers of a minority language in a society linguistically divided.

Transmitting Minority Languages

Transmitting Minority Languages
Author: Michael Hornsby
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2022-04-13
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3030879100

This book gives fresh insight into the diverse ways in which the transmission of minority and heritage languages is carried out in a range of sociolinguistic contexts. When traditional modes of intergenerational transmission begin to break down, minority language and diaspora communities resort to other modes of transmission, out of necessity, to complement traditional mechanisms and secure language maintenance. This volume brings together a broad range of studies of these alternative modes of transmission, examining the complex and diverse practical, ideological and personal challenges that arise in different settings. Beyond addressing the dynamics of language use within the home and family, the book also emphasises the importance of the participation of the minority community itself in language and cultural transmission. These mechanisms and initiatives, sometimes overlooked or dismissed in the academic literature, will prove to be essential in maintaining and ensuring the survival of minority and heritage languages into the 21st century and beyond. The twelve chapters in the book are divided into four sections (intergenerational transmission; transmission in post-traditional families; alternatives to ‘traditional’ transmission; and transmission in diasporic contexts), and the language contexts, both minoritised and diasporic, which are discussed include Basque, Breton, Galician, Guernesais, Irish, Māori, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Sorbian and Spanish. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of sociolinguistics, language acquisition, heritage language maintenance and revitalization, and language policy and planning.

The Slavonic Languages

The Slavonic Languages
Author: Professor Greville Corbett
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1056
Release: 2003-09-01
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1136861440

In this scholarly volume, each of the living Slavonic languages are analysed and described in depth, together with the two extinct languages - Old Church Slavonic and Polabian. In addition, the various alphabets of the Slavonic languages - particularly Roman, Cyrillic and Glagolitic - are discussed, and the relationships of the Slavonic languages to other Indo-European languages and to one another, are explored. The last chapter provides an account of those Slavonic languages in exile, for example, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech and Slovak in the USA. Each language-chapter is written by an expert in the field, in a format designed for comparative study. Information on each language includes: an introductory description of social context and development (where appropriate); a discussion of phonology; a detailed presentation of synchronic morphology, noting major historical developments; comprehensive treatment of syntactic properties; a discussion of vocabulary; an outline of main dialects; and an extensive bibliography, listing English and other sources.

The Evolution of the Slavic Dual

The Evolution of the Slavic Dual
Author: Tatyana G. Slobodchikoff
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2019-10-04
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1498579256

The dual number in Slavic has always puzzled linguists. While some Slavic languages, such as Slovenian, have three distinct categories of number--singular (1), dual (2), and plural (3 or more) –other Slavic languages, such as Russian, have no dual number. Considering that all Slavic languages have evolved from a common Proto Slavic language, it is puzzling that there is such a difference in the category of number. In The Evolution of the Slavic Dual: A Biolinguistic Perspective, with the aid of tools from biolinguistics, Tatyana G. Slobodchikoff develops a new theory of Morphosyntactic Feature Economy within the distributed morphology framework. Using newly digitized corpora of Old East Slavic, Old Slovenian, and Old Sorbian manuscripts spanning from the eleventh century through the present time, this book presents a thorough analysis of the evolution of dual number in Slavic languages.

Texas Studies in Bilingualism

Texas Studies in Bilingualism
Author: Glenn G. Gilbert
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2013-03-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110845296

The series Studia Linguistica Germanica, founded in 1968 by Ludwig Erich Schmitt and Stefan Sonderegger, is one of the standard publication organs for German Linguistics. The series aims to cover the whole spectrum of the subject, while concentrating on questions relating to language history and the history of linguistic ideas. It includes works on the historical grammar and semantics of German, on the relationship of language and culture, on the history of language theory, on dialectology, on lexicology / lexicography, text linguisticsand on the location of German in the European linguistic context.

The Handbook of Language Contact

The Handbook of Language Contact
Author: Raymond Hickey
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 1102
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1119485053

The second edition of the definitive reference on contact studies and linguistic change—provides extensive new research and original case studies Language contact is a dynamic area of contemporary linguistic research that studies how language changes when speakers of different languages interact. Accessibly structured into three sections, The Handbook of Language Contact explores the role of contact studies within the field of linguistics, the value of contact studies for language change research, and the relevance of language contact for sociolinguistics. This authoritative volume presents original findings and fresh research directions from an international team of prominent experts. Thirty-seven specially-commissioned chapters cover a broad range of topics and case studies of contact from around the world. Now in its second edition, this valuable reference has been extensively updated with new chapters on topics including globalization, language acquisition, creolization, code-switching, and genetic classification. Fresh case studies examine Romance, Indo-European, African, Mayan, and many other languages in both the past and the present. Addressing the major issues in the field of language contact studies, this volume: Includes a representative sample of individual studies which re-evaluate the role of language contact in the broader context of language and society Offers 23 new chapters written by leading scholars Examines language contact in different societies, including many in Africa and Asia Provides a cross-section of case studies drawing on languages across the world The Handbook of Language Contact, Second Edition is an indispensable resource for researchers, scholars, and students involved in language contact, language variation and change, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, and language theory.

Word-Formation

Word-Formation
Author: Peter O. Müller
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 829
Release: 2016-01-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110393549

This handbook comprises an in-depth presentation of the state of the art in word-formation. The five volumes contain 207 articles written by leading international scholars. The XVI chapters of the handbook provide the reader, in both general articles and individual studies, with a wide variety of perspectives: word-formation as a linguistic discipline (history of science, theoretical concepts), units and processes in word-formation, rules and restrictions, semantics and pragmatics, foreign word-formation, language planning and purism, historical word-formation, word-formation in language acquisition and aphasia, word-formation and language use, tools in word-formation research. The final chapter comprises 74 portraits of word-formation in the individual languages of Europe and offers an innovative perspective. These portraits afford the first overview of this kind and will prove useful for future typological research. This handbook will provide an essential reference for both advanced students and researchers in word-formation and related fields within linguistics.

Loanwords in the World's Languages

Loanwords in the World's Languages
Author: Martin Haspelmath
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 1104
Release: 2009-12-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110218445

This book is the first work to address the question of what kinds of words get borrowed in a systematic and comparative perspective. It studies lexical borrowing behavior on the basis of a world-wide sample of 40 languages, both major languages and minor languages, and both languages with heavy borrowing and languages with little lexical influence from other languages. The book is the result of a five-year project bringing together a unique group of specialists of many different languages and areas. The introductory chapters provide a general up-to-date introduction to language contact at the word level, as well as a presentation of the project's methodology. All the chapters are based on samples of 1000-2000 words, elicited by a uniform meaning list of 1460 meanings. The combined database, comprising over 70,000 words, is published online at the same time as the book is published. For each word, information about loanword status is given in the database, and the 40 case studies in the book describe the social and historical contact situations in detail. The final chapter draws general conclusions about what kinds of words tend to get borrowed, what kinds of word meanings are particularly resistant to borrowing, and what kinds of social contact situations lead to what kinds of borrowing situations.

The Palgrave Handbook of Slavic Languages, Identities and Borders

The Palgrave Handbook of Slavic Languages, Identities and Borders
Author: Tomasz Kamusella
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 579
Release: 2016-04-29
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1137348399

This book analyzes the creation of languages across the Slavophone areas of the world and their deployment for political projects and identity building, mainly after 1989. It offers perspectives from a number of disciplines such as sociolinguistics, socio-political history and language policy. Languages are artefacts of culture, meaning they are created by people. They are often used for identity building and maintenance, but in Central and Eastern Europe they became the basis of nation building and national statehood maintenance. The recent split of the Serbo-Croatian language in the wake of the break-up of Yugoslavia amply illustrates the highly politicized role of languages in this region, which is also home to most of the world’s Slavic-speakers. This volume presents and analyzes the creation of languages across the Slavophone areas of the world and their deployment for political projects and identity building, mainly after 1989. The overview concludes with a reflection on the recent rise of Slavophone speech communities in Western Europe and Israel. The book brings together renowned international scholars who offer a variety of perspectives from a number of disciplines and sub-fields such as sociolinguistics, socio-political history and language policy, making this book of great interest to historians, sociologists, political scientists and anthropologists interested in Central and Eastern Europe and Slavic Studies.