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The main purpose of this dictionary is twofold. On the one hand, it provides the scholar of African studies with a tool to identify the possible Portuguese origin of terms present in African languages and, on the other, it offers those who are interested in Portuguese culture an overview of the presence of its lexicon in African languages. No doubt the Portuguese were among the first Europeans to explore the world outside of Europe, and as such they were also the first to introduce that world to European concepts and words.This book is the result of a long and detailed work on texts in African languages, as also shown by the rich bibliography in the dictionary.
Covering all seven countries on the isthmus, this volume presents the first collection of original linguistic studies on Central American Spanish varieties, which have long been neglected in Hispanic Linguistics. The analyses in this collection span across disciplines such as sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, bilingualism, historical linguistics, and pragmatics. This volume bridges the gap between international and Central American scholars, as it highlights the work that has already been done by Central American scholars but is relatively unknown to scholars outside of the region. It also introduces readers to more recent work that sheds new light on Central American Spanish varieties, from both urban and rural settings as well as in bilingual communities where Spanish is in contact with indigenous languages.
Phonological and Morphological Reconstruction and Diachrony
The Cangin languages of Senegal remained hidden from linguists for years, and have only recently been seriously documented. This book traces the history of the Cangin languages, and presents a reconstruction of Proto-Cangin through careful application of historical linguistic methods. This is one of few in-depth historical treatments of a West African language family, and takes into account all existing sources, including previously unpublished data from my own work on Noon. The reconstruction of Proto-Cangin reveals a number of important features now obscured in the modern languages, including a surprisingly rich inventory of noun class prefixes, which are of great importance to the study of the world’s largest language family, Niger-Congo. Included is a catalogue of over 600 Proto-Cangin reconstructions.
The Strength of Languages in Take-over and Carry-over Roles
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This book presents Lars Johanson’s Code-Copying Model, an integrated framework for the description of contact-induced processes. The model covers all the main contact linguistic issues in their synchronic and diachronic interrelationship. The terminology is kept intuitive and simple to apply. Illustrative examples from a wide range of languages demonstrate the model’s applicability to both spoken and written codes. The fundamental difference between ‘take-over’ copying and ‘carry-over’ copying is given special value. Speakers can take over copies from a secondary code into their own primary code, or alternatively carry over copies from their own primary code into their variety of a secondary code. The results of these two types of copying are significantly different and thus provide insights into historical processes.
Cerea, madamin, andoma bin? Less than a century ago, this was one of the most frequent greetings heard in Piedmont, a region in northwest Italy. Today, however, Piedmontese is severely endangered.
This volume presents the first widely accessible and comprehensive grammatical description of the contemporary koine, covering its phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatics and typology, and drawing examples from both oral and written sources. Data on the history of the language and the local dialects and notes on revitalization efforts are also included.
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Abstract

Commonly recommended methods for documenting endangered languages are built around the assumption that a given documentary project will focus on a single language rather than a multilingual ecology. This hinders the potential usability of documentary materials for the study of language contact. Research in domains such as ethnography and sociolinguistics has developed conceptual and analytical tools for understanding patterns of multilingual usage, but the insights of such work have yet to be translated into concrete recommendations for enhancements to documentary practice. This paper considers how standard documentary approaches can be adapted to multilingual contexts with respect to activities such as the collection of metadata, the use of ethnographic methods, and the recording and annotation of naturalistic multilingual discourse. A particular focus of the discussion are ways in which documentary projects can create better records of multilingual practices even if these are not the focus of the work.

In: Journal of Language Contact

Abstract

Although we know multilingualism is the norm, most previous work has focused on languages as self-contained entities. Research on language contact mostly assumes bounded languages or repertoires: most studies presuppose contact between stable “communities” and the identifiability of specific languages in bilingual (sometimes plurilingual) corpora. Similarly, language annotation in corpus linguistics is based on the principle of univocity of items belonging to specific languages. In this paper, I address the notion of language boundaries, constructed both by linguists and by language users, and consider heterogeneity as a linguistic resource for speakers in their everyday multilingual language practices. First, there is a need for a shift in focus from linguistic systems toward language users. Second, there is a need for a solid methodology to reveal the heterogeneity of language practices through the annotation of plurilingual corpora. Ambivalence or play on boundaries is a common characteristic of communication in multilingual contexts that we can document.

In: Journal of Language Contact

Abstract

In order to understand why languages become endangered, linguists must shift from documenting the last fluent speakers to documenting the larger ecology of language use in an area. The papers in this special issue all address different aspects of documenting language multilingualism. They address three related topics: (1) consideration of the state of multilingualism in endangered language ecologies; (2) tools and methods for transcribing, annotating, analyzing and presenting multilingual corpora; and (3) methods in documenting and studying language contact in process.

Open Access
In: Journal of Language Contact

Abstract

When minority languages with similar typological profiles are in long-term contact with a genealogically unrelated socioeconomically dominant language, the perfect context is provided for investigating which observed contact effects are demonstrably allied to sociolinguistic dynamics rather than purely structural ones. This paper investigates the factors determining the different extent of contact effects in four Tibeto-Burman languages (Gurung, Gyalsumdo, Nar-Phu, and Manange) spoken in a geo-politically defined and multilingual region of Nepal. Using corpus data and sociolinguistic interviews collected in the field, we demonstrate that a range of social, economic and geo-spatial factors contribute to asymmetries where contact effects are observed in the four speech communities. These notably include factors specifically relevant in mountasin-based communities, including proximity to transport and trekking routes, outward migration effects on small settlements, and the primary economies of the different parts of the Manang District.

In: Journal of Language Contact

Abstract

Data from long-term research in two ideologically divergent Native American linguistic communities demonstrate the importance, first, of indigenous multilingualisms and, second, of distinctive ideologies of multilingualism in shaping the divergent language contact outcomes and practices of those communities as they adapted to such forces as economic incorporation, colonization, assimilationist policies, and later decolonization and attempted language revitalization. Indigenous ideological differences in these communities were key factors in producing divergent patterns of language shift as well as in community efforts to document and revitalize their respective heritage languages. The Village of Tewa (NE Arizona) still partially retains a multilingual adaptation in all generations except youth and young adults (; ). The Western Mono (Central California) were traditionally multilingual with neighboring languages of the Yokuts and Southern Sierra Miwok groups (). Though both groups were historically multilingual, multilingual practices were differentially influenced by distinctive language ideologies such as those emphasizing purism/syncretism and the expressive/utilitarian functions of language. This observation suggests the importance of understanding indigenous multilingualisms and their consequences for language contact within their language ideological assemblages ().

In: Journal of Language Contact