Globalization and Language Vitality: Perspectives from Africa

Cécile B. Vigouroux · Salikoko S. Mufwene

Nov 2008 · A&C Black

Ebook

272

Pages

About this ebook

This book discusses the effects of globalization on languages in Africa. In contrast to previous studies, the contributors examine whether or not globalization is affecting African languages in the same ways and at the same rate in different countries, and how local experiences of language change vary from place to place. Rather than seeing English as the 'killer language' par excellence, the contributors probe ways in which languages are being used side by side to complement each other in some contexts while competing against European colonial languages in others. The result is a diverse canvas of language vitality in the African context, including matters of endangerment and loss, through the lense of globalization in its various interpretations.

This book is a must read for students and researchers interested in language change and death and in the fate of European languages in the rest of the world.

About the author

Jan Blommaert is Professor of Language, Culture and Globalization and Director of Babylon, Center for the Study of Superdiversity at Tilburg University, The Netherlands. He also holds appointments at Ghent University (Belgium) and the University of the Western Cape (South Africa). He is the author of Discourse: A Critical Introduction (2005), The Sociolinguistics of Globalization 2010) and Ethnography, Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of Complexity (2013).

Cécile B. Vigouroux is Assistant Professor in the Department of Romance Languages at Simon Fraser University, Canada.

Salikoko S. Mufwene is the Frank J. McLoraine Distinguished Service Professor of Linguistics as well as Professor on the Committee on Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago, USA.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets

Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.

Laptops and computers

You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.

eReaders and other devices

To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.

Flag as inappropriate