Urban Diversities and Language Policies in Medium-Sized Linguistic Communities

Emili Boix-Fuster (ed.)

Price: £24.00

Release Date: 04-Aug-2015

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Language: eng

ISBN: 9781783093922

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Mapping Urban Multilingualism in Europe: In Search of Untapped Resources in Primary Schools
  Guus Extra
• Competitive and Cooperative Orientations in Language Policies: A Critical Look at the Situation of Dutch in Brussels
  Philippe Hambye
• Language Diversity in Vigo: The Challenges of a Minoritized Language in a Highly Castilianized City
  Iago González Pascual and Fernando Ramallo
• Helsinki as a Multilingual City
  Pirkko Nuolijärvi
• Tallinn, a Multilingual City in the Era of Globalization: The Challenges Facing Estonian as a Medium-Sized Language
  Josep Soler-Carbonell
• Multilingual Valencia: Linguistic Destruction and Reconstruction of an Urban Space
  Miquel Nicolás Amorós and Francesc Jesús Hernández Dobon
• Multilingualism in Barcelona: Towards An Asymmetrical Multilingualism
  Emili Boix-Fuster
• Language in Copenhagen: Changing Social Structures, Changing Ideologies, Changing Linguistic Practices
  Marie Maegaard and J. Normann Jørgensen
• Conclusions

Summary

This book examines medium-sized linguistic communities in urban contexts against the backdrop of the language policies which have been implemented in these respective areas. The authors provide new data and reflections on these linguistic communities which have languages somewhere in between the majority and minority, and re-evaluate the opposition between ‘majority’ and ‘minority’. The book focuses on seven European cities, providing detailed information on their current situation and on the corresponding evolution of their linguistic repertoire. The book aims to improve our understanding of how and why languages live and decay, and of how intercultural cities, where communities show interest in each other’s culture and language, can be better developed and encouraged.

Review:

The sustainability of medium-sized language communities is a new and original subject of sociolinguistic research carried out at the University of Barcelona. The well-known linguist and editor Emili Boix-Fuster presents a highly interesting book that shows how political and economic factors favour or disfavour the maintenance of medium-sized language communities in seven European cities.
Gabriele Berkenbusch, West Saxon University of Applied Sciences of Zwickau, Germany

A welcome wealth of information on ‘medium sized’ European languages and their bases in notably diverse, multilingual cities. Not small and endangered, not big and hegemonic, urban not bucolic, these languages – and their speakers and policymakers – share challenges and possibilities for long-term sustainability thoughtfully explored here.
Kathryn A. Woolard, University of California, San Diego, USA

Author Biography:

Emili Boix-Fuster is Professor in Sociolinguistics at the University of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. He is General Editor of the academic journal Treballs de Sociolingüística Catalana (Papers in Catalan Sociolinguistics), and his research interests include intergenerational linguistic transmission, urban multilingualism and sociolects.

Readership Level:

Postgraduate Research / Professional