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Taking the well-known Irish language revival policy as a case study, this book examines the complex relationship between processes of economic and social development on the one hand, and processes of language and cultural change on the other. Does modernization inevitably mean the end of traditional languages and cultural practices, or can they re-emerge in new forms?

Spanish, the language of the conquerors, is now subordinate to English in California. Carmen Silva-Corvalan's book makes an original contribution to our growing knowledge of processes involved in language maintenance, shift, and loss by examining the Spanish spoken by an intergenerational sample of Mexican-American bilinguals in Los Angeles County.

This book presents a series of quantitative variationist analyses of the impact that contact with English and language-use restriction has had on the evolution of the French dialect spoken in Ontario.

A study of the indigenized Singaporean variety of English, based on recordings of spontaneous speech of ethnically Chinese Singaporeans who have received an English-medium education.

Lanza examines in detail the simultaneous acquisition of English and Norwegian by two first-born children with American mothers living in Norway. She also addresses whether language mixing in infants is conceptually different from codeswitching.

If the Japanese are exclusive, why do they take so much from English into their language today? Is there a way to understand language contact that is valid across time and space? By examining the 2000-year history of how the Japanese have been influenced by other language groups, Loveday offers general insights into the social causes and patterns of language contact and change.

This book deals with codeswitching - the use of two or more different languages in the same conversation. Using data from multilingual African contexts, Carol Myers-Scotton advances an original theory applicable to any society: speakers change languages in order to negotiate a change in the tenor of the conversation, conveying warmth or anger, solidarity or power, by their linguistic choices.

How and why do adults modify their language when they move to a new area? In this detailed study of rural dialect users who have moved to the Norwegian city of Bergen, Paul Kerswill throws light on this widespread phenomenon.

Ben-Rafael analyses the linguistic resources and symbols which reveal the complex structure of Israeli society.

In the OXFORD STUDIES IN LANGUAGE CONTACT series, this book explores a case of linguistic shift in the Balkans. Focuses on Arvanitika, an Albanian variety spoken in Greece which is under threat through a process of attrition. Emphasises both the macro-processes responsible for the shift and the local communities' discourse as a complex response.

A study of the inter-relations of language and society over time in one of the most complex cities of the ancient and modern worlds.

Looking at the significance of language contact in America, this is a grammatical and sociohistorical study of Mobilian Jargon, an American Indian pidgin. It was used from 1700 until the mid-20th century among groups of southeastern Native Americans, and also in their interactions with non-Indians.

Using case studies this book aims to examine the obsolescence and revitalization of languages and dialects focusing on Welsh dialects, including Gwenhwyseg. It examines dialect death in a socio-political and linguistic manner, and asks if language obsolescence is predictable.

This book examines some of the changes that are taking place in Tok Pisin, an English-based pidgin, as it becomes the native language of the younger generation of rural and urban speakers.

Bislama is the variety of Melanesian Pidgin spoken in Vanuatu. This book describes its history and development from the 1840s to the present. It is the first in a new series of books which will aim to present case studies of language contact around the world.

The term "code-switching" is used to describe the mixing of different language varieties which often results from language contact. This book is a study of code-switching in a European context. In Strasbourg, most of the population speak a German dialect but French is the language of public life.