Novedad =?ISO-8859-1?Q?bibliogr=E1fica?=: M.T. Turell, ed. Multilingualism in Spain: Sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic aspects of linguistic minority groups. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

[Carlos Subirats Rüggeberg]

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                          Novedad bibliográfica:
    TURELL, M. Teresa, ed. 2001. Multilingualism in Spain:
Sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic aspects of linguistic minority
groups. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters Ltd. (Hardback, xv, 389 pp.,
Multilingual Matters Series).
          Recensión de: Silvia Rodríguez mailto:rodriguezs at cofc.edu
                     distribuida por LINGUIST List:
               http://linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-1066.html
____________________________________________________________________

                                  SYNOPSIS

    This book contains a collection of articles on linguistic diversity
in Spain.  It describes Spain's multilingual make-up including the
larger established communities such as Catalan, Basque, and Galician,
but also smaller established communities, and new migrant communities.
It is well-organized and very readable.

    Multilingualism in Spain presents the topics from an
interdisciplinary approach. The editor and the contributors come from
different fields of study such as Applied Linguistics, Anthropology,
Psychology, Sociology, and Geography.

    The book is organized as follows:

    Chapter 1 written by M. Teresa Turell, the editor, is a clear
introduction of the book and it gives background of the sociolinguistic
and psycholinguistic aspects of established and new migrant minority
groups within the context of Spain and the European community. It also
examines the methodology employed to investigate each community,
explains the role of education, introduces language contact phenomena,
explores migration patterns, and explains discrimination and racism in
Spain.

    After the introductory chapter, the book is divided into four parts:

    Part I looks at the larger established minority groups such as the
Catalan-speaking communities (Chapter 2, Miquel Angel Pradilla); the
Basque-speaking communities (Chapter 3, Jasone Cenoz and Josu Perales);
and the Galician speech community (Chapter 3, Carme Hermida).

    The Catalan-speaking communities chapter presents the geographical
and regional distribution of the Catalan varieties, and a brief history
of the Catalan language.  This chapter also addresses some
sociolinguistic characteristics of Catalan such as the role of
institutional support in Catalonia and education.  It also describes
language behavior and use patterns such as loans words, codeswitching,
and syntactic and semantic calques from Spanish and vice versa.

    The Basque-speaking communities chapter presents the geographical
location of Basque, an overview of the language today, its history, and
the fact that it is a unique language in Western Europe because of being
non Indoeuropean. It also addresses the distribution and use of the
language, the high numbers of bilinguals,  the three different models of
language schools depending on the native language of the child, and
examples of codeswitching and borrowings.

    The Galician speech community chapter starts with a description of
Galicia and its peoples, its geographic location, and its history.  It
is followed by an overview of the current situation of Galician in
today's society including its distribution and use. The chapter also
examines the role of Galician in education and language contact
phenomena such as interference between Galician and Spanish.

    Part II explores the smaller established minorities such as the
Occitan speech community of the Aran Valley (Chapter 5, Jordi Suils and
Angel Huguet); the Asturian speech community (Chapter 6, Roberto
Gonzalez-Quevedo); and the sign language communities (Chapter 7, Rosa
Vallverdu).

    The chapter about the Occitan speech community of the Aran Valley
starts with the geographic location, linguistic traits, and legislation
about language planning of Aranese.  It also examines the language in
contact with Spanish, Catalan, and French, the interference between
Catalan and Spanish, as well as the importance of Aranese as an identity
language. In addition, it explores the role of education and the three
models of schooling.

    The Asturian speech community chapter describes the complex
diglossic situation in Asturias where Asturian is the minority status
language. It also explores the role of education, the pro-Asturian
movement, the creation of a written literature, and bilingualism and
language contact patterns in Asturias.

    The sign language communities chapter addresses the history of sign
language in Spain, its status today, its characteristics, and domains.
It also explores the controversy about the education of deaf children,
and the difficulties and challenges in everyday life including the lack
of sensitivity and understanding by mainstream society.  The chapter
finishes with a description of patterns of language use and behavior.

    Part III examines the other established minorities such as the
Gitano communities (Chapter 8, Angel Marzo and M. Teresa Turell); and
the Jewish communities (Chapter 9, Barbara Vigil).

    The chapter dealing with the Gitano communities starts with a
historical and linguistic overview followed by historical, social, and
cultural background about their situation in Spain.  It also describes
the sociodemographic profile of present-day Spanish gitanos and their
sociolinguistic patterns of language use and language contact with
Spanish. There is also a description of the main features of Calo, the
language of the Gitanos, and the problems with education that this
minority suffers.

    The Jewish communities chapter gives an overview of the historical
and linguistic background including the different Jewish populations and
languages related to Judaism.  It also addresses the history of the
Jewish community in Spain and its social organizations and institutional
support. The chapter finishes with an examination of language use
patterns by the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim communities, and within the
Israeli community in Spain. These patterns include codeswitching of
lexical items denoting modern Spanish life, and the fact that they favor
the languages of the communities where they have settled.

    Part IV deals with the new migrant minorities such as the Brazilian
community (Chapter 10, M. Teresa Turell and Neiva Lavratti); the Cape
Verdean community (Chapter 11, Lorenzo Lopez Trigal); the Chinese
community (Chapter 12, Joaquin Beltran and Cresen Garcia); the Italian
community (Chapter 13, Rosa M. Torrens); the Maghrebi communities
(Chapter 14, Belen Gari); the Portuguese community (Chapter 15, Lorenzo
Lopez Trigal); the UK community (Chapter 16, M. Teresa Turell and
Cristina Corcoll); and the US American speech community (Chapter 17, M.
Teresa Turell and Cristina Corcoll).

    The Brazilian community chapter describes Brazilian migration,
settlement and integration patterns, as well as its rich social
organization in Spain. It examines the domains of language use and
codeswitching practices such as Espanogues and Portuhnol which are seen
as varieties of a continuum from Portuguese to Spanish.

    The Cape Verdean community chapter starts by giving an overview of
the nature and distribution of the Cape Verdean community in Spain.  It
continues with a description of its migration patterns, its cultural and
linguistic background where two languages coexist, Portuguese and
Kriolu, and the examination of the difficult process of integration
because of cultural differences and discrimination.

    The chapter about the Chinese community explores the diversity of
origins of the so-called Chinese community, migration patterns, work,
and geographical distribution. It also examines the complex and varied
language situation in China, the role of education, and Chinese culture.
It explores the isolation from mainstream Spanish society and the fact
that everyday life is Chinese for the members of this community.  They
only learn Spanish for practical reasons and they maintain a strong
Chinese identity. Unlike the situation with other migrant groups, there
are no interferences between Chinese and Spanish since they keep both
languages separate.

    The Italian community chapter describes the nature and geographic
distribution of this group in Spain such as the changing nature of its
migration patterns, the high level of integration, and the difficulty
when in Catalonia to distinguish between Spanish and Catalan. It also
examines language use and language contact patterns such as quoting in
Spanish when speaking Italian.

    The Maghrebi communities chapter describes the nature and
distribution of the Maghrebi communities, their languages and culture,
the role of sexist education in their culture, the complex linguistic
situation in their countries of origin where French, Arabic, and Berber
coexist. It explores the different language domains such as the family,
the cultural center, work, the mosque, friendships, education, and
institutions.  The chapter also explains the different language learning
strategies they use.

    The Portuguese community chapter starts with a description of the
Portuguese migration patterns to Spain and the characteristics of this
community. It also describes the level of integration, and the
institutional support in the form of various programs in the language
and culture of Portugal in Spain.

    The UK community chapter describes the three profiles of the UK
immigrant in Spain, one young and adventurous, one professional, and one
retired. It also addresses their attitudes towards Spanish and its
culture, and their British social life. The first two groups may use up
to three languages (English, Spanish, and any of the other three
community languages), while the last one uses mostly English.  The
chapter finishes with examples of language contact phenomena among these
speakers.

    The chapter about the US American speech community describes the
nature and distribution of this open community including their
motivation for migrating to Spain, and their social profiles such as
young people looking for adventure, middle-aged professionals, and Army
personnel.  The middle-aged group often settles in Spain and forms a
family there. The chapter continues with a description of the attitudes
towards Spanish and the culture, the role of education, their social
life, and their patterns of language behavior, language contact
patterns, and domains of language behavior.


                              EVALUATION

    This book is an important contribution to the literature about
linguistic diversity in Spain and multilingualism in general. It
includes linguistic communities such as the sign language community and
the Maghrebi communities, which are not usually included in books
examining the linguistic make-up of Spain.  It also introduces
non-Spanish-speaking audiences to the topic.

    The division of the book into four sections emphasizes the different
types of communities, not only the languages. However, in the case of
the Brazilian, Cape Verdean, and the Portuguese communities, all
speakers of Portuguese, or the UK and US communities, all speakers of
English, it would be interesting to know how they interact and what
patterns they have in common.

    The discussion and description is not only linguistic in nature but
there is also an excellent relationship between anthropology,
psychology, history, culture, society, economics, and geography.  This
approach makes this book a true interdisciplinary work trying to offer a
picture of a complex phenomenon such as multilingualism, its origins,
causes, patterns, and reasons.

    Each chapter includes background information about each linguistic
group such as the history, geography, culture, linguistic
characteristics and status, and migration and settlement patterns.  Each
chapter also describes the role that the minority language has in
education, language planning policies, language behavior and use,
manifestations of language contact phenomena such as borrowing,
codeswitching and calques, and language attitudes.  In addition, there
are plenty of maps, tables, informant data, references and appendices at
the end of each chapter.

    Another point worth mentioning involves the presentation of data.
Especially useful are the informant data which enable the reader to have
rich examples of language behavior and language contact phenomena but
also a global picture of these communities and not only the languages.

    Because it is clearly written in a language accessible to a wide
readership, it can be used as a textbook in a Spanish Sociolinguistics
course or in a Bilingualism and Languages in Contact course. In
addition, because of the panoramic informative descriptions of the
linguistic communities, the illustrative data, and the extensive
references for further reading, it can also be a great reference for
language planners, researchers and educators.

    In conclusion, Multilingualism in Spain is an excellent book where
the reader will gain a basic knowledge of the complex linguistic picture
of Spain and its linguistic communities. Readers will also gain an idea
of where to look for more detailed information on these communities, and
they will learn something about language contact phenomena.


                              BIOGRAPHY

    Silvia Rodríguez is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at the College
of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina. Her research interests
include interlanguage and cross cultural pragmatics, bilingualism and
multilingualism issues in Spain, and foreign language curriculum and
instruction.

Silvia Rodríguez, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Spanish
Department of Hispanic Studies
College of Charleston
66 George Street
Charleston, SC  29424-0001
USA

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