book notice

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Forwarded from Linguist-List:

Aspects of Multilingualism in European Language History
Hamburg Studies on Multilingualism 2, 2004

Abstract:

This volume gives an up-to-date account of various situations of
language contact and multilingualism in Europe especially from a
historical point of view. Its ten contributions present newly
collected data from different parts of the continent seen through
diverse theoretical perspectives. They show a richness of topics and
data that not only reveal numerous historical and sociological facts
but also afford considerable insight into possible effects
multilingualism and language contact might have on language
change. The collection begins its journey through Europe in the
British Isles. Then it turns to northern Europe and looks at how
multilingualism worked in three towns that are all marked by border
and contact situations. The journey continues with
linguistic-historical and political-historical visits to Sweden and to
Lithuania before the reader is taken to central Europe, where we will
deal with the influence of Latin on written German. As far as southern
Europe is concerned, the study continues on the Iberian peninsula,
where the relationship between Portuguese and Spanish is focused, to
be followed by Sardinia and Malta, two islands whose unique
geohistorical positions give rise to some consideration of
multilingualism in the Mediterranean.

Table of contents

Introduction

Kurt Braunmueller and Gisella Ferraresi 1-13

Oceano vox: You never know where a ship comes from: On multilingualism
and language-mixing in medieval Britain
David Trotter 15-33

Language contact and billingualism in Flensburg in the middle of the
19th century
Elin Fredsted 35-59

Written and spoken languages in Bergen in the Hanse era
Agnete Nesse 61-84

Vyborg: Free trade in four languages
Marika Tandefelt 85-104

Dialect and language contacts on the territory of the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania from the 15th century until 1939
Bjrn Wiemer 105-143

Swedish and Swedish: On the origin of diglossia and social variation
in the Swedish language
Lars Wollin 145-171

Did Latin influence German word order? Aspects of German-Latin
bilingualism in the Late Middle Ages
Diana Chirita 173-200

>>From unity to diversity in Romance syntax: Portuguese and Spanish
Ana Maria Martins 201-233

Sardinian between maintenance and change
Rosita Rindler Schjerve 235-260

Language contact and Maltese intonation: Some parallels with other
language varieties
Alexandra Vella 261-283

Index  285-289

Publication Year: 2004

Publisher: John Benjamins
           http://www.benjamins.com/
           http://www.benjamins.nl/

Book URL: http://www.benjamins.nl/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=HSM_2

Editor: Kurt Braunmller, University of Hamburg
Editor: Gisella Ferraresi, University of Hamburg

Hardback: ISBN: 9027219222, Pages: viii, 291 pp., Price: EUR 70.00
Hardback: ISBN: 1588114465, Pages: viii, 291 pp., Price: USD 84.00