Multilingualism

By John Edwards,

Book cover of Multilingualism: Understanding Linguistic Diversity

Book description

Multilingualism is everywhere in our globalised society. Delving into the 'social life' of languages, John Edwards provides a brief yet compelling overview of multilingualism and its sociocultural implications and consequences. Covering major topics including language origins, language death, lingua francas,
pidgins, creoles and artificial languages, this book provides a complete…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Multilingualism as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Some of the best language stories lie dissected in the work of social scientists. Not an easy read. But once in a while, someone brings it to life, enjoyably. 

One such is John Edwards, whose ‘Multilingualism’ is required reading for my course on language and politics.  Most countries are host to several languages – often a source (or a product) of ethnic pride, and why not? Sometimes, however, full-scale political and economic interventions may occur. And then, a language conflict is on the cards.

Nationalism often enflames such situations but sometimes wisdom and fortune prevail. Not long ago, Catalan and…

From Lewis' list on the story of a language.

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