Globalization and Language Vitality: Perspectives from Africa

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This book discusses the effects of globalization on languages in Africa. In contrast to previous studies, the contributors examine whether or not globalization is affecting African languages in the same ways and at the same rate in different countries, and how local experiences of language change vary from place to place. Rather than seeing English as the 'killer language' par excellence, the contributors probe ways in which languages are being used side by side to complement each other in some contexts while competing against European colonial languages in others. The result is a diverse canvas of language vitality in the African context, including matters of endangerment and loss, through the lense of globalization in its various interpretations.

This book is a must read for students and researchers interested in language change and death and in the fate of European languages in the rest of the world.

Reviews

"If there is an African way of finding appropriate solutions for linguistic interaction in a situation of increasing cultural, economic, and political globalization then it is to be found in this book. The book presents a range of exciting perspectives on how African societies have dealt and are dealing with their communication problems." - Professor Bernd Heine, Institute for African Studies, University of Cologne, Germany
"A superb collection of essays by well-known regional specialists on a topic that will affect more and more African speech communities in the near future." - Professor Gerrit J. Dimmendaal, Institute for African Studies, University of Cologne, Germany
Vigouroux and Mufwene, together with the important cast they have assembled, are to be congratulated for producing one if the best applied linguistics books of recent years... -- Springer (Lang Policy 2010)

Author Bio

Ccile B.Vigouroux is Assistant Professor in the Department of Romance Languages at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Salikoko S. Mufwene is the Frank J.McLoraineDistinguished Service Professor of Linguistics as well as Professor on the Committee on Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago, USA. Jan Blommaert is Professor of Language, Culture and Globalization and Director of Babylon, Center for the Study of Superdiversity at Tilburg University, The Netherlands. He also holds appointments at Ghent University (Belgium) and the University of the Western Cape (South Africa). He is the author of Discourse: A Critical Introduction (2005), The Sociolinguistics of Globalization 2010) and Ethnography, Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of Complexity (2013).