Exploring Language in a Multilingual Context
Variation, Interaction and Ideology in Language Documentation

This book proposes a new methodological approach to documenting languages spoken in multilingual societies.

Bettina Migge (Author), Isabelle Léglise (Author)

9780521195553, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 November 2012

369 pages, 9 b/w illus. 8 maps 28 tables
23.5 x 15.5 x 2.3 cm, 0.67 kg

'This book makes fascinating reading for linguistics and social anthropologists interested in linguistic and cultural hybridization in linguistically, culturally, and socially complex (post-)colonial societies. It is also an important contribution to the study of the languages of Suriname and French Guiana.' Kofi Yakpo, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages

Proposing a new methodological approach to documenting languages spoken in multilingual societies, this book retraces the investigation of one unique linguistic space, the Creole varieties referred to as Takitaki in multilingual French Guiana. It illustrates how interactional sociolinguistic, anthropological linguistic, discourse analytical and quantitative sociolinguistic approaches can be integrated with structural approaches to language in order to resolve rarely discussed questions systematically (what are the outlines of the community, who is a rightful speaker, what speech should be documented) that frequently crop up in projects of language documentation in multilingual contexts. The authors argue that comprehensively documenting complex linguistic phenomena requires taking into account the views of all local social actors (native and non-native speakers, institutions, linguists, non-speakers, etc.), applying a range of complementary data collection and analysis methods and putting issues of ideology, variation, language contact and interaction centre stage. This book will be welcomed by researchers in sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, fieldwork studies, language documentation and language variation and change.

1. Introduction
2. The political, social and linguistic contexts of French Guiana
3. The Maroons: historical and anthropological notes
4. What's in the name Takitaki? Investigating linguistic ideologies
5. The social profiles of some Takitaki speakers: the data for this study
6. Towards the linguistic structure of Takitaki: an analysis of Takitaki practices
7. Communicating in Takitaki: Maroons and non-Maroons in interaction
8. Linguistic practices among urban Maroons
9. On Takitaki and its insights.

Subject Areas: Anthropology [JHM], Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF], Sociolinguistics [CFB]