What are the most widely spoken non-English languages in the USA? How did they reach the USA? Who speaks them, to whom, and for what purposes? What changes do these languages undergo as they come into contact with English? This book investigates the linguistic diversity of the USA by profiling the twelve most commonly used languages other than English. Each chapter paints a portrait of the history, current demographics, community characteristics, economic status, and language maintenance of each language group, and looks ahead to the future of each language. The book challenges myths about the 'official' language of the USA, explores the degree to which today's immigrants are learning English and assimilating into the mainstream, and discusses the relationship between linguistic diversity and national unity. Written in a coherent and structured style, Language Diversity in the USA is essential reading for advanced students and researchers in sociolinguistics, bilingualism, and education.

The Arabic and English languages have developed along separate lines over the centuries. Thus, it is no surprise that even apart from purely cultural elements, there are distinctive characteristics of the two languages that pose particular problems to native speakers of one language attempting to learn the other. The scholarly papers of Diversity in Language: Contrastive Studies in Arabic and English Theoretical and Applied Linguistics offer new views on the contrasts between Arabic and English and on contemporary theoretical and applied linguistics. Contributors focus on an array of elusive features that make the Arabic language especially difficult for English speakers to understand fully and intuitively. Comparative studies of English and Arabic, including research on the acquisition of Arabic or English as a second language, underscore the concept of diversity. Contributors to Diversity in Language also investigate stylistics, a major source of diversity between the two languages. Practical observations and suggestions may help teachers of Arabic or English as a second language enable students to better understand their second language and become more persuasive and effective in using it. The papers assembled here will be a welcome addition to the bookshelves of scholars and students of Arabic, contrastive rhetoric, and linguistics. Teachers of English as a foreign language, even if their students are not primarily from an Arabic-speaking background, can likewise benefit from the insights made in these contrastive studies. Contributors: Jehan Allam, El-Said Badawi, Huda M. M. Ghali, Mona Kamel Hassan, Nancy G. Hottel-Burkhart, Christopher Horger, Salwa Kamel, Abdel-Hakeem Kasem, Nagwa Kassabgy, Mohammad Al-Khawalda, Nabila El-Taher Makhlouf, Maha El-Seidi, Cynthia May Sheikholeslami, Devin Stewart, Loubna A. Youssef.

Publisher description

In line with the overall perspective of the Handbook series, the focus of Vol.9 is on language-related problems arising in the context of linguistic diversity and change, and the contributions Applied Linguistics can offer for solutions. Part I, “Language minorities and inequality,” presents situations of language contact and linguistic diversity as world-wide phenomena. The focus is on indigenous and immigrant linguistic minorities, their (lack of) access to linguistic rights through language policies and the impact on their linguistic future .Part II “Language planning and language change,” focuses on the impact of colonialism, imperialism, globalisation and economics as factors that language policies and planning measures must account for in responding to problems deriving from language contact and linguistic diversity. Part III, “Language variation and change in institutional contexts,” examines language-related problems in selected institutional areas of communication (education, the law, religion, science, the Internet) which will often derive from socioeconomic, cultural and other non-linguistic asymmetries. Part IV, “The discourse of linguistic diversity and language change,” analyses linguistic diversity, language change and language reform as issues of public debates which are informed by different ideological positions, values and attitudes (e.g. with reference to sexism, racism, and political correctness).The volume also contains extensive reference sections and index material.

An examination of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis on the relationship between grammar and thought.

This state-of-the-art volume provides an interdisciplinary overview of current topics and research foci in the areas of linguistic diversity and migration-induced multilingualism and aims to lay the foundations for interdisciplinary work and the development of a common methodological framework for the field. Linguistic diversity and migration-induced multilingualism are complex, mufti-faceted phenomena that need to be studied from different, complementary perspectives. The volume comprises a total of fourteen contributions from linguistic, educationist, and urban sociological perspectives and highlights the areas of language acquisition, contact and change, multilingual identities, urban spaces, and education. Linguistic diversity can be framed as a result of current processes of migration and globalization. As such the topic of the present volume addresses both a general audience interested in migration and globalization on a more general level, and a more specialized audience interested in the linguistic repercussions of these large-scale societal developments.

From the refinement of general methodology, to new insights of synchronic and diachronic universals, to studies of specific phenomena, this collection demonstrates the crucial role that language data play in the evolution of useful, accurate linguistic theories. Issues addressed include the determination of meaning in typological studies; a refined understanding of diachronic processes by including intentional, social, statistical, and level-determined phenomena; the reconsideration of categories such as sentence, evidential or adposition, and structures such as compounds or polysynthesis; the tension between formal simplicity and functional clarity; the inclusion of unusual systems in theoretical debates; and fresh approaches to Chinese classifiers, possession in Oceanic languages, and English aspect. This is a careful selection of papers presented at the International Symposium on Linguistic Diversity and Language Theories in Boulder, Colorado. The purpose of the Symposium was to confront fundamental issues in language structure and change with the rich variation of forms and functions observed across languages.