Codeswitching occurs when multilingual speakers embed elements of more than one language into the dominant (or Matrix) language within individual utterances of conversation. Codeswitching in Igbo-English Bilingualism explores the syntax of bilingual codeswitching between the Benue-Congo African language of Igbo and English. Within the framework of Myers-Scotton's highly influential Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model, Kelechukwu Ihemere explores the notion of asymmetry in Igbo-English codeswitching, arguing that the two languages do not contribute equally in the creation of mixed utterances. In the abstract interaction between the two grammars, the Matrix language is more activated than the Embedded language, resulting in either monolingual Igbo discourse or discourse with an Igbo morphosyntactic frame but with English insertions. Using both linguistic and quantitative analyses, this book uniquely investigates the governing principles and restrictions on bilingual clauses and grammatical codeswitching in the context of a West African language and English. Providing a detailed descriptive and theoretical investigation of Igbo-English data and a deeper analysis of the MLF model, this book will be of interest to anyone working in the fields of comparative syntax, bilingualism and contact linguistics.

Codeswitching occurs when multilingual speakers embed elements of more than one language into the dominant (or Matrix) language within individual utterances of conversation. Codeswitching in Igbo-English Bilingualism explores the syntax of bilingual codeswitching between the Benue-Congo African language of Igbo and English. Within the framework of Myers-Scotton's highly influential Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model, Kelechukwu Ihemere explores the notion of asymmetry in Igbo-English codeswitching, arguing that the two languages do not contribute equally in the creation of mixed utterances. In the abstract interaction between the two grammars, the Matrix language is more activated than the Embedded language, resulting in either monolingual Igbo discourse or discourse with an Igbo morphosyntactic frame but with English insertions. Using both linguistic and quantitative analyses, this book uniquely investigates the governing principles and restrictions on bilingual clauses and grammatical codeswitching in the context of a West African language and English. Providing a detailed descriptive and theoretical investigation of Igbo-English data and a deeper analysis of the MLF model, this book will be of interest to anyone working in the fields of comparative syntax, bilingualism and contact linguistics.

This book is concerned with three central issues: the universality of constraints on code-switching, the nature of the relation between language contact and bilingualism, and the social and linguistic components that facilitate code-switching.

The Routledge Handbook of Language Contact provides an overview of the state of the art of current research in contact linguistics. Presenting contact linguistics as an established field of investigation in its own right and featuring 26 chapters, this handbook brings together a broad range of approaches to contact linguistics, including: experimental and observational approaches and formal theories; a focus on social and cognitive factors that impact the outcome of language contact situations and bilingual language processing; the emergence of new languages and speech varieties in contact situations, and contact linguistic phenomena in urban speech and linguistic landscapes. With contributions from an international range of leading and emerging scholars in their fields, the four sections of this text deal with methodological and theoretical approaches, the factors that condition and shape language contact, the impact of language contact on individuals, and language change, repertoires and formation. This handbook is an essential reference for anyone with an interest in language contact in particular regions of the world, including Anatolia, Eastern Polynesia, the Balkans, Asia, Melanesia, North America, and West Africa.

This volume investigates sociolinguistic discourses, identity choices and their representations in postcolonial national and social life, and traces them to the impact of colonial contact. The chapters stitch together current voices and identities emerging within both ex-colonized and ex-colonizer communities as each copes with the social, lingual, cultural, and religious mixes triggered by colonialism. These mixes, reflected in the five thematic parts of the book - 'postcolonial identities', 'nationhood discourses', 'translating the postcolonial', 'living the postcolonial', and 'colonizing the colonizer' - call for deeper investigations of postcolonial communities using emic approaches.

Diversity in African Languages contains a selection of revised papers from the 46th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, held at the University of Oregon. Most chapters focus on single languages, addressing diverse aspects of their phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, information structure, or historical development. These chapters represent nine different genera: Mande, Gur, Kwa, Edoid, Bantu, Nilotic, Gumuzic, Cushitic, and Omotic. Other chapters investigate a mix of languages and families, moving from typological issues to sociolinguistic and inter-ethnic factors that affect language and accent switching. Some chapters are primarily descriptive, while others push forward the theoretical understanding of tone, semantic problems, discourse related structures, and other linguistic systems. The papers on Bantu languages reflect something of the internal richness and continued fascination of the family for linguists, as well as maturation of research on the family. The distribution of other papers highlights the need for intensified research into all the language families of Africa, including basic documentation, in order to comprehend linguistic diversities and convergences across the continent. In this regard, the chapter on Daats’íin (Gumuzic) stands out as the first-ever published article on this hitherto unknown and endangered language found in the Ethiopian-Sudanese border lands.

Scholarly studies on the Igbo have been scant and fragmented. Politics and Identity Formation in Southeastern Nigeria: The Igbo in Perspective fills an obvious gap, exploring the social, cultural,economic, political, and aesthetic traditions that distinguish the Igbo of southeasternNigeria from their neighbors. In scope, content, and analysis this book is both multi- and cross-disciplinary, focusing on the experiences and forces that have shaped the Igbo society, identity formation, and sociocultural, political, and aesthetic representations. Themes such as the importance ofIgbo names in understanding the people’s social, linguistic, religious, gender, and cultural identities, as well as the intersection of language, politics, socialization, education, and aesthetic expression in the Igbo experience in Nigeria, are interrogated in a refreshing fashion with an appreciable level of originality.