Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195124286 ISBN 13: 9780195124286

Publisher: OUP USA, 1999

Synopsis

This volume presents a comprehensive introduction to the connection between language and ethnicity. The Ebonics and bilingual education controversies in the US have both provided new evidence for a connection between language and ethnicity and raised questions about the nature of this connection. Since the "ethnic revival" of the last twenty years, there has been a substantial and interdisciplinary change in our understanding of the connection between these fundamental aspects of our identity. The distinguished sociolinguist Joshua Fishman has commissioned over 25 previously unpublished papers on every facet of the subject. The volume is divided into two sections, the first examining disciplinary perspectives (for example history, psychology, religion, sociolinguistics, etc) on the subject; the second uses the prism of geography, looking at the subject in the context of Africa, Scandinavia, Germany and the rest of Western Europe, North America and elsewhere. The volume is truly interdisciplinary and the contributors are all distinguished figures in their fields.

No previous knowledge of the subject is assumed and thus the volume will be suitable as a scholarly reference, as a resource for the lay reader, and can also be used as a text in ethnicity courses.

About this title

Review

Interesting background chapters. (Years Work in English Studies)

This volume provides an excellent starting point for those interested in attempting to understand the multiple paradoxes implicated in the relationships between ethnicity, language and identity. Fishman has done a superb job in bringing together perspectives deriving from the major social science disciplines and linking these with perspectives reflective of different regions and languages. (Jim Cummins, Journal of Sociolinguistics 5/1)

A provocative volume for both specialized and nonspecialized readers. (Linguistics)

Synopsis

This volume presents a comprehensive introduction to the connection between language and ethnicity. The Ebonics and bilingual education controversies in the US have both provided new evidence for a connection between language and ethnicity and raised questions about the nature of this connection. Since the "ethnic revival" of the last twenty years, there has been a substantial and interdisciplinary change in our understanding of the connection between these fundamental aspects of our identity. The distinguished sociolinguist Joshua Fishman has commissioned over 25 previously unpublished papers on every facet of the subject. The volume is divided into two sections, the first examining disciplinary perspectives (for example history, psychology, religion, sociolinguistics, etc) on the subject; the second uses the prism of geography, looking at the subject in the context of Africa, Scandinavia, Germany and the rest of Western Europe, North America and elsewhere. The volume is truly interdisciplinary and the contributors are all distinguished figures in their fields.

No previous knowledge of the subject is assumed and thus the volume will be suitable as a scholarly reference, as a resource for the lay reader, and can also be used as a text in ethnicity courses.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP USA
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195124286
• ISBN 13: 9780195124286
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 480
• Editor: Fishman Joshua A.