Towards an Ecology of World Languages

There are around 5,000 languages spoken across the world today, but the languages that coexist in our multilingual world have varied functions and fulfil various roles. Some are spoken by small groups, a village or a tribe; others, much less numerous, are spoken by hundreds of millions of speakers. Certain languages, like English, French and Chinese, are highly valued, while others are largely ignored. Even if all languages are equal in the eyes of the linguist, the world’s languages are in fact fundamentally unequal. All languages do not have the same value, and their inequality is at the heart of the way they are organized across the world.

In this major book Louis-Jean Calvet, one of the foremost sociolinguists working today, develops an ecological approach to language in order to analyse the changing structure of the world language system. The ecological approach to language begins from actual linguistic practices and studies the relations between these practices and their social, political and economic environment. The practices which constitute languages, on the one hand, and their environment, on the other, form a linguistic ecosystem in which languages coexist, multiply and influence one another. Using a rich panoply of examples from across the world, Calvet elaborates the ecological approach and shows how it can shed light on the changing forms of language use in the world today.

This path-breaking book will be of great value to students and scholars in linguistics and sociolinguistics and to anyone concerned with the fate of languages in our increasingly globalized world.

Acknowledgements

INTRODUCTION: practices and representations

1. The ecology of languages

The need for identity and its linguistic

Manifestations: endogenous and exogenous

Relexifications

The graphic environment

Dramatic change in a specific linguistic ecology: the example of Australia

The political frontier and the ecolinguistic system

The influence of the horse on European languages 98

A false conception of linguistic ecology: Bickerton's

Simulation project

Conclusions

2. The galaxy of languages

Constellations of languages

The galactic model and linguistic policy: the example of the European Community

The Hindi constellation

The Bambara constellation

The galaxy of writing systems

Conclusions

3. Regulation and change: the homeostatic model

An example of internal regulation: vernacular variants of French

Of ships and languages: from Christopher Columbus to lingua franca

Vernacularization as ecological acclimatization:varieties of French in Africa

African argots and the ecolinguistic niche; the example of Bukavu

Conclusions: acclimatization and acclimatation

4. Linguistic representations and change

Linguistic insecurity and representations: a historical approach

Some theoretical problems: a first approach

Some problems of description

Conclusions

5. Transmission and change

The transmission of first languages and the myth of the mother tongue

The case of creoles: upheaval in the ecolinguistic niche and linguistic change

The transmission of gravitational systems

Conclusion: evolution and revolution

6. Five case studies

One name for several languages: Arabic schizoglossia Several names for one language: the example of Kituba

One, two or three languages? The example of Serbo-Croat

Kraemer: the invention of French in the socioprofessional context

An ecological niche: the Island of St-Barthélemy

CONCLUSION: Inventing language, giving it a name

Notes

Bibliography

Index

"A treasure-trove addition in the realm of ecolinguistics ... of interest not only to professional linguists – it is also a highly recommended textbook for students of linguistics."

Jan Blommaert and Pan Lin, Journal of Sociolinguistics

"This is an important book, original in its conception, provocative in its argument, accessible in its content. Given the growing interest in language diversity, the publication of this book in English will be of great value for students and scholars alike."

Humphrey Tonkin, University of Hartford

"Calvet’s ideas are great, and are as relevant today as ever."

David Crystal, University of Wales

Louis-Jean Calvet is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Provence, Aix-en-Provence. There are around 5,000 languages spoken across the world today, but the languages that coexist in our multilingual world have varied functions and fulfil various roles. Some are spoken by small groups, a village or a tribe; others, much less numerous, are spoken by hundreds of millions of speakers. Certain languages, like English, French and Chinese, are highly valued, while others are largely ignored. Even if all languages are equal in the eyes of the linguist, the world’s languages are in fact fundamentally unequal. All languages do not have the same value, and their inequality is at the heart of the way they are organized across the world.

In this major book Louis-Jean Calvet, one of the foremost sociolinguists working today, develops an ecological approach to language in order to analyse the changing structure of the world language system. The ecological approach to language begins from actual linguistic practices and studies the relations between these practices and their social, political and economic environment. The practices which constitute languages, on the one hand, and their environment, on the other, form a linguistic ecosystem in which languages coexist, multiply and influence one another. Using a rich panoply of examples from across the world, Calvet elaborates the ecological approach and shows how it can shed light on the changing forms of language use in the world today.

This path-breaking book will be of great value to students and scholars in linguistics and sociolinguistics and to anyone concerned with the fate of languages in our increasingly globalized world.