Language Contact and Multilingualism in the Romance-Speaking World
This course is about language contact and multilingualism in communities where different varieties of French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and other Romance-languages are spoken. Since the field of contact linguistics is inherently sociolinguistics, we pay equal attention to the social and linguistic settings of contact, as well as the social and linguistic outcomes of contact. We focus on the theoretical and methodological approaches to study language contact within a multilingual context. We discuss a number of issues related to contact and multilingualism that characterise the Romance-speaking world. Particular attention will be given to speaking minorities (e.g., Romance-based creoles, Chiac, Camfranglais, Santomean Portuguese, Afro-Bolivian Spanish, etc.).
By the end of this course, successful students should be able to:
- Explain the main concepts and theories in the field of contact linguistics and apply them to different language contact situations.
- Discuss multilingualism in the Romance-speaking world based on examples, class activities and readings
- Recognize that the social context is central to the linguistic outcomes, and discuss different issues on the topic based on scholarly sources.
- Demonstrate a clear understanding of language as a communication tool that evolves, adapts, and changes as a result of contact among communities of people who speak different languages.
- Explain the social processes that lead that the minoritization of certain languages and communities.
- Examine contact languages as complex innovations, and not as distorted versions of other major languages
Prerequisites: No prerequisites
Language of instruction: English