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Language dispersal beyond farming
Why do some languages wither and die, while others prosper and spread? Around the turn of the millennium a number of archaeologists such as Colin Renfrew and Peter Bellwood made the controversial claim that many of the world’s major language families owe their dispersal to the adoption of agriculture by their early speakers. In this volume, their proposal is reassessed by linguists, investigating to what extent the economic dependence on plant cultivation really impacted language spread in various parts of the world. Special attention is paid to \"tricky\" language families such as Eskimo-Aleut, Quechua, Aymara, Bantu, Indo-European, Transeurasian, Turkic, Japano-Koreanic, Hmong-Mien and Trans-New Guinea, that cannot unequivocally be regarded as instances of Farming/Language Dispersal, even if subsistence played a role in their expansion
eBook
Globalization, Global English, and World English(es): Myths and Facts
This chapter contains sections titled:
Introduction
What Is Globalization and What Is New about It?
Colonization and Globalization
The European Colonial Expansion Since the Fifteenth Century
The British Empire, the British Commonwealth, and the Emergence of English as a Pre – Eminent ‘World Language’
World Englishes
The Fallacy of ‘Global English’
Will there Be an English‐Only Europe?
Conclusions
References
Book Chapter
Past, Present and Future of a Language Border
This volume revisits the issue of language contact and conflict in the Low Countries across space and time. The contributions deal with important sites of Germanic-Romance contact along the different language borders, covering languages such as French, Dutch, German, and Luxembourgish. This first monograph in English on the topic broadens our understanding of current-day issues by integrating a historical perspective, showing how language contact and conflict operated from the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, the 18th and 19th centuries, and into the 20th and 21st centuries.
eBook
Replacing a pillar of Tibetan Buddhist historiography: on the redactions of the so-called Pillar Testament (bKa’-chems-ka-khol-ma)
This article explores the unmined textual history of one of Tibet's most influential historiographies, the Pillar Testament (bKa’-chems-ka-khol-ma), usually dated to the eleventh or the twelfth century. Drawing on previously known and unknown witnesses, the article compares a variety of narratives across most extant redactions. In doing so, it finds that the redaction chiefly consulted by scholars to date is an expanded and contaminated version that is notably later than previously assumed. Instead, another and heretofore largely neglected witness emerges as the most archaic extant redaction. The textual comparisons spotlight a wide range of alterations in the work's narratives and thus demonstrate how perceptions of early Tibetan historical episodes shifted over time. Such changes affected remembrance of Sino-Tibetan imperial relations, the origins of Buddhism and writing in Tibet and the genealogy of its emperors, among other things. The article concludes by critically discussing the witnesses’ dating and the hope we may place in the hunt for the work's illustrious but elusive original.
Journal Article
Site of Baodun yields earliest evidence for the spread of rice and foxtail millet agriculture to south-west China
The Chengdu plain of south-west China lies outside the main centres of early domestication in the Huanghe and Yangzi valleys, but its importance in Chinese prehistory is demonstrated by the spectacular Sanxingdui bronzes of the second millennium BC and by the number of walled enclosures of the third millennium BC associated with the Baodun culture. The latter illustrate the development of social complexity. Paradoxically, however, these are not the outcome of a long settled agricultural history but appear to be associated with the movement of the first farming communities into this region. Recent excavations at the Baodun type site have recovered plant remains indicating not only the importance of rice cultivation, but also the role played by millet in the economy of these and other sites in south-west China. Rice cultivation in paddy fields was supplemented by millet cultivation in neighbouring uplands. Together they illustrate how farmers moving into this area from the Middle Yangzi adjusted their cultivation practices to adapt to their newly colonised territories.
Journal Article
English As a Global Language
David Crystal's classic English as a Global Language considers the history, present status and future of the English language, focusing on its role as the leading international language. English has been deemed the most 'successful' language ever, with 1500 million speakers internationally, presenting a difficult task to those who wish to investigate it in its entirety. However, Crystal explores the subject in a measured but engaging way, always backing up observations with facts and figures. Written in a detailed and fascinating manner, this is a book written by an expert both for specialists in the subject and for general readers interested in the English language.
eBook
EARLY AGRICULTURALIST POPULATION DIASPORAS? FARMING, LANGUAGES, AND GENES
The consequences of early agricultural development in several regions of the
Old and New Worlds included population growth, the spread of new material
cultures and of food-producing economies, the expansions of language families,
and in many cases the geographical expansions of the early farming populations
themselves into territories previously occupied by hunters and gatherers. This
chapter discusses some of the different outcomes that can be expected according
to the differing perspectives of archaeology, linguistics, and biological
anthropology. I argue that agriculturalist expansion lies at the root of many
of the world's major language families, although this need not imply that
farmers always replaced hunter-gatherers in the biological sense. History,
enviromental variations, and prior cultural configurations dictated many of the
outcomes, some of which played a fundamental role in the large-scale genesis of
human cultural and biological patterning from Neolithic/Formative times into
the world of today.
Journal Article
Current Japanese Reforms In English Language Education: The 2003 ?Action Plan?
In response to growing criticism that Japanese do not have sufficient communicative skills in English, the Japanese government proposed a five-year \"Action Plan to Cultivate Japanese with English Abilities\" in 2003. This paper examines the context and content of this plan as well as the initial reactions to it in various educational settings. The Action Plan itself reflects a number of conflicting ideological orientations, including: (1) whether Japan should pursue a policy of multilingualism or one favoring the spread of English; (2) whether Japan should emphasize international understanding or simply English education; and (3) promoting egalitarianism versus allowing for individualized education. Despite the challenges that these conflicting goals present, the Action Plan gives greater autonomy to teachers and local governments and thus may improve English education by enabling them to become active participants in the development of language education policies rather than simply being passive consumers of such policies.
Journal Article
Contemporary British Identity
Against the background of an increasingly diverse British society, this book traces the evolution of British identity in the twentieth century. Debates exploring the nature of Britishness and multiculturalism are here deconstructed through a linguistic lens, which considers the role played by the English language in shaping Britain's national identity. Within this context, two significant historical events are considered: the expansionism of nineteenth century British Empire, and the subsequent rise of the United States to the position of world superpower. In charting the development of British nationhood over time, the book identifies three contrasting public narratives, each reflecting society's perceptions of the identity question at particular points in time: a discourse of laissez-faire at the turn of the century; a discourse of multiculturalism in the ensuing decades; and a discourse of integration during the closing years. The book raises fundamental questions about who we are as a nation and how we got here. It also provides clues as to the direction the prevailing public discourse on British identity is likely to take in the twenty-first century.
eBook