This paper explores the "multilingual lived experience" (MLE) of four Mongol-Chinese individuals. This lived experience is set in the multilingual context of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) of China. Compared to the ethnic majority Han people, who are Mandarin (Putonghua) speakers, and who study English as a L2, Inner…

This article explores language repertoires, attitudes, and practices amongst members of the East Timorese diaspora in Australia. It relies on quantitative and qualitative data gathered through a recent sociolinguistic survey, ethnographic observation, as well as on general observations of online language use. Our study reveals a complex…

In order to distinguish between language-related ideologies, Ruiz (1984) proposed three language orientations, namely 'language-as-problem', 'language-as-right' and 'language-as-resource'. Although this typology has been applied to various countries and regions around the globe, relevant research in China, a multi-ethnolinguistic country, remains…

This paper explores the identity and the social/political behaviour of Russians in post-Soviet Central Asia through a comparison with the Baltic countries via a "hot and cold ethnicity" paradigm. Central Asian Russians are more likely, ceteris paribus, to be found at the "cold" end of the spectrum of "ethnic…

This article presents a case study of the former Yugoslavia, focusing on the role of language in constructing collective identities and establishing ethnic boundaries in relation to political borders. After looking at the variable and frequently multiple language-identity links in the South Slavic world, it examines the part that Serbo-Croatian,…

This article examines the distributional pattern of signs in the linguistic landscape of a neighbourhood in the commercial district of Phonm Penh, Cambodia. Informed by the frameworks of ethnolinguistic vitality and ethnocultural stereotypes, it discusses the developing multilingualism from socio-economic and historical perspectives. An analysis…

Mauritius is a multilingual postcolonial island of the Indian Ocean. Although the French-lexified creole, Mauritian Creole/Kreol, is the native language of 70% of the Mauritian population, it is excluded from the education system. Kreol lacks prestige because it is seen as broken French and associated with the local Creoles, a socioeconomically…

Discusses bilingualism and six attitude scales representing the London Asian community's feelings toward English: (1) anxiety about performance in English, (2) value of English in the total community, (3) suitability of English in religious observances, (4) role of home in encouraging English, (5) a pro-own-language attitude, and (6) usefulness of…

Presents the data from a study of the Valdotan community in northern Italy which examined, according to Smelser's model of social and cultural change, the Valdotans' level of ethnolinguistic identification. Re-interprets this data according to Giles, Bourhis, and Taylor's theory of the interaction between the ethnolinguistic vitality and the…

It is argued that the relationship between Kiswahili and ethnic community languages in Tanzania is not diglossic. The paper applies definitions/redefinitions to the Tanzanian sociolinguistic profile, considers Tanzanian language policy, suggests the basic tenets of diglossia do not apply, and proposes another term for the Kiswahili relationship…

Discusses changes in language contacts that are evolving in Quebec between the minority Anglophones and the French-speaking majority. Census data analyses and field research studies indicate that the pattern of language usage among Anglophones is altering in favor of French, indicating capabilities for and attitudes toward greater participation…

Provides a linguistically valid definition of minority language, as well as language expansion, contraction, and death. The definitional model presented features the establishment of a continuum which also is shown to have predictive power, yielding an effective operational definition of majority/minority status and predicting new data. (Author/CB)

The conditions of the development and the present status of the mother tongue in the Finland-Swedish compulsory school are discussed from an investigation under progress. The aims, contents, and methods are examined from both cognitive and affective points of view in the curricula that have governed teaching in the compulsory school. (Author/CB)

Examined the emergence of Runyakitara as a new language in Uganda in the 1980s. The formation of Runyakitara through the realignment of four Western Bantu varieties illustrates the potential for the use of language as a resource in ethnic competition. Discusses the construction of Runyakitara in the context of the current political situation in…