We assess the sociolinguistic vitality of Romeyka, the only Asia Minor Greek variety, which, albeit endangered, is still spoken in the Black Sea region, Turkey (historically known as Pontus), by means of nine extralinguistic (i.e. sociological) and sociolinguistic factors, specially tailored for the situation of Romeyka. Our current vitality…

This paper proposes a contribution to the investigation of the relation between multilingualism and creativity. Past evidence of a correlation between multilingualism and creativity is reviewed in a generalist perspective, that is, without focusing on a specific population such as migrants or highly proficient bilinguals. This review is also…

Naming places is theorised as an activity in heritage whereby a name will index a people's narrative and history. In postcolonial societies where the colonised and the colonisers share spaces, individual locations can host different sides of history and different cultural significance. To this end, the New Zealand government has pursued bilingual…

As English skills are being increasingly perceived as valuable human capital, an awareness of inequitable access to the acquisition of this "profitable" language has developed. Although this allegedly unequal access, which can be referred to as the "English divide", is a matter of concern to applied linguists, little research…

Linguistic landscape (LL) research seeks to account for the visible displays of multilingualism on public signage. While surveys of signage in the LL produce quantitative descriptions of language contact in a given area, such analyses shed little light on people's interpretations of multilingual signs. Moreover, even within more qualitative…

The Hakka people, the largest ethno-linguistic minority group in Taiwan, have found their ethnic language retention diminishing. Using the data collected by the Taiwan Education Panel Survey and Beyond in 2010, we are the first to study its reason for decrease. Results indicate that out-marriage amongst Hakka people and losing ethnic concentration…

This article contextualises and presents to the academic community the full dataset of the Isan Culture Maintenance and Revitalisation Programme's (ICMRP) multilingual signage survey. The ICMRP is a four-year European Union co-sponsored project in Northeast Thailand. This article focuses on one aspect of the project, four surveys each of 1,500…

Scholars have consistently theorised that language ideologies can influence the ways in which bilingual speakers in minority language settings identify and engage with the linguistic varieties available to them. Research conducted by the author examined the interplay of language use and ideologies among a purposive sample of adults who started in…

This thematic collection of four papers explores a number of perspectives on companies in which multiple languages are used. The "organisational" perspective concerns the question of how the presence of or demand for multiple languages in the company is managed--how companies are guided by national and other policies in regard to the use…

In a surprise announcement in December 1996 in a speech at the Nigerian Institute for International Affairs, the late Nigerian Head of State, General Sani Abacha said "Nigeria is resolutely launching a programme of national language training that will in a short order, permit our country to become thoroughly bilingual". General Abacha's…

As a heritage from the Soviet period (1945-1991) about 500,000-700,000 (mostly Russophone) persons (military persons, workers and others) lived in Latvia with little or no command of Latvian. During the same period, the Russian language had replaced Latvian in the public administration. Following the restitution of independence in 1991, one of the…

This study explored language shift and accommodation among bilingual Mandarin and Tai-gi (also called Hokkien, Holo, Tai-gu, Taiwan Min, Taiwanese) families in Taiwan. From the 1940s until the 1980s the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Taiwan promoted Mandarin Chinese. Recent years have witnessed a shift in policy: since 2001 elementary schools…