"Bucktee" is one of several lexical items associated with 'Toronto Slang' -- the emically-given name for an enregistered set of lexical items associated with Multicultural Toronto English (MTE), a multiethnolect spoken by young people in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), originating in the many and varied multicultural and multilingual…

This article investigates 90 Shanghainese participants' cross-generational use and knowledge of 140 English loanwords in Shanghainese which are deemed as an important part of Shanghai Regional Culture (SRC). The quantitative results reveal that the older participants use and know much more of English loanwords than the younger ones, and that many…

In this essay we examine the notions of language contact phenomena such as borrowing, codeswitching, codemixing, codemeshing, and translanguaging. We also explore the concepts of translingualism and translingual literacies. We discuss how the notions of bilingualism and multilingualism are differentiated from translingualism and translingual…

Tanzania's post-independence language policy has promoted Swahili as a means of achieving national and linguistic unity. This policy has affected the Ngoni language in south-western Tanzania. Today, Swahili has permeated communication all over Tanzania, even in rural and remote areas. This paper discusses lexical borrowing and especially borrowing…

This study examines the use of English loanwords in L1 isiXhosa-L2 English bilinguals living in Cape Town, South Africa. The specific aim of the study is to investigate which individual background factors may increase or reduce the presence of English loanwords in a L1 isiXhosa speaker's repertoire. Data on English loanword use and individual…

In conversations between immigrants and officials, problems of understanding are often noticeable. About 280 recordings realised at the Argentine Aliens' Department and at several public authorities in Germany show that knowledge divergences regarding linguistic, cultural and institutional knowledge result in (sometimes grave) difficulties of…

This article deals with language contact between a dominant standard language--German--and a lesser-used variety--Low German--in a situation in which the minoritised language is threatened by language shift and language loss. It analyses the application of Low German in forms of public language display and the self-presentation of the community in…

Drawing inferences from both quantitative and qualitative data, this study examines the extent to which American companies tailor their Web advertising for global audiences with a particular focus on French-speaking consumers in North America, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and French Polynesia. Explored from a sociolinguistic and social semiotic…

Diasporic communities around the world regularly encounter challenges of preserving their identities and communication practices while adapting to their host social-cultural environment. Grounded in communication accommodation theory (CAT) and informed by recent research on deviance, this study investigated the relationships between Tibetan…

The term "Citetaal" was originally used to refer to the language spoken by Italian immigrants in the Eastern part of Flanders (Limburg) and diffused in the former ghettoised mining areas (the cite). It is a melting pot language, based on Dutch but with a high amount of code mixture from immigrant languages, mostly Italian and Turkish.…

This paper reports the results of a sociolinguistic survey-based study of the Sudanese community in a regional settlement in Australia. The context of this study represents a distinctive language contact setting with a unique combination of social, cultural and demographic factors. The study aimed to explore attitudes, perceptions and the actual…

Examines language frontier and transitional zones along the Belgium-northwestern France linguistic border as area occupying important position in linguistic contact research. Gives examples of variant forms in the morphosyntactic, semantic, stylistic, and lexical forms. (Author/BK)

Critical analysis of three cases of grammatical borrowing of Frisian from Dutch leads to the specific conclusion that the Frisian grammatical system does not "Dutchify," and to general conclusions concerning the ways that minority languages can and cannot be influenced by dominant languages. (Author/CB)

Presents evidence from English loans in Chichewa (Bantu), which shows that the recipient language is not a passive participant in the borrowing process: the borrowing language makes various modifications to the loan words to make them fit in the grammatical structure as well as cultural requirements of the recipient language. (Author/VWL)

The cross-cultural use of French in francophone Africa has resulted in creative linguistic and stylistic modifications reflecting the sensibilities, inherited cultural patterns, and disposition of its users. French is acquired in the sociocultural context of Africa and not the Christian, Franco-European intellectual milieu. Readers of literary…