LSA 117: Linguistic anthropology of language contact

Jane H. Hill | session 1 | MW 3:30 – 5:15, 2060 Valley Life Sciences Building (VLSB)

Language contact phenomena are explored in a broad, historical-ecological perspective, ranging from how to identify and interpret evidence for ancient language contact using anthropological models, to debates over the origins of pidgins and creoles under colonialism and in other eras, to an exploration of current phenomena of language spread, language endangerment and shift, and linguistic appropriations using linguistic anthropological models of ideological mediation in the construction and recruitment of linguistic resources.

Reading: Selected materials available online.

On reserve at Graduate Services, 208 Doe Library: Sarah Thomason, Language Contact.

Prerequisites: An introductory course in linguistic anthropology would not hurt.

Areas of linguistics: Areal and historical linguistics; Sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology