Introduction
-
Brigitte Weber
Abstract
This introduction shows the history and development of the linguistic research field of Colonial Linguistics in an overview from the first conferences during the “Festival of Languages” in 2009 until the rich research activities today. Then some characteristic features of colonial languages are discussed in general and on the basis of Venetian in particular. The role of the Italian language at present is looked at as well and its possible future position in Europe is considered. The final part is concerned with English, the spread of which has been closely linked to a colonial process from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. To several questions as to the future of English, answers are suggested.
Abstract
This introduction shows the history and development of the linguistic research field of Colonial Linguistics in an overview from the first conferences during the “Festival of Languages” in 2009 until the rich research activities today. Then some characteristic features of colonial languages are discussed in general and on the basis of Venetian in particular. The role of the Italian language at present is looked at as well and its possible future position in Europe is considered. The final part is concerned with English, the spread of which has been closely linked to a colonial process from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. To several questions as to the future of English, answers are suggested.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword V
- Acknowledgments VII
- Contents IX
- Introduction 1
- Saints, nobility, and other heroes. Colonial place-naming as part of the European linguistic heritage 13
- “The making of Greenland” – Early European place names in Kalaallit Nunaat 43
- Colonial place-names in Italian East Africa (AOI) (with additional data from Tripoli). The linguistic heritage of colonial practice 75
- Linguistic missionary heritage. Capuchin missionary Father Laurentius and his unpublished German-Chuukese dictionary 93
- Positioning by naming: Constructing group affiliation in a colonial setting 115
- Third-hand colonial linguistics: Adolphe Dietrich’s comparative study of Indian Ocean Creoles 139
- Spanish-Guarani diglossia in colonial Paraguay: A language undertaking 153
- Construction of (transcontinental) railways as a means of colonization. A corpus-based analysis on the German colonial discourse in postcolonial perspective 169
- The Raj English in historical lexicography 191
- Anglo-Norman: Language contact and obsolescence 219
- Index of Authors 245
- Index of Languages 249
- Index of Subjects 251
- Index of Toponyms 253
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword V
- Acknowledgments VII
- Contents IX
- Introduction 1
- Saints, nobility, and other heroes. Colonial place-naming as part of the European linguistic heritage 13
- “The making of Greenland” – Early European place names in Kalaallit Nunaat 43
- Colonial place-names in Italian East Africa (AOI) (with additional data from Tripoli). The linguistic heritage of colonial practice 75
- Linguistic missionary heritage. Capuchin missionary Father Laurentius and his unpublished German-Chuukese dictionary 93
- Positioning by naming: Constructing group affiliation in a colonial setting 115
- Third-hand colonial linguistics: Adolphe Dietrich’s comparative study of Indian Ocean Creoles 139
- Spanish-Guarani diglossia in colonial Paraguay: A language undertaking 153
- Construction of (transcontinental) railways as a means of colonization. A corpus-based analysis on the German colonial discourse in postcolonial perspective 169
- The Raj English in historical lexicography 191
- Anglo-Norman: Language contact and obsolescence 219
- Index of Authors 245
- Index of Languages 249
- Index of Subjects 251
- Index of Toponyms 253
