Language Maintenance and Shift

Anne Pauwels is Professor of Sociolinguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

• Introduction; Part I. History, Concepts, Contexts and Approaches: 1. Pioneers in the study of language maintenance and language shift; 2. Concepts, contexts and approaches to the study of language maintenance and shift; Part II. Investigating Language Maintenance and Shift: Collecting and Analysing Data: 3. Linguistic demography: census surveys; 4. Reporting language use and exploring language attitudes: questionnaires; 5. Beyond surveys: interviews, participant observation and experiments; Part III. Identifying and Understanding Trends and Patterns in the Dynamics of Language Maintenance and Shift: 6. Trends and patterns in language maintenance and shift; 7. Understanding the dynamics of language maintenance and shift; Part IV. Language Maintenance Efforts and Reversing Language Shift: 8. Efforts, agencies and institutions for language maintenance; 9. Reversing language shift; Part V. Future Developments in the Study of Language Maintenance and Shift: 10. Opportunities and challenges for the future study of language maintenance and shift.

'This comprehensive book is a thorough, critical discussion of language maintenance and shift that ranges from the historical evolution of the field as a focus of academic enquiry, its research methods and a presentation of the key findings and insights about the dynamics of multilingual communities. It is an essential resource for all who work in the field or who want to learn more about it.' Anthony J. Liddicoat, University of Warwick