Sociology of Language and Religion

PHYLLIS GHIM-LIAN CHEW is Associate Professor, English Language Methodology and Sociolinguistics, Nanyang Technological University, Japan NKONKO M. KAMWANGAMALU is Professor of Linguistics, Howard University, USARAJESHWARI V. PANDHARIPANDE is Professor of Linguistics and Religious Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USAAALIYA RAJAH-CARRIM is a sociolinguist actively involved in disseminating her research on Mauritian Creole among lay people in MauritiusDIPO SALAMI is Professor of Linguistics, Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, NigeriaBERNARD SPOLSKY is Professor Emeritus at Bar-Ilan University, IsraelJIM WILCE is Professor of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, USAAZZAN YADIN is Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature, Rutgers University, USAGHIL'AD ZUCKERMANN is Associate Professor and Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Fellow in linguistics at The University of Queensland, Australia

• Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: Change, Conflict and Accommodation; T.Omoniyi Jewish Religious Multilingualism; B.Spolsky Mauritian Muslims: Negotiating Changing Identities Through Language; A.Rajah-Carrim Arabic and Socio-Cultural Change Among the Yoruba; O.Salami Authenticating a Tradition in Transition: Language of Hinduism in the U.S; R.Pandharipande Blorít – Pagans' Mohawk or Sabras' Forelock?: Ideological Secularization of Hebrew Terms in Socialist Zionist Israeli; A.Yadin & G.Zuckermann Society, Language, History, and Religion: A Perspective on Bangla from Linguistic Anthropology; J.Wilce Metaphors of Change: Adolescent Singaporeans Switching Religion; P.Ghim-Lian Chew African American Vernacular English, Religion and Ethnicity; N.Kamwangamalu Holy Hip-Hop, Language and Social Change; T.Omoniyi Index

'The profound linkage between language and religion has, until recently, lain beyond the scope of a linguistics detached from speakers' identities and cultures, and a sociological methodology wary of entering too deeply into belief systems. Tope Omoniyi has taken the lead in putting language and religion squarely on the research agenda, inspiring growing numbers of others to follow. With this book, so marvellously clear in its description and analysis, rich in ethnographic detail, and with abundant linguistic and textual examples, the emerging field moves well beyond facile categories. The studies in The Sociology of Language and Religion will be widely cited for years to come for their mature understanding of the traditions, enduring yet ever-changing - and sometimes, as with 'Holy Hip Hop', invented on the hoof - through which people interpret themselves and others within two infinite unfathomables: the universe of their beliefs, and the languages and discourses in which they are constructed.' - John E. Joseph, University of Edinburgh, Scotland