Towards an ecology of world languages

Abstract

Acknowledgements * INTRODUCTION: practices and representations *1. The ecology of languages * The need for identity and its linguistic * manifestations: endogenous and exogenous * relexifications * The graphic environment * Dramatic change in a specific linguistic ecology: the example of Australia * The political frontier and the ecolinguistic system * The influence of the horse on European languages 98 * A false conception of linguistic ecology: Bickerton's * simulation project * Conclusions *2. The galaxy of languages * Constellations of languages * The galactic model and linguistic policy: * the example of the European Community * The Hindi constellation * The Bambara constellation * The galaxy of writing systems * Conclusions *3. Regulation and change: the homeostatic model * An example of internal regulation: vernacular variants of French * Of ships and languages: from Christopher Columbus to lingua franca * Vernacularization as ecological acclimatization:varieties of French in Africa * African argots and the ecolinguistic niche the example of Bukavu * Conclusions: acclimatization and acclimatation *4. Linguistic representations and change * Linguistic insecurity and representations: a historical approach * Some theoretical problems: a first approach * Some problems of description * Conclusions *5. Transmission and change * The transmission of first languages and the myth of the mother tongue * The case of creoles: upheaval in the ecolinguistic niche and linguistic change * The transmission of gravitational systems * Conclusion: evolution and revolution *6. Five case studies * One name for several languages: Arabic schizoglossia Several names for one language: the example * of Kituba * One, two or three languages? The example of Serbo-Croat * Kraemer: the invention of French in the socioprofessional context * An ecological niche: the Island of St-Barthelemy * CONCLUSION: Inventing language, giving it a name * Notes * Bibliography * Index