Language Shift and Loss in the Multilingual Context of Africa

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Belgorod State University, Belgorod, Russia

Abstract

The article gives an insight into the phenomenon of language shift and death in Africa. It starts out with the discussion of the theoretical assumptions the work is based on. The sociolinguistic status of languages in the multilingual and multicultural context of Africa is also considered. The authors analyze the existing terms related to the problem of endangered languages, including ‘language shift’, ‘language loss’, ‘language death’ and ‘language decay’ as well as the UNESCO classification system used in the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Much attention is also given to the account of models of ‘gradual death’ and to the classification of the extralinguistic factors leading to language abandonment and decay. Some comments on the existing linguistic indicators of language decay and pidginization are given.

Keywords

Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics
Volume 10, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Applied Linguistics Issues (ALI 2019) July 19-20, 2019, Saint Petersburg, Russia
This special issue of the journal includes papers published in the spirit of academic support of the conference and so they did not go through the review process defined by the journal.
July 2019
Pages 1197-1202

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