Languages in a Globalising World

Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Figures......Page 9
Tables......Page 10
Contributors......Page 12
Acknowledgements......Page 17
1 Introduction......Page 19
Part I: Global communication challenges......Page 20
Part II: Major Areas......Page 21
Part III: Languages of wider communication......Page 25
References......Page 27
Part I Global communications challenges......Page 29
The collapse of the USSR......Page 31
The end of Apartheid in South Africa......Page 32
Report on the ‘universality’ of English......Page 34
Geographic vs. virtual space......Page 35
A redefinition of geographic space: Internationalisation and new economic blocs......Page 39
The linguistic future of the planet: A lowering of diversity? Or, on the contrary, a fragmentation of the big languages?......Page 44
Language problems at the dawn of the twenty-first century......Page 48
References......Page 51
3 The geostrategies of interlingualism......Page 55
Plurilingualism and world English......Page 56
Language brokers and technologism......Page 58
Esperantism and language ecology......Page 61
Further reading......Page 63
4 Language policy and linguistic theory......Page 65
References......Page 74
From Babel to Adam Smith......Page 76
The market as a moderator of territorialisation......Page 78
References......Page 81
Demographic projection......Page 82
What counts as a user?......Page 83
What counts as a language?......Page 84
What counts as a country?......Page 85
Military domination......Page 87
Economic power......Page 90
Psychosocial factors......Page 91
Multilingual broadcasting......Page 92
The language of computer software......Page 93
Wired communities and satellite societies......Page 94
The appropriation of models......Page 96
Acknowledgements......Page 97
References......Page 98
Part II Major areas......Page 101
The importance of foreign languages during the first half of the twentieth century......Page 103
Teaching of foreign languages during the communist period......Page 104
Country-by-country situations......Page 108
Conclusions......Page 115
References......Page 116
Political integration and Community values......Page 117
Official rules governing the languages to be used......Page 118
Limits of institutional multilingualism......Page 119
Official linguistic regime and relations with citizens......Page 120
The dynamic of lingua francas......Page 121
Community law and language laws......Page 123
A supranational power of language regulation......Page 124
The EU as an institution regulating language use......Page 125
The EU as a pole of language changes......Page 126
Uncertain prospects......Page 127
References......Page 128
Latin America and linguistic globalisation......Page 129
Mercosur: Regional linguistic dynamics......Page 134
History of linguistic and educational policies in the Mercosur countries12......Page 136
The dynamics of integration and changes in state policy: Conflicts and contradictions......Page 145
Educational and linguistic policies since 1991......Page 146
The dynamics of integration in civil society......Page 149
Geolinguistic perspectives in Mercosur......Page 150
References......Page 155
Complex, cross-cutting effects......Page 161
Positive effects......Page 165
Negative effects......Page 169
Conclusions......Page 172
References......Page 174
11 Sociolinguistic changes in transformed Central Asian societies......Page 175
Contact-induced linguistic variation and language policy......Page 177
Language as a pawn in the political game......Page 181
In the wake of Central Asian state language laws......Page 184
Issues in corpus planning......Page 190
The role of foreign interests in Central Asian language issues......Page 195
Concluding remarks: Linguistic identity crisis leading to new paradigms?......Page 198
References......Page 201
12 Language and script in Japan and other East Asian countries: Between insularity and technology......Page 206
Historical background......Page 207
How the East Asian languages deal with foreign words......Page 208
Policy regarding foreign words......Page 209
Chinese characters only, mixed with syllabary/phonemic script and phonemic script alone......Page 210
Official character sets and codes1......Page 211
Problems with codes......Page 212
Chinese and Korean input......Page 213
Japanese input systems......Page 214
Japan......Page 215
Japan’s policies for spreading Japanese language learning......Page 217
English and the ‘internationalisation’ of Japanese......Page 218
Conclusions......Page 219
References......Page 220
‘Sub-Saharan’ or ‘south Saharan’ Africa?......Page 221
The exceptional linguistic African diversity......Page 222
From the supremacy of the three colonial languages to the politicolinguistic tripartition......Page 224
The decolonisation strategies......Page 225
Deficient language planning......Page 227
Continuity of linguistic policies, from colonial times to the present......Page 229
Why this linguistic non-development of Black Africa?......Page 231
What are the prospects?......Page 232
References......Page 234
World Englishes......Page 235
Plurilingualism......Page 239
‘Esperantism’......Page 240
Roles of other world languages......Page 241
Technologism......Page 242
References......Page 243
Part III Languages of wider communication......Page 247
What do we mean by the ‘international standing of a language’?......Page 249
The international standing of German according to various indicators......Page 251
Numerical strength......Page 252
Economic strength......Page 253
Political strength......Page 257
Cultural strength......Page 260
Concluding remarks......Page 264
References......Page 266
16 Arabic and the new technologies......Page 268
Satellite broadcasting......Page 269
Arabic on the internet......Page 270
Technical difficulties......Page 271
Which propositions?......Page 274
Experiences with standardisation......Page 275
Towards a conclusion......Page 276
References......Page 277
17 Russian in the modern world......Page 278
Russian within the Russian Federation......Page 279
Russian in the countries of the CIS......Page 283
Ukraine......Page 290
Belarus......Page 293
Russian in the Baltic states......Page 295
Russian in other foreign countries......Page 299
The demographic power of Russian......Page 301
The economic power of Russian......Page 302
Russian in worldwide education......Page 303
Russian in the information technologies......Page 304
Conclusions......Page 305
References......Page 306
18 Geolinguistics, geopolitics, geostrategy: The case of French......Page 309
References......Page 315
Geostrategy via a future language observatory......Page 316
Sources of international data......Page 317
Global approaches to the gathering of language figures......Page 319
A model for future analysis......Page 323
References......Page 329
20 On Brazilian Portuguese in Latin American integration......Page 331
References......Page 334
Conclusion......Page 335
21 The search for a global linguistic strategy......Page 337
References......Page 349
Index......Page 352