African(ist) perspectives on vitality: fluidity, small speaker numbers and adaptive multilingualism make vibrant ecologies

Main author: Lüpke, Friederike
Format: Journal Article           
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id eprints-24354
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description This paper addresses language vitality from an Africanist perspective. I identify central components for the paradigm Mufwene (2017) invites us to conceive: the investigation of communicative practices in language ecologies (rather than the study of a language), of fluid speech and its relation to imaginary reifications, of indexical functions of speech and language, and of language ideologies and the perspectives contained in them. I argue that the study of small-scale multilingual ecologies driven by adaptivity, rather than by fixed ethnolinguistic identities and ancestral languages, and the recognition of small languages as causally related to language vitality, not to endangerment, are crucial for a rethinking of linguistic vitality and diversity.
format Journal Article
author Lüpke, Friederike
author_facet Lüpke, Friederike
authorStr Lüpke, Friederike
author_letter Lüpke, Friederike
title African(ist) perspectives on vitality: fluidity, small speaker numbers and adaptive multilingualism make vibrant ecologies
publisher Linguistic Society of America
publishDate 2017
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/24354/