Peter Trudgill looks at why human societies at different times and places produce different kinds of language. He considers how far social factors influence language structure and compares languages and dialects spoken across the globe, from Vietnam to Nigeria, Polynesia to Scandinavia, and from Canada to Amazonia.
Modesty prevents Pennsylvanian Dutch Mennonites using the verb wotte ('want'); stratified society lies behind complicated Japanese honorifics; and a mountainous homeland suggests why speakers of Tibetan-Burmese Lahu have words for up there and down there. But culture and environment don't explain why Amazonian Jarawara needs three past tenses, nor why Nigerian Igbo can make do with eight adjectives, nor why most languages spoken in high altitudes do not exhibit an array of spatial demonstratives. Nor do they account for some languages changing faster than others or why some get more complex while others get simpler. The author looks at these and many other puzzles, exploring the social, linguistic, and other factors that might explain them and in the context of a huge range of languages and societies.
Peter Trudgill writes readably, accessibly, and congenially. His book is jargon-free, informed by acute observation, and enlivened by argument: it will appeal to everyone with an interest in the interactions of language with culture, environment, and society.
Industry Reviews
this thought-provoking work ... offers a fresh and compelling reason for linguists to focus on less commonly studied endangered languages. We therefore recommend this stimulating book to anyone interested in exploring possible connections between sociolinguistcs, language change, and typology. * James N. Stanford and Timothy J. Pulju, Studies in Language *
An exciting book, multi-faceted and lucid, a book that can not only be recommended to researchers on linguistic change and historical sociolinguistics but also to advanced students in the field. * Juerg Schwyter, Neuphilologische Mitteilunge *
a brisk and informative introduction to a way of thinking about language that has profound implications for analysis of language diachrony, acquisition, contact, and spread - and of course, given those areas, creolization. * Brian McWhorter, Revista de Crioulos de Base Lexical Portuguesa e Espanhola *
This bold new book, by one of the fields leading sociolinguists, outlines the need for a new intellectual project at the heart of our discipline, emphasising the crucial role of the small face-to-face societies that have shaped most of human history in generating the outer reaches of linguistic complexity. * Nicholas Evans, Professor of Linguistics, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University *
This focussed and important work shows that degree of contact, the size of the community of speakers, and coherence within that community are all important factors in the degree to which languages become structurally simpler (losing agreement and gender for example) or more complex. This is a must-read for anyone interested in language change. * Gary Miller, author of Language Change and Linguistic Theory *
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