Intended for non-majors, this introductory textbook covers a broad and exciting array of topics in the interaction of language and society. It focuses in particular on the complex political and sociological roles of the world's dominant language groups and nationalized languages, and the rapid extinction of minority languages.

• Foreword


• Chapter 1: Languages and Dialects


• Chapter 2: Languages with Special Roles/functions: National and Official Languages


• Chapter 3: Languages Under Pressure: Minority Groups and Language Loss


• Chapter 4: Diglossia and Code-Switching


• Chapter 5: Pidgins and Creoles: The Birth and Development of New Languages


• Chapter 6: The Globalization of English


• Chapter 7: Language(s) in the USA


• Chapter 8: Bilingualism


• Chapter 9: Language and Thought: The Linguistic Relativity Controversy


• Chapter 10: Language and Gender


• Chapter 11: Language Variation and Change


• References


• Subject Index

Andrew Simpson is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Southern California. He is the editor of Language and National Identity in Asia (Oxford University Press, 2007), Language and National Identity in Africa (Oxford University Press, 2008), and the author of many articles in linguistic journals on aspects of the languages of South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. He is also joint general editor of the Journal of East Asian Linguistics.