LINGUIST List 15.526

Mon Feb 9 2004

Books: Sociolinguistics: Greenberg

Editor for this issue: Neil Salmond <neillinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. tom.perridge, Language and Identity in the Balkans: Greenberg

Title: Language and Identity in the Balkans
Subtitle: Serbo-Croat and Its Disintegration
 
Publication Year: 2004
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
		http://www.oup.com/us
		http://www.oup.co.uk 
 
Book URL: http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-925815-5 

Author: Robert D. Greenberg, University of North Carolina 

Hardback: ISBN: 0199258155, Pages: 288, Price: �45.00

 
Abstract:

Language rifts in the Balkans are endemic and have long been both a
symptom of ethnic animosity and a cause for inflaming it. But the
break-up of the Serbo-Croat language into four languages on the path
towards mutual unintelligibility within a decade is, by any previous
standard of linguistic behaviour, extraordinary. Robert Greenberg
describes how it happened. Basing his account on first-hand
observations in the region before and since the communist demise, he
evokes the drama and emotional discord as different factions sought to
exploit, prevent, exacerbate, accelerate or just make sense of the
chaotic and unpredictable language situation. His fascinating account
offers insights into the nature of language change and the relation
between language and identity. It also provides a uniquely vivid
perspective on nationalism and identity politics in the former
Yugoslavia.


Lingfield(s):	Sociolinguistics 

Subject Language(s):	Serbo-croatian (Language code: SRC)

Written In:	English (Language Code: ENG)


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 http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=8955.