This volume presents a comparative, socio-historical study of the Germanic standard languages (Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese, Frisian, German, Icelandic, Low German, Luxemburgish, Norwegian, Scots, Swedish, Yiddish as well as the Caribbean and Pacific Creole languages). Each of the 16 orginal chapters systematically discusses central aspects of the standardization process, including dialect selection, codification, elaboration and diffusion of the standard norm across the speech community, as well as incipient processes of de-standardization and re-standardization. The strongly comparative orientation of the contributions allow for the identification of broad similarities as well as intriguing differences across a wide range of historically and socially diverse language histories. Two chapters by the editors provide an overview of the theoretical background and rationale of comparative standardization research, and outline directions for further research in the area. The volume will be of interest to language historians as well as sociolinguists in general.

Table of contents

Standard languages: Taxonomies and histories Ana Deumert and Wim Vandenbussche 1–14 Afrikaans Paul T. Roberge 15–40 Caribbean Creoles Hubert Devonish 41–67 Danish Tore Kristiansen 69–91 Dutch Roland Willemyns 93–125 English Terttu Nevalainen 127–156 Faroese Zakaris Svabo Hansen, Jógvan í Lon Jacobsen and Eivind Weyhe 157–191 Frisian Eric Hoekstra 193–209 German Klaus J. Mattheier 211–244 Icelandic Kristján Árnason 245–279 Low German Nils Langer 281–301 Luxembourgish Peter Gilles and Claudine Moulin 303–329 Norwegian Ernst Håkon Jahr 331–353 Pacific Pidgins and Creoles Peter Mühlhäusler 355–381 Scots Marina Dossena 383–404 Swedish Ulf Teleman 405–429 Yiddish Rakhmiel Peltz 431–453 Research directions in the study of language standardization Ana Deumert and Wim Vandenbussche 455–469 Index 471–479