Multilingualism and History

Aneta Pavlenko (University of York)

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English

Cambridge University Press
10 April 2025

Bilingualism & multilingualism; Historical & comparative linguistics; General & world history; Social & cultural anthropology

We often hear that our world 'is more multilingual than ever before', but is it true? This book shatters that cliché. It is the first volume to shine light on the millennia-long history of multilingualism as a social, institutional and demographic phenomenon. Its fifteen chapters, written in clear, accessible language by prominent historians, classicists, and sociolinguists, span the period from the third century BC to the present day, and range from ancient Rome and Egypt to medieval London and Jerusalem, from Russian, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires to modern Norway, Ukraine, and Spain. Going against the grain of traditional language histories, these thought-provoking case studies challenge stereotypical beliefs, foreground historic normativity of institutional multilingualism and language mixing, examine the transformation of polyglot societies into monolingual ones, and bring out the cognitive and affective dissonance in present-day orientations to multilingualism, where 'celebrations of linguistic diversity' coexist uneasily with creation of 'language police'.

Edited by: Aneta Pavlenko (University of York)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781009236263
ISBN 10: 1009236261
Pages: 310
Publication Date: 10 April 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Aneta Pavlenko is Research Professor at the Center for Multilingualism at the University of Oslo. She is Past President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics and winner of the 2006 BAAL Book of the Year award, 2009 TESOL Award for Distinguished Research and the 2021 AAAL Research article award.