LING 2037 - Language in a Global Society

North Terrace Campus - Semester 2 - 2015

The impact of globalization and modern information technology on languages is far-reaching. Next to the disappearance or weakening of the world's 6000 smaller languages, a small number of super languages such as Mandarin, Spanish and English are emerging. The course will examine to what extent the emergence of global languages is due to deliberate political decisions and to what extent it is the unintended outcome of major social and technological change. While the course will pay particular attention to global English and the new Englishes (such as Indian English, Singapore English and Hong Kong English), coverage will also be given to the previous or potential global roles of languages such as Latin, French, Spanish and Chinese (though no knowledge of a language other than English will be assumed or required).

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