Reconstructing Non-Standard Languages

A socially-anchored approach

Lenore A. Grenoble

Jessica Kantarovich

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027212573 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027257345 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00

Focusing on language contact involving Russian, and the linguistic varieties that emerged from that contact in different social settings, this book analyzes issues and methodologies in reconstructing both the linguistic effects of language contact and the social contexts of usage. In-depth analyses of Odessan Russian, a southern Russian contact variety with Yiddish and Ukrainian elements, and Russian lexifier pidgins illustrate the reconstruction process, which involves making the most of all available documentation, particularly literature and stereotypical descriptions. Historical sociolinguistics of this kind straddles the fields of historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and contact; this book brings together the methods and theories of these areas to show how they can result in a rich reconstruction of linguistic and socially-conditioned variation. We reconstruct the circumstances and social settings that produced this variation, and demonstrate how to reconstruct which variants were used by different types of speakers under different circumstances, and what kinds of social identities they indexed.

[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society, 52] 2022. xv, 354 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.52

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements | pp. xv–xvi

Part I. Theory and methodology

Chapter 1. Socio-historical linguistics and language contact | pp. 3–26

Chapter 2. The Russian Language Empire | pp. 27–68

Chapter 3. Sociolinguistics and the reconstruction of contact effects | pp. 69–102

Part II. Linguistic reconstruction

Chapter 4. Language contact and Odessan Russian | pp. 105–178

Chapter 5. Russian pidgins | pp. 179–230

Part III. Issues of representation in documentation and reconstruction

Chapter 6. Types of representation in written documentation | pp. 233–274

Chapter 7. Indexicality and authenticity | pp. 275–316

Appendixes

Appendix A. Sources | pp. 317–321

Appendix B. Transcription | p. 322

Bibliography

Name index | pp. 341–344

Subject index | pp. 345–354

“ Reconstructing Non-Standard Languages provides a unique approach on the role of Russian language contact in the emergence of sociolectal varieties.”

Marc Gandarillas, University of North Dakota, in Language in Society 53 (2024)..

“This book is a well-informed study that provokes discussion well beyond OdR and RLPs. [...] Theoretical issues involving validity, authenticity and the use of literary sources are of concern to scholars in historical sociolinguistics, literary multilingualism, creolistics and contact linguistics in general.”

Anna Verschik, Tallinn University, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (2024).

Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Giles, Howie

2023. New Book Alerts, 2021–2024. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 42:5-6 ► pp. 688 ff.

Grenoble, Lenore A & Boris Osipov

2023. Understanding language shift. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 13:1 ► pp. 122 ff.

Kabanen, Inna

2023. From Odessa to “Little Odessa”: Migration of Food and Myth. Open Cultural Studies 7:1

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Subjects