Publications
Publication details [#48397]
Nino-Murcia, Mercedes and Jason Rothman, eds. 2008. Bilingualism and Identity. Spanish at the crossroads with other languages. (Studies in bilingualism 37). John Benjamins. vii+365 pp.
Publication type
Book – edited volume
Publication language
English
Keywords
Annotation
Sociolinguists have been pursuing connections between language and identity for several decades. But how are language and identity related in bilingualism and multilingualism? Mobilizing the most current methodology, this collection presents new research on language identity and bilingualism in three regions where Spanish coexists with other languages. The cases are Spanish-English contact in the United States, Spanish-indigenous language contact in Latin America, and Spanish-regional language contact in Spain. This is the first comparativist book to examine language and identity construction among bi- or multilingual speakers while keeping one of the languages constant. The sociolinguistic standing of Spanish varies among the three regions depending whether or not it is a language of prestige. Comparisons therefore afford a strong constructivist perspective on how linguistic ideologies affect bi/multilingual identity formation.