Colonial Linguistics

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Colonial linguistics (also colonial and post-colonial linguistics ) is a young branch of linguistics ( linguistics ) that deals with all aspects of linguistic communication in colonial and post-colonial contexts. Missionaries ( missionary linguistics ) played an important role here . Research in the sub-discipline relates to both German and other colonialisms and combines linguistic theories and methods with the perspective of (post) colonial studies . Important reference works are the works Linguistique et colonialisme. Petit traité de glottophagie by Louis-Jean Calvet and Linguistics in a colonial world by James Joseph Errington.

subjects

The colonial Linguistics is a discipline of establishing itself; it can be characterized provisionally in outlines by sketching the range of topics that it has dealt with or undertaken to date. The colonial linguistics concerned among other things with the following topics:

  • What research is / was carried out on the indigenous languages ​​(the languages ​​of the local populations) of the colonies?
  • How are the indigenous languages ​​described and what evaluations are included in these descriptions?
  • How do linguists deal with the problem of describing phenomena in the indigenous languages ​​that do not occur in the languages ​​of the colonizers?
  • How do the indigenous languages ​​develop in the colonial situation?
  • How does the language of the colonial rulers (the colonial language) influence the indigenous languages ​​and what influences of indigenous languages ​​can be found in the regional variety of the language of the colonial rulers?
  • How is the native population represented from the colonialists' point of view?

Short summaries ("abstracts") of the lectures of the two previous conferences, which address the topics mentioned, can be found in the web links below.

Meetings

Annual specialist conferences and workshops in Germany have been held alternately at the Universities of Bremen and Wuppertal and at the Institute for the German Language Mannheim since 2009 . An International Conference on Colonial and Postcolonial Linguistics took place in September 2013 at the University of Bremen.

See also

literature

  • Calvet, Louis-Jean: Linguistique et colonialisme. Petit traité de glottophagie. Paris: Payot, 1974.
  • Engelberg, Stefan / Stolberg, Doris (eds.): Linguistics and colonial language contact. Linguistic encounters and arguments. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2012.
  • Errington, James Joseph: Linguistics in a colonial world. A story of language, meaning, and power. Malden: Blackwell, 2008.
  • Fischer, Steven Roger (ed.): Oceanic Voices - European Quills. The Early Documents on and in Chamorro and Rapanui. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2013.
  • Gerdes, Jens: Language contact and linguistics in the former German colonies. Report on the 2nd conference "Germany's Colonial Linguistics", Institute for German Language, Mannheim, September 30th – 1st. October 2010. In: Sprachreport , Volume 26, Issue 4, 2010, pp. 7–9.
  • Reid, Lawrence A. / Ridruejo, Emilio / Stolz, Thomas (eds.): Philippine and Chamorro Linguistics Before the Advent of Structuralism. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2011.
  • Stolz, Thomas / Vossmann, Christina / Dewein, Barbara (eds.): Colonial language research. The description of African and Oceanic languages ​​at the time of German colonial rule. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2011.
  • Warnke, Ingo H. (ed.): Language and Colonialism. Aspects of National Communication 1884-1919. Berlin / New York: de Gruyter, 2009.

Web links