De Gruyter Mouton Repertoires and Choices in African Languages: 5 (Language Contact and Bilingualism [LCB], 5)

Africa is one of the hotspots of linguistic diversity, and most African languages are spoken by multilingual communities. The persistence of multilingualism and the linguistic creativity are striking, especially against the backdrop of "language death" and expanding monolingualism elsewhere in the world. This volume deals with multilingualism as a cultural technique, register variation and the multiplicity of language ideologies, and the dynamics of linguistic change in Africa's minority languages. It argues that that in terms of multilingualism and language survival, Africa can serve as a positive model.