Classen Multilingualism in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age

Communication and Miscommunication in the Premodern World
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-3-11-047144-1
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 17, 408 Seiten

Reihe: Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern CultureISSN

Bi- and multilingualism are of great interest for contemporary linguists since this phenomenon deeply reflects on language acquisition, language use, and sociolinguistic conditions in many different circumstances all over the world. Multilingualism was, however, certainly rather common already, if not especially, in the premodern world. For some time now, research has started to explore this issue through a number of specialized studies. The present volume continues with the investigation of multilingualism through a collection of case studies focusing on important examples in medieval and early modern societies, that is, in linguistic and cultural contact zones, such as England, Spain, the Holy Land, but also the New World. As all contributors confirm, the numerous cases of multilingualism discussed here indicate strongly that the premodern period knew considerably less barriers between people of different social classes, cultural background, and religious orientation. But we also have to acknowledge that already then human communication could fail because of linguistic hurdles which prevented mutual understanding in religious and cultural terms.

Zielgruppe

Scholars in the humanities, sociolinguistics, history of religion

Autoren/Hrsg.

Classen, Albrecht

Über Autor(innen)

Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA.

Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA.