Authority and Identity A Sociolinguistic History of Europe before the Modern Age

by Millar, Robert McColl

• ISBN13: 9780230232556
• ISBN10: 0230232558
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-09-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This is a history of Europe unlike any other: a theory-informed history of its language use. The 'rise' and 'fall' of languages are recounted, along with an analysis of why periods of linguistic diversity are followed by hegemony. How did the sociolinguistic past differ from the sociolinguistic present?

Author Biography

ROBERT McCOLL MILLAR is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Aberdeen, UK. His books include Language, Nation and Power and Northern and Insular Scots.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vi
Acknowledgements	p. vii
A Note on Naming	p. viii
Prologue	p. 1
Sociology of Language: An Introduction	p. 10
Linguistic Prehistory	p. 19
The First European Literacies	p. 41
The First Hegemonies	p. 68
Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces. Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period	p. 99
Competing Hegemonies: The High Middle Ages	p. 143
The Birth of the Modern?: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries	p. 179
Conclusions	p. 198
Notes	p. 210
Bibliography	p. 217
Index	p. 237
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