Language Loyalty, Language Planning, And Language Revitalization: Recent Writing and Reflections From Joshua A. Fishman

Fishman's work in sociolinguistics includes classical studies on reversing language shift as well as the title topics, and this collection of recent writings includes an interview on his perceptions with editors Hornberger (education, U. of Pennsylvania) and Putz (linguistics and English language, U. of Koblenz-Landau). The essays include Fishman's thoughts on the birth of American sociolinguistics, similarities and differences between diglossia and societal multilingualism, the process of reversing language shift and its failures and successes, considering such factors as geography in studies of language revitalization, problems in the study of language maintenance and language shift, results of studies in Australia of immigrant and Aboriginal languages, the myth of "English only," ethnolinguistic democracy, endangered languages, and Yiddish in the context of the "holy language." Distributed in the US by UTP Distribution. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Nancy H. Hornberger is Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. She investigates, teaches, lectures, and consults on multilingual language and education policy and practice worldwide, combining methods and perspectives from anthropology and sociolinguistics. Her special focus is indigenous and immigrant heritage language education, grounded in her comparative ethnographic research in the South American Andes and urban Philadelphia (USA). Her most recent book is Continua of Biliteracy: An Ecological Framework for Educational Policy, Research, and Practice in Multilingual Settings (Multilingual Matters, 2003) and she is General Editor for the forthcoming 10-volume Encyclopedia of Language and Education (Springer).Martin Putz is Full Professor of Linguistics and English Language at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany (Campus Landau) where he regularly organises linguistic conferences (International LAUD Symposia). His research interests include sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics and foreign language teaching/learning. He has done extensive fieldwork in Great Britain, Namibia and Australia on a variety of topics such as intercultural communication, codeswitching, pidgins/creoles, language policy and educational language planning. His recent book publication includes ‘Along the Routes to Power’: Explorations of Empowerment through Language (with co-editors Joshua A. Fishman and JoAnne Neff – van Aertselaer).