1. What are We Reacting To? If listeners react so quickly to accents, an important question follows: What exactly are they reacting to? From a linguistic perspective, the answer is simple: variation. From a social perspective, however, the answer is more complex: hierarchy. No accent is inherently superior to another. Every variety of a language […]
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The Internet of the 16th Century
When we think of the internet today, we imagine a network that connect people, ideas, knowledge across the globe. In the 16th century, however, a different but equally informative network emerged in Europe: the printing press. For the first time in European history, texts could be reproduced quickly and distributed widely, connecting scholars, merchants and religious communities across borders.
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Understanding Language Vitality: The EGIDS Framework and Real-World Examples
Many languages face the risk of endangerment or extinction, which makes preserving the world’s linguistic diversity a pressing challenge. The Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS) builds on Fishman’s (1991) original GIDS model and consists of a 13-level scale that assesses the vitality and endangerment of languages based on their transmission across generations, institutional support, and societal use.
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