Contributions from an international team of experts revisit and update the concept of linguistic ecology in order to critically examine current theoretical approaches to language contact. Language is understood as a part of complex socio-historical-cultural systems, and interaction between the different dimensions and levels of these systems is considered to be essential for specific language forms. This book presents a uniform, abstract model of linguistic ecology based on, among other things, two concepts of Edmund Husserl's philosophy (parts and wholes, and foundation). It considers the individual speaker in the specific communication situation to be the essential heuristic basis of linguistic analysis. The chapters present and employ a new, transparent and accessible contact linguistic vocabulary to aid reader comprehension, and explore a wide range of language contact situations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific. This book will be fascinating reading for students and researchers across contact linguistics and cultural studies.

This volume explores the role of linguistic ecology in the study of language contact. Bringing together an international team of experts, it offers a theoretical overview, followed by ten case studies on contact situations around the world, covering Europe, the Americas, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Asia, Australia and the Pacific.

Part I. Introduction and Theoretical Frame: 1. Linguistic ecology and language contact: conceptual evolution, interrelatedness, and parameters Ralph Ludwig, Peter Mühlhäusler and Steve Pagel; 2. On the notion of natural in ecological linguistics Françoise Gadet and Steve Pagel; Part II. On the Ecology of Speaker and Space from Situational to Intermediate Ecology: 3. An interactionist perspective on the ecology of linguistic practices: the situated and embodied production of talk Lorenza Mondada; 4. Approaching language in urban interactions ecologically: the case of Spanish in Lima Juan Carlos Godenzzi; Part III. On the Ecology of Space and Time, Traditions in the Formation of Macro-Ecologies: 5. The historical formation of a macro-ecology: the case of the Levant Cyril Aslanov; 6. Spanish anthroponomy from an ecological linguistic view: the Antillean society in the early sixteenth century Silke Jansen; Part IV. On the Ecology of Language and Speaker, the Hybridization of Language and Discourse: 7. Reflections on discourse ecology and language contact: the crucial role of some scalar terms Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig and Tabea Salzmann; 8. Language mixing and ecology in Africa: focus on Camfranglais and Sheng Anne Schröder and Philip W. Rudd; 9. Hybrid speech of Francophone groups in Cairo: from macro-level ecology to discourse Cynthia Dermarkar, Françoise Gadet, Ralph Ludwig and Stefan Pfänder; 10. The opposite of an anti-Creole? Why modern Chamorro is not a new language Steve Pagel; Part V. The Multiplicity of Ecological Parameters, Echoing the Theoretical Frame and Going Beyond: 11. Contact between typologically different languages Peter Mühlhäusler; 12. Theoretical and practical aspects of ecological language planning Peter Mühlhäusler.