Exploring language in a multilingual context. Variation, interaction and ideology in language documentation. By Bettina Migge and Isabelle Léglise

Abstract

Bettina Migge and Isabelle Léglise’s monograph Exploring Language in a Multilingual Context sheds light onto recent developments in the English-lexified creole languages of Surinamese origin spoken in western French Guiana, i.e. Eastern Maroon (a cover term for the mutually intelligible varieties Aluku, Ndyuka, and Pamaka), Saamaka (also referred to as Saramaka/Saramaca), and Sranan Tongo. This book makes fascinating reading for linguists and social anthropologists interested in linguistic and cultural hybridization in linguistically, culturally, and socially complex (post-)colonial societies. It is also an important contribution to the study of the languages of Suriname and French Guiana. So far, most of the available linguistic literature on the latter country is in French, and often published with smaller, specialized publishers (for an overview of the linguistic situation in Guiana, see e.g. Renault-Lescure & Goury 2009; Vernaudon & Fillol 2009). The book anticipates the publication of two other works (in which the two authors are involved as editors and/or contributors) that also look at the languages of Suriname from a more multidisciplinary perspective. One spans social geography, linguistics, social anthropology and politics (Carlin et al. 2014), the other examines developments in the non-creole languages of the region in addition to the creole languages, e.g. Sarnami, Javanese, Lokono, Hakka, Dutch (Yakpo & Muysken, in prep.).