[PLing] Diaspora Linguistics

[Adams Bodomo]

 Diaspora Linguistics: Probing the Contours of an Emerging Discipline in the Humanities

 

Adams Bodomo

University of Vienna

GADS Seminar paper

April 25, 2016

5pm, Kleiner Saal, Afro-Asiatisches Institut
 

 

Abstract:

Diaspora Linguistics is an area of inquiry that straddles the subject matter of Diaspora Studies and Linguistics. It is the study of the world-wide flow of socio-cultural objects such as language, images, and meanings resulting in hybridizations and cultural and linguistic transformations within and across diaspora communities. In this talk we outline the contours of this emerging area of inquiry, suggest what might be the main research topics within this area, including language acquisition, linguistic structure, linguistic repertoires and functions within diaspora communities, heritage grammars, and textual analysis of diaspora writings; we also point to how one might theorize about Diaspora Linguistics. We conclude with a proposal about how Diaspora Linguistics might interpolate with various humanities and social science disciplines as diverse as History, Philosophy, Literature, Geography, Sociology, Anthropology, and Psychology. Many of these issues are illustrated with data and analysis from an ongoing study of Africans in Guangzhou, China and Africans in Vienna, Austria.