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Presenting new approaches and results previously inaccessible in English, the Routledge Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics provides an insight into the language and society of contemporary Japan from a fresh perspective.
While it was once believed that Japan was a linguistically homogenous country, research over the past two decades has shown Japan to be a multilingual and sociolinguistically diversifying country. Building on this approach, the contributors to this handbook take this further, combining Japanese and western approaches alike and producing research which is relevant to twenty-first century societies. Organised into five parts, the sections covered include:
- The languages and language varieties of Japan.
- The multilingual ecology.
- Variation, style and interaction.
- Language problems and language planning.
- Research overviews.
With contributions from across the field of Japanese sociolinguistics, this handbook will prove very useful for students and scholars of Japanese Studies, as well as sociolinguists more generally.
List of contents
Part I: The languages and language varieties of Japan 1. Ainu language and Ainu speakers 2. Ryukyuan sociolinguistics 3. Ryukyu-subtrate Japanese: Contact efforts on the replacing language 4. Japanese dialects 5. Koine and koineization 6. Language and migration in Japan 7. English in Japan Part II: The multilingual ecology 8. Metroethnicity: From standardized identities to language aesthetics 9. Metrolingualism in transitional Japan 10. Linguistic landscape 11. Bilingualism and bilingual education in Japan 12. Japan as a multilingual society Part III: Variation, style and interaction 13. Language variation and change 14. Code switching, language crossing and mediatized translinguistic practices 15. Language and social relations 16. Politeness 17. Impoliteness 18. Gendered speech Part IV: Language problems and language planning 19. Language policy and planning 20. Script and orthography problems 21. Literacy and illiteracy 22. Japanese language spread in the colonies and occupied territories 23. Ainu language shift 24. Language shift in the Ryukyu Islands 25. Language rights Part V: Research overviews 26. Language life (gengo seikatsu) 27. The study of Japanese language speakers 28. Studies of Ryukyu-substrate Japanese
About the author
Patrick Heinrich is Professor at the Department of Asian and African Studies at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, Italy, where he teaches Japanese and Ryukyuan sociolinguistics. His recent publications include Urban Sociolinguistics (Routledge, 2017) and The Making of Monolingual Japan (2012).
Yumiko Ohara is Professor in the College of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, USA, where she teaches pragmatics and linguistics of endangered languages. Her publications include Various Approaches to Japanese Discourse (2007).
Summary
Presenting new approaches and results previously inaccessible in English, this book provides insight into the language and society of contemporary Japan from a fresh perspective.
Report
In sum, this is an excellent collection that will be indispensable to scholars in Japanese sociolinguistics and beyond.
- JANET S. SHIBAMOTO-SMITH, Anthropology, University of California
