230066 Multilingual Britain (S) (SoSe 2020)

Great Britain is a place of cultural diversity and multi-ethnicity. Ever since ancient times, waves of (im)migration as well as the presence of various peoples have helped to shape the character of the British Isles. The linguistic diversity in the British Isles can be attributed to several aspects of language and dialect contact and it can be subdivided into two major strands: On the one hand, there are the ‘older languages’ such as Welsh or Irish Gaelic, which still have official status in some areas. On the other hand, there are large groups of immigrants bringing languages such as Polish, Punjabi, Mandarin Chinese, French or Greek into the United Kingdom. In addition, the region is marked by an impressive range of older and more recent (urban) dialectal differentiation. Thus, in this course we will look at the linguistic diversity as it can be observed in the United Kingdom today. We will investigate how the multilingual und dialectal makeup in the British Isles has developed and examine the increasingly complex present-day sociolinguistic situation.

Requirements for participation, required level

Dear students,
As you will have realized, this term will have to be organized very differently from all previous ones. I will try to make this class run as smoothly as possible, but this will entail a considerable effort on my part as well as on yours.
This is why you will have to send me a short text (of no more than 150 to 200 words) on your motivations to take this seminar, on the things you would like to learn and - most importantly - which area/topic you would like to focus on for your independent study project as a 'Studienleistung'. Preferably, you have already a particular dialect or population group etc. in mind. This will help me to organize you into student groups.
If I do not receive your text by Apil 20 (preferably well before that), I will assume that you are not planning on taking this class after all.
For some possible ideas, you may consult the (preliminary) course outline in the 'Lernraum' and may find some of the the readings already uploaded inspirational. But you are free to suggest new/other topics, which I may decide to add to the agenda.
Kind regards,
Anne Schröder