TY - BOOK ID - 78951878 TI - English in language shift PY - 1992 SN - 0521026490 9780521026499 9780511597893 9780521415149 0521415144 0511597894 PB - Cambridge Cambridge University Press DB - UniCat KW - Dialectology KW - Sociolinguistics KW - English language KW - South Africa KW - Arts and Humanities KW - Language & Linguistics KW - East Indians KW - Languages in contact KW - Areal linguistics KW - Germanic languages KW - Asian Indians KW - Indians, East KW - Indians (India) KW - Indic peoples KW - Ethnology KW - Languages. KW - Social aspects KW - Variation KW - History. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:78951878 AB - Rajend Mesthrie examines the rise of a new variety of English among Indian migrant workers indentured on the plantations of Natal in South Africa. Considering the historical background to, and linguistic consequences of, language shift in an immigrant context, he draws significant parallels between second language acquisition and the processes of pidginization and creolization. In particular, he analyses universals of second language acquisition and the role of transfer from the Indic and Dravidian substrate languages. English in Language Shift observes the acquisition of language in its social setting, often outside the classroom. Its linguistic focus is on the distinctive syntax of South African Indian English, with respect to word order and clause structures; and it contains descriptions of lexis, phonetics and morphology, in terms of social variation. South African Indian English is compared with other dialects within South Africa, with English in India, and with Englishes generally. ER -