Authority and Identity

This is a history of Europe unlike any other: a theory-informed history of its language use. The 'rise' and 'fall' of languages are recounted, along with an analysis of why periods of linguistic diversity are followed by hegemony. How did the sociolinguistic past differ from the sociolinguistic present?

Autorentext
ROBERT McCOLL MILLAR is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. His books include Language, Nation and Power and Northern and Insular Scots.

Inhalt
List of Illustrations A Note on Naming Prologue Sociology of Language: An Introduction Linguistic Prehistory The First European Literacies The First Hegemonies Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces. Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period Competing Hegemonies: The High Middle Ages The Birth of the Modern?: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries Conclusions Notes Bibliography