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Encountering Language and Languages of Encounter in North American Ethnohistory
Author(s) -
Silverstein Michael
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of linguistic anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.463
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1548-1395
pISSN - 1055-1360
DOI - 10.1525/jlin.1996.6.2.126
Subject(s) - ethnohistory , language contact , pidgin , sociology , linguistics , sociolinguistics , creole language , speech community , linguistic anthropology , politics , anthropology , political science , law , philosophy
On the basis of primary sources and of reviewing recent scholarship on linguistic contact in North America, an ethnohistory of communication is advocated to achieve a greater realism. Central to this framework ought to be conceptual differentiation of speech community, an organization of communicating peoples by regularities of language‐in‐use, and language community, an organization of people by their orientation to structural (formal) norms for denotational coding (whether explicit or implicit). While considering the various parameters of the social organization of languages in North American contact communities, we survey a sample of cases to show their ethnohistorical distinctness from the traditional pidgin‐ and creole‐forming situations, and the basis in contact for the role of indigeneous languages in contemporary ethnic politics of culture.