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Research on language standardization witnessed remarkable progress over the past two decades. Building on the strong foundations laid by Einar Haugen, the scholarly canon on the topic was renewed, while also addressing a number of shortcomings of earlier theory building. As historical sociolinguistics gained momentum, standardization history faced the challenge of including 'voices from below' as they appeared in new and socially inclusive corpora of egodocuments from the past centuries. This implied an increased focus on the formerly overlooked role and presence of non-standard varieties, but also on the ideological driving factors behind many standardization efforts. The article makes a case for specific and ongoing attention to the implementation phase of standardization measures, as well as for the study of language conflicts from times past to help prevent imminent geopolitical struggles (or, for worse, to inform our understanding of these conflicts in the near future). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a number of linguistic aspects of the internationalisation and anglicisation of higher education in Flanders. We aim to combine an overview of the applicable legal measures with the most detailed and complete information to date on the actual linguistic practices in universities and university colleges. To this end, we collected the most recent available data from a variety of official reports and databases on parameters including the number of English bachelor and master programmes currently on offer, the relative share of students involved in these international programmes, as well as the extent to which students and professors meet official language requirements. Next to these English-focused aspects, we also supply new figures on the required mother tongue proficiency to enrol in the regular Dutch-based curriculum (theory versus practice). The situation in the Dutch-speaking community of Belgium is then compared to that of the French-speaking Community, once again based on figures and data that were collated from a variety of official sources. All data indicate that the actual impact of anglicisation in Flemish universities and university colleges remains limited and unproblematic, compared to the situation in many other medium-sized language communities. The closing discussion advocates a language policy for higher education in Flanders that combines a strong focus on mother tongue proficiency with a solid training in English for academic purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on multilingualism in language contact, language use, and language planning. Topics discussed include historical sociolinguistics and language variation in culture; language planning and its phrases for historical linguistics; sociolinguistic identity; and school inspection. It further includes settings in historical multilingualism, language varieties in text fragments for multilingual experience, official announcements for promoting the same, and standards in language ideology.

The article discusses the increasing language policy and planning activities for European autochthonous minority languages in the 20th century. An overview on the estimated living languages as well as aspects of individual and societal multilingualism in the European political and academic agenda, is provided. It highlights the international and supranational entities such as the Council of Europe and the European Union. Also mentioned is the macrosociolinguistic characteristics of minority language communities in Europe despite a long-standing European tradition.

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses several reports from the issue related to language and religion as a sociolinguistic field of study.

The article discusses various topics published within the issue including one by Ana Deumert on language standardisation theory and practice, one by Leigh Oakes on attitudes towards French and English among French-speaking Canadians and another by Andrew Linn on language norms and functions in the history of Norway.

The article presents information about the gradual disappearance of dialect use in regions of the Netherlands and in Germany. Research results are described which indicate that younger generations use Standard Dutch and Standard German more than older generations. Factors such as income level and loyalty to social groups are also examined in terms of their impact on the use of dialects as opposed to standard language. Tables are included with statistical data regarding the age, occupation, and social group of people with various levels of fluency in dialects.

‘In looking back upon the history of ordinary people, we are not merely trying to give it a retrospective political significance which it did not always have, we are trying more generally to explore an unknown dimension of the past.’ (Hobsbawm 1998: 270) The historiography of modern Western languages has traditionally concentrated on unification and standardization processes. This approach was deeply rooted in 19th and early 20th century (language) ideologies and (language) politics. The language discourse in many Western countries displayed a remarkable collaboration of linguists with politicians, historians and writers in constructing a picture of unified nations with autonomous cultural, especially literary and linguistic, traditions that were sometimes projected backwards to the Middle Ages and beyond. Hence, generations of scholars and teachers have presented language history as a long march toward a uniform standard. Variation and other linguistic digressions were usually either ignored or stigmatised as corrupted language and not considered as suitable data for linguistic research. Up to the end of the 20th century, many textbooks on national language histories were dominated by this teleological view, portraying ‘classical’ authors as role models for language norms and style. As such, language history was largely reduced to the study of literary language, often coinciding with the high variety employed and received by only a tiny minority of the population. ‘Non-standard’ variation – let alone language use from the non-elite – was usually regarded as corrupt and vulgar and, in an act of ‘sanitary purism’ (Milroy 2005, 324–326) or ‘verbal hygiene’ (Cameron 1995), simply cleansed from textbooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the written Dutch of lower class writers in 19th century Bruges (Flanders, Belgium). None of the scribes conformed to any of the prestige norms for Dutch spelling at the time. They all used an idiosyncratic orthography instead, full of variability but not chaotic. On the level of style and syntax, these texts are characterised by ‘stylistic breakdown’. The combination of these orthographical and stylistic features was not typical for lower class writing as such. In Bruges, middle and upper class writers displayed similar writing patterns, but they abandoned this ‘style’ for the standard earlier than the lower class writers did. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of historical sociolinguistics. History and evolution of the term "Historical Sociolinguistics" are highlighted. Restrictions of the internationally visible output on historical to the study of the social language history of German and English about 15 years ago are discussed.

The article introduces this issue of the journal, which revolves around the theme of religious aspects of language.