Читать книгу The Mysteries of Bilingualism. Unresolved Issues онлайн

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It has long been recognized that bilingualism is extremely widespread and that it can be found in practically every country of the world, in all classes of society, and in all age groups. There are many reasons for this. A very straightforward one is that there are some 7,117 languages in the world according to Ethnologue: Languages of the World and they are housed in 195 countries (Eberhard, Simons, and Fennig 2020). Even if not all countries have 36 or so languages (an average based on these numbers), it does mean that countries house many languages and there will be language contact within them. In addition, some countries have many more languages such as 719 in Indonesia,¹ 461 in India,² 390 in Australia³ and so on. Contact between language groups means learning and using other languages or, at the very least, acquiring a common language of communication and hence often becoming bi- or multilingual.

In addition, some countries have a language policy that recognizes and fosters several languages such as India, Canada, Belgium and Switzerland among others. Children in these countries often learn their group’s language and one or two others. Many countries have only one national language and members of other linguistic groups are expected to become bilingual in their own language and the national language (for example, the Kabyles in Algeria, the Kurds in Turkey, the Finns in Sweden, and so on).