Societal bilingualism and the emergence of “invasive” language species: the case of Sheng

Abstract

Key concepts and ideas •Natural language(s) as a part of ecological reality e.g. native languages, ‘full’ languages •Monolingual societies versus bilingual societies ( and individuals) •Hybrid or contact languages (pidgins-ism and creole-ism) e.g. sheng •Invasive species ( inspired by biological studies) •Metro-lingualismand revisiting sheng •Diglossiaas a tool to aid competence in target languages in Education Linguistic ecology •As part of wider environment ecology •Premium on diversity ( UN document: our diversity, our cultures) •Natural languages and desire to maintain them ( language purists) •Fully developed grammatical, semantics and phonological systems with elaborate language acquisition frameworks •Traditional/mainstream communities •Monolingual societies versus bilingual societies ( exclusive versus language contact situations) •Urbanization and globalization in spread of bilingualism