Emerging Bilingual Speech From Monolingualism to Code-Copying [Hardcover]

Anna Verschik offers a new perspective on how a previously monolingual community of Russian-speakers in Estonia is rapidly becoming bilingual after the end of the Soviet occupation in 1991.

The contact-induced change in Russian under the growing impact of Estonian is analysed in the theoretical framework of code-copying.

Changes in linguistic behaviour of the speakers are often a result of intentional cultivation of non-monolingual communication strategies and language policies, and go hand in hand with the development of a new identity, 'Estonian Russians'.

Emerging Bilingual Speech is a fascinating study that will be of interest to researchers studying language contact, language change and bilingualism.

AbbreviationsTransliteration of RussianIntroduction1. Theoretical background: combining structural and sociolinguistic factors2. Emerging multilingual communication: Russian in Estonia, Russian and Estonian, Estonia's Russian3. Code-copying framework and copiability4. Case-studies in code-copying5. Code-copying and patterns of bilingual communication6. ConclusionsBibliographyIndex