Imagine the history of mankind, not as a history of peoples or nations, but of the languages they speak. A history of 5000 languages, thrown together on this planet, constantly interacting. Imagine [he treaty ofVersailles nor as an event ofinternational diplomacy, but in terms of people putting on [heir best French to make themse1ves understood end achieve the greatest advantage. Think of Cortes’ conquest of Mexico in 1532 not as an outrageous narrative ofbravery, cruetry end betrayal, but in terms of the crurial role of his Indian ruistress Malinche, interpreter between Aztee and Spanish. Think of the sugar plantations, where [he uprooted slaves were thrown together, as meeting places for many African languages.

Imagining all this, twc things come to mind: first, how closely the history of languages is tied up with and is reileetion of the history of peoples and nations. Second, how linie we know of languages in contact. Par more is known about the economie consequences of Balkanization, the disinregration ofthe Austrian empire, than of what happened to all rhe languages of the Kaiserliehe und Königliehe Reieh when it feil apart in 1918. This book n-ies to provide the concepts needed to understand what it means for two languages to come into contact. What happens in communities where severa! languages are spoken? How can speakers handle these Ianguages simultaneously? When and why will the dilTerent Ianguages actually be used? Which consequences does language Contact have for the languages involved? These are the main issues we address here.

In this chapter we will give a bit of background to the discussion by sketching few ofthe coneeptual problems, listing some ofthe reasons why researchers have wanted to look at language contact (hoping that these may be valid for the reader as well), describing some of the major types oflanguage contact in the world, giving a brief history of the field and presenting. finally, a sketch of the different contributing subdisciplines and an outline ofthe book.

Bilingualism: concepts and definitions

Language contact inevitably leads to bilingualism. Generally, two types of bilingualism are distinguished: sociaal end individua! bilingualism. Roughly speaking, societal bilingualisrn occurs when in a given society two or more languages are spoken. In this sense, nearly all societies are bilingual, but they can differ with regard to the degree or form of bilingualism. Theoretically, the following forms can be disunguished (see Figure 1.1).