The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages: Volume 2, Contexts

Description

What is the origin of the Romance languages and how did they evolve? When and how did they become different from Latin, and from each other? Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages offers fresh and original reflections on the principal questions and issues in the comparative external histories of the Romance languages. It is organised around the two key themes of influences and institutions, exploring the fundamental influence, of contact with and borrowing from, other languages (including Latin), and the cultural and institutional forces at work in the establishment of standard languages and norms of correctness. A perfect complement to the first volume, it offers an external history of the Romance languages combining data and theory to produce new and revealing perspectives on the shaping of the Romance languages.

Martin Maiden is Professor of the Romance Languages and Director of the Research Centre for Romance Linguistics at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. John Charles Smith is Faculty Lecturer in French Linguistics and Deputy Director of the Research Centre for Romance Linguistics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford. Adam Ledgeway is Senior Lecturer in Romance Philology at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge.

'A brilliant account of the social and historical context of the Romance languages from the earliest stages of Latin through to modern creoles ... an indispensable point of reference for both the specialist and those new to the field of Romance linguistics.' Nigel Vincent, Professor Emeritus of General and Romance Linguistics, University of Manchester 'This second volume of the Cambridge History perfectly complements the first, providing the historical and geographical context within which the structures of the Romance languages emerged and developed. Together they provide an invaluable resource, summarizing the results of centuries of scholarship on the family for the specialist and making it accessible to a wide audience of general linguists as well.' Stephen R. Anderson, Yale University