Emerging Bilingual Speech

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.

Anna Verschik

Abbreviations Transliteration of Russian Introduction 1. Theoretical background: combining structural and sociolinguistic factors 2.  Emerging multilingual communication: Russian in Estonia, Russian and Estonian, Estonia's Russian 3. Code-copying framework and copiability 4. Case-studies in code-copying 5. Code-copying and patterns of bilingual communication 6. Conclusions Bibliography Index