When Languages Collide: Perspectives on Language Conflict, Competition, and Language Coexistence

Scholars of language and communication in general, specific languages, history, and several social sciences examine a variety of language- related social problems that affect people in real situations. Exploring the causes, processes, and outcomes of conflict, they find that language is at the heart of a number of social issues, such as access to economic opportunity and education, eliminating prejudice and bias, individual and group identity, and sharing in a society's power structures. The 15 essays are from a November 1998 conference at Ohio State University. Annotation 2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is Professor of Politics at New York University and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Brian D. Joseph is Professor of Linguistics and Kenneth E. Naylor Professor of South Slavic Linguistics at The Ohio State University. Within historical linguistics, his research focuses mainly on Indo-European languages. He has written and edited numerous books - including "Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship" (with Hans H. Hock, 1996) and "The Synchrony and Diachrony of the Balkan Infinitive" (1983) - and has published over 160 articles. He became editor of the journal "Language" in 2002.

Richard D. Janda is Senior Lecturer and Coordinator for Undergraduate Education in the Department of Linguistics at The Ohio State University. A specialist in both Germanic and Romance linguistics, he has written widely not only on diachronic but also on synchronic issues in phonology, morphology, and morphosyntax, as well as on historical linguistics in general. His more than 70 publications focus on drawing broader implications from the application of theory to specific problems of structure, function, variation, and change in individual languages.

Neil G. Jacobs is Associate Professor on the Yiddish and Ashkenazic Studies Program in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Ohio State University.