Overview

This lively and engaging book, set in the historical context of centuries of migration and multilingualism in Berlin, explores the relationship between language and migration. Berlin is a multicultural city in the heart of Europe, but what do we know about the number of languages spoken by its inhabitants and how they are used in everyday life? How do encounters with different languages impact on the experience of migration? And how do people use their experiences with language to shape their life stories?To investigate these questions, the author invites the reader to accompany him on a research expedition that leads to an apartment building in the highly diverse district of Neukölln. Its inhabitants come from different parts of the world and relate their experiences – their Berlin lives – in ways that reveal the complex and intricate relationships between language and migration.

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9783319821368

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Reviews

Stevenson's latest work on multilingualism in Berlin is a fascinating and enthralling account of five migrants' personal and linguistic histories situated within a particular building in the city. ... this book is a valuable addition to the field of language and migration, exemplifying linguistic ethnography in an innovative and effective novella style. I believe Stevenson's approach is a good example of a helpful method to capture a potentially sensitive topic. (Andre Joseph Theng, Language in Society, Vol. 47 (03), June, 2018)

Author Information

Patrick Stevenson is Professor of German and Linguistics at the University of Southampton. He has published widely on German sociolinguistics, the politics of language and European multilingualism. His previous books include Language and German Disunity, Language and Social Change in Central Europe (with Jenny Carl), Discourses on Language and Integration (co-edited with Gabrielle Hogan-Brun and Clare Mar-Molinero), Language, Discourse and Identity in Central Europe (co-edited with Jenny Carl) and Language Ideologies, Policies and Practices (co-edited with Clare Mar-Molinero).

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