Language Variation in a Fragmented Community

This book explores how Esperanto is spoken in the twenty-first century, offering fresh insights into the nature of language variation and change in situations of obsolescence.

The volume constitutes an extensive variationist study of Esperanto, a constructed language spoken primarily by L2 users. As a “small” language with no geographical heartland and a fragmented speech community, Esperanto provides rich opportunities to closely examine the links between language, culture and processes of hegemony in today’s globalised world. Hawkey adopts a holistic sociolinguistic approach that integrates insights from language variation and change research with critical approaches to language ideologies. Focusing attention on Esperantist movements in the UK as a case study, the author brings together micro-analyses of phonetic, phonological, and morphosyntactic variation with macro-level approaches to belief systems around language and society. The resulting analysis sheds light on the relationship between language variation and counterculture, demonstrating how linguistic hegemony can be challenged in late modernity.

This book will be of interest to scholars in sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and cultural studies.