LANGUAGE SHIFT
LANGUAGE SHIFT. A term in LINGUISTICS for a massive shift in use from one language to another, as in Ireland from GAELIC to English (18–20c). In 1964, the US linguist Joshua A. Fishman introduced the dual notion language maintenance and language shift (LMLS) to discuss the situation of ‘the minority language or small national language faced by pressures related to a much bigger national or international language’. To the latter, of which English is the pre-eminent example, he has given the name language of wider communication (LWC).
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LANGUAGE SHIFT