In the field of multilingualism, there is a growing research literature on the linguistic consequences (including language contact) of large-scale emigration from a homeland and re-settlement in a new location – that is, the linguistic consequences of a diaspora. For example, the multilingualism that has arisen from the Chinese and South Asian diasporas have received particular attention in recent years.
In the present double issue of Brill Research Perspectives on Multilingualism and Second-Language Acquisition, we are pleased and proud to present a detailed treatment of the ecology of what is arguably the oldest, richest, and best-studied case of diasporic multilingualism in existence – the Jewish Diaspora and its linguistic results. In this work, Bernard Spolsky gives a detailed review of research on the Jewish Diaspora focusing primarily on the socio-historical conditions in which the Jewish languages (Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, etc.) arose and spread both in diaspora and after the return to the homeland in modern-day Israel.
Given that Spolsky also provides analyses of other, non-Jewish cases of diasporic multilingualism (including the Chinese and South Asian cases referred to above), we believe that this work constitutes the basis for a general theory of this phenomenon. Needless to say, this area of study will constitute a rich source of evidence in the study of second-language acquisition and of contact languages as well.
William C. Ritchie and Tej K. Bhatia
Editors-in-Chief
September 20, 2016