The sociolinguistics of colonisation: a perspective of language shift

Abstract

In this chapter I want to propose an alternative paradigm for understanding the dynamics of multilingualism, language competition and politics in the complex sociolinguistic terrain of sub-Saharan Africa. Particularly for the purpose of explaining language shift, it is important to note that African states had fought wars of expansion and taken vassal states in a ‘colonial’ era before European colonialists arrived in the region.