I.4.

2 Bilingualism and Multigualism The term bilingualism( sometimes also referred to as multigualism) can refer to phenomena regarding an individual speaker who uses two or more languages, a community of speakers where two or more languages are used, or between speakers of different languages. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers(monoglottism from(Greek

monos, "alone, solitary", + glotta, "tongue, language") or, more commonly,

monolingualism or unilingualism is the condition of being able to speak only a single language I.4 2.1 Multilingualism within an individual A multilingual person, in the broadest definition, is anyone who can communicate in more than one language, be it active (through speaking and writing) or passive (through listening and reading). More specifically, the terms bilingual and trilingual are used to describe comparable situations in which two or three languages are involved, respectively. Multilingualism could be rigidly defined as being native-like in two or more languages. It could also be loosely defined as being less than native-like but still able to communicate in two or more languages. Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the so-called first language (L1). First languages (sometimes also referred to as mother tongue) are acquired without formal education, by mechanisms heavily disputed. Children acquiring two first languages since birth are called simultaneous bilinguals. Even in the case of simultaneous bilinguals one language usually dominates over the other. This kind of bilingualism is most likely to occur when a child is raised by bilingual parents in a predominantly monolingual environment.

Language and Social Class Linguists have known for some time that differences in language are tied to social class. Ross (1954) suggested that certain lexical and phonological differences in English could be classied asU(upper class) or non-U (lower class), e.g., ser.iette (non-U) vs. table-napkin (U), one of the best known of all linguistic classindicators of England at the time. Similarly, in the United States, some surveys of regional dialect recognized the importance of social status in geographical variation, and distinguished three categories of subjects based on the eldworker's classication: Type Ilittle formal education, little reading and restricted social contacts; Type IIbetter formal education (usually high school) and}or wider reading and social contacts; and Type IIIsuperior education (usually college), cultured background, wide reading and}or extensive social contacts. These types correspond roughly to social status. Until the 1960s, however, most studies of variability were concerned primarily with regional variation or dialectology, following a tradition established in the nineteenth century. These studies concentrated their efforts on documenting the rural dialects which it was believed would soon disappear. Only during the latter half of the twentieth century would the concern for status-based differences in language become a primary rather than a secondary focus, when sociolinguists turned their attention to the language of cities, where an increasing proportion of the world's population lives in modern times. The rise of urbanization is connected with an increase in social stratication reected in linguistic variation. 1. Beginnings of Sociolinguistics Research focusing on social dialects is