Bilingualism in the Spanish-Speaking World

Bilingualism has given rise to significant changes in Spanish-speaking countries. In the US the increasing importance of Spanish has engendered an English-only movement; in Peru contact between Spanish and Quechua has brought about language change; and in Iberia speakers of Basque Galician and Catalan have made their languages a compulsory part of school curricula and local government. This book provides an introduction to bilingualism in the Spanish-speaking world looking at topics such as language contact bilingual societies bilingualism in schools code-switching language transfer the emergence of new varieties of Spanish and language choice - and how all of these phenomena affect the linguistic and cognitive development of the speaker. Using examples and case studies drawn primarily from Spanish/English bilinguals in the US Spanish/Quechua bilinguals in Peru and Spanish/Basque bilinguals in Spain it provides diverse perspectives on the experience of being bilingual in distinct cultural political and socioeconomic contexts.