From cosmopolis to ethnopolis

Abstract

AbstractThe past two centuries were marked by rapid urbanization. This chapter examines how migration to the city affects social formations and language-use patterns. In the age of industrialization cities were the social and geographic centre of the formation and diffusion of language standards which, enabling individuals to gain freedom of movement, helped to create new social bonds beyond kinship and neighbourhood. Today we are living through another social transformation driven by rapid demographic change, that is, ageing in and migration flows to the most affluent and advanced countries. A high degree of socio-economic, ethnic, religious and cultural diversity has become common in cities and towns across Europe and North America where an ethos of mixing in urban public life has become quite normal, which raises the question of how the language standards of modern society are affected.