Table of Contents

John C. Maher: Introduction: Tradition in motion
Part I: National Languages
1: Kazuko Matsumoto: Japanese in the world: The diaspora communities
2: Junko Hibiya: Japanese in Japan: The national language and regional varieties
3: Patrick Heinrich: Language communities of the Northern Ryukyus: Okinawan, Amami, and Kunigami
4: Sachiyo Fujita-Round: Language communities of the Southern Ryukyus: Miyako, Yaeyama, and Yonaguni
5: Norie Oka: Japanese Sign Language: A language of the deaf community
6: Hidetoshi Shiraishi: Ainu: An urban-rural indigenous language of the North
Part II: Community Languages
7: Hye-Gyeong Ohe: Korean: Ancient and modern transnational links of language and culture
8: Shi Jie: Chinese: A historic language of cultural influence
9: Lucila Etsuko Gibo: Portuguese: Diaspora, ethnolinguistic vitality, and cultural influence
10: Daniel Quintero: Spanish: From Renaissance missionaries to the Nikkeijin community
11: Rika Yamashita: Urdu and Hindi: Languages of urban transnational business and culture
12: Tina Shrestha: Nepali: Outmigration and the evolving diaspora
13: Mayumi Adachi: Vietnamese: From refugee community to cultural transitions
14: Sachi Takahata: Filipino: A nationwide migrant language and culture
15: Kosei Otsuka: Burmese: Refugees and Little Yangon
16: John C. Maher: Turkish, Kurdish, and Uighur: Linguistic and political presence from the Meiji period
17: Hourieh Akbari: Persian: Migration waves and diversification
Part III: Languages of Culture, Politics, and Modernization
18: Simon Cookson: English: International language of work, learning, and education
19: Florian Coulmas: Dutch and German: Mediator languages of science, politics, and law
20: Simon Tuchais: French: Culture, linguistic landscape, and modernization
21: Petr Podalko: Russian: A historical language community and Russian language education
22: Kimura Goro Christoph and Gotoo Hitosi: Esperanto: Internationalism, dialogue, and an evolving community
23: John C. Maher: Latin and Sanskrit: Hidden Christians, Buddhism, and religious scholarship
Afterword
References
Index

About the Author

John C. Maher is Professor of Linguistics at International Christian University, Tokyo, specializing in sociolinguistics. He has previously held positions at the University of Edinburgh, St. Antony's College, Oxford, and De La Salle University, Manila. His many publications in both English and Japanese include Introducing Chomsky (Multilingual Matters, 1995), and Multilingualism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2017) and, as co-editor with Kyoko
Yashiro, Multilingual Japan (Multilingual Matters, 1995). He is a founding member of the Japan Association of the Sociolinguistic Sciences.