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Socio-spatial Networks, Multilingualism, and Language Use in a Rural African Context

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Proceedings of Workshops and Posters at the 13th International Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT 2017) (COSIT 2017)

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Abstract

A GIS spatial perspective can provide important insights into many poorly understood sociolinguistic phenomena such as multilingualism in rural Africa. By relying on ethnographic and individual-based sociolinguistic information as well as on high spatial-temporal resolution data, our interdisciplinary team composed of linguists and geographers aims to (i) make original contributions to the cartographic representation of multilingualism and (ii) develop spatial-analytical models able to capture a complex array of linguistic, cultural, and spatial variables for a compact rural area of Cameroon.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This paper is based upon data collected during research projects supported by the U.S. NSF under grants BCS#0853981 (2009–2013), BCS#1360763 (2014–2017), and by the Endangered Languages Archive Programme (IPF0180 2012). Interdisciplinary research is funded by the University at Buffalo under IMPACT grant #077.

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Correspondence to Pierpaolo Di Carlo .

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Di Carlo, P., Good, J., Bian, L., Pan, Y., Liu, P. (2018). Socio-spatial Networks, Multilingualism, and Language Use in a Rural African Context. In: Fogliaroni, P., Ballatore, A., Clementini, E. (eds) Proceedings of Workshops and Posters at the 13th International Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT 2017). COSIT 2017. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63946-8_9

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