The International Congress of Linguists meets every five years to reflect the development of Linguistics, the close study of language and languages. In 2018, for the first time, the Congress is being held in Africa. The African continent is blessed with hundreds of languages which act as local repositories of culture and interaction. South Africa itself has eleven official languages, plus Sign Language, many heritage languages, and new languages of global movements and migration. This book of selected papers from the Congress will provide an up-to-date specialist overview of the main fields of Linguistics. The papers will broadly address the history of languages, structure, acquisition, diversity and use. At the same time due regard will be paid to the African continent in several of the papers in connection with its linguistic diversity, multilingualism and educational and societal concerns. This collection is therefore meant to affirm the value of the languages of Africa, of languages and Linguistics in general, as well as to inspire and equip younger scholars to undertake advanced research into language in its many facets.

This is the ninth in the acclaimed series of spinoff volumes based on the outstanding "Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics." It comprises 285 articles of which 80 are short biographical entries. 50 of the biographies and 42 other articles are entirely new, while the remaining entries are suitably revised and updated from "ELL." This work provides uniquely comprehensive and authoritative information on all aspects of sociolinguistics.