Language contact and change in the multilingual ecologies of the Guianas

Abstract

We chose the title of our book, Boundaries and Bridges: Multilingual Ecologies in the Guianas, to illustrate the point that in the complex multilingual and multi-ethnic area of the Guianas, the languages spoken have been part of the effort of groups to keep themselves apart, as boundaries, but have also undergone numerous changes in the presence of other languages, and thus form bridges. The Guyanas, or any part of them, do not form a single language community, but rather a chain of interacting and intersecting communities, which have very diverse and complex relations among themselves. Hence the term multilingual ecologies in our subtitle.