JoLIE 15:3/2022
FOREWORD
Paulo
Osório 
Full Professor, University of Beira Interior, Portugal
This special issue of the Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education - JoLIE, entitled World languages: people, migration and cultures - shifting paradigms in the 21st century. New literacies, is dedicated to the subject of global languages, thereby analyzing diverse languages which are thus constituted. In addition, it associates this characteristic with aspects of a linguistic nature (i.e., the notion of variants and varieties, as well as their pluricentric nature) and with reasons of an extralinguistic nature (namely migratory phenomena from societies that speak the very same languages let alone the inherent cultural issues to the experience of the people who use them).
In principle, the epithets of “global”, “franca” and “pluricentric”, attributed to a given language, are rooted in explanations of a historical kind (both in terms of their social history and linguistic history). It was precisely speakers’ migratory movements which allowed for some languages to spread and settle (with their different varieties) in other geographic contexts, often far from their initial places of origin, as illustrated by the English, Spanish or Portuguese languages, among others. Political issues also contribute to this problematic, such as the progressive historical importance assumed by the countries which initially welcomed these linguistic forms (let us consider, for example, the case of English and the modes of development of the British Empire, thus affirming the preponderance of the English language, currently the lingua franca, par excellence). Due to language dynamics, the evolution of peoples’ historical paths, the development of migratory flows, the social contexts along with all the features mentioned so far, the “franca” character of a language varies throughout the course of history and, therefore, at a certain point in time, Latin was a lingua franca, Portuguese became another one and, today, it is the English language which is assigned that status.
An underlying issue also concerns some languages diversity character, that is, the lack of a possible unity among themselves. This fact leads us to pose the question: does Portuguese with two established norms (European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese) and other emerging varieties (Portuguese from Angola and Mozambique) have unity? And will Spanish and English have unity? This issue is also very complex and has to do with the linguistic policy that peoples develop.
If, for example, one notices many differences in the spoken interaction between Portuguese and Brazilian speakers, it seems that this diversity is less traceable between a Castilian and an Argentinian or Mexican. Isn’t it related to the existence of a Royal Spanish Academy which is much more directive and normative than a Portuguese Academy that is more permissive and less intervening in linguistic normativisation? These and other questions still require a deeper reflection, which should not be limited to the field of linguistic studies.
This JoLIE special issue thus raises rather interesting and relevant questions in the current context of the historical and linguistic drift of societies. It seems that the discussion of a pertinent, innovative and even seemingly controversial theme is portrayed here, which deserves multidisciplinary reflections. This multidisciplinary kind, the overlapping of linguistic and non-linguistic factors, and the opening to different languages make this publication a reference material in the field of Sociolinguistics.
How to cite this article: Osório, P (2022). Foreword. World languages: People, migration and cultures - shifting paradigms in the 21st century. New literacies. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 15(3), 7-8. doi: https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2022.15.3.1
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