The main aim of this course is to introduce students to the phenomenon of biscriptality, namely, such a (sociolinguistic) situation in which two or more writing systems, scripts, or orthographies are used to write the same (variety of a) language. In this course, students will be introduced to the main conceptual and analytical tools related to the linguistic and sociolinguistic study of writing. However, the primary focus of the course will be on the sociolinguistic aspects of biscriptality. By scrutinizing different case studies, students will explore and critically assess the specific cultural, political, and social contexts in which biscriptality tends to emerge; how speech communities (in the past and in the present) cope with the use of different scripts; what specific writing (spelling or orthographic) principles underlie the application of different scripts for the same (variety of a) language, what factors (extralinguistic and linguistic) constrain the choice of the script in different communities and how these choices are ideologically framed and linked to the issues of (ethnic, religious, political, social) identity, literacy, nationalism, and cultural traditions.
- Trainer/in: Aurelija Tamosiunaite