Changing Languages of Europe

This book shows that the languages and dialects of Europe are becoming increasingly alike and furthermore that this unifying process goes back to Roman times, is accelerating, and affects every European language including those of different families such as Basque and Finnish. The unifying process involves every grammatical aspect of the languages and operates through changes so minute that native speakers fail to notice them. The authors reveal when, how, and why common grammatical structures have evolved and continue to evolve in processes of change that will transform the linguistic landscape of Europe.

Bernd Heine is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at the Institute of African Studies, University of Cologne. His 33 books include Auxiliaries: Cognitive forces and grammaticalization (OUP USA, 1993); Cognitive Foundations of Grammar (OUP USA, 1997); Possession: Cognitive sources, forces, and grammaticalization (CUP, 1997); and, with Derek Nurse, African Languages: An introduction (CUP, 2000). Tania Kuteva is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Dusseldorf and author of Auxiliation: An enquiry into the nature of grammaticalization (OUP, 2001).

Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva are the joint authors of World Lexicon of Grammaticalization (CUP, 2002) and Language Contact and Grammatical Change (CUP, 2005).