
Fundamentals of a general theory of pluricentric languages
This book is the result of my long-standing involvement with pluricentric languages, which for me personally began in 1980. Since then, I have been able to observe and, to some extent, help shape all phases of the development of the con-cept of the pluricentricity of languages. While the aim in the 1980s and 1990s was still to overcome the prevailing concept of monocentricity, which was predomi-nant in German and many other languages, this changed in the 1990s.
It was mainly the many works by Michael Clyne that brought about a lasting change and helped the concept of pluricentricity to break through. This applied to German in general and to Austrian German in particular, where a positive change in reputation and usage has been observed since then. This also applied to other pluricentric languages, notably to English.
Encouraged by Michael Clyne’s support, the ‘International Working Group on Non-dominant Varieties of Pluricentric Languages’ (WGNV) was founded in 2010 at the Pluricentric Conference organised by Augusto da Silva in Braga, Portu-gal. In 2011 I organised the first WGNV conference, the papers of which were pub-lished in an edited volume. A total of 11 WGNV conferences have been held since 2011, and the 12th conference will take place in May 2025 in Lisbon. Since 2011, 214 papers by 299 authors have been published.
This book is an attempt to summarise the theory of pluricentricity and to re-flect the current state of the discussion. In doing so, I rely on my own work as well as on that published in the context of the WGNDV conferences and others. Of course, relevant work by other researchers has also been included.
I would like to sincerely thank Juan Thomas, Maria Eugênia L. Duarte, and Gerhard Edelmann for reviewing the manuscript and feedback.
The book is intended to help clarify key questions of pluricentricity and promote the further development of the concept. I hope that the book will inspire readers and help them with their research.