ABSTRACT
The changing world economy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries brought an expansion in migration for economic purposes: first the forced migration of slaves, then the migration of agricultural and industrial workers with varying degrees of free will. Most of the migrating workers entered new language communities in the lands of their destination. Speakers of African languages learned each other’s languages, the languages of their masters (such as English, Portuguese, or Arabic), and creole languages developed by communities of settlers. Chinese speakers of Cantonese learned Spanish in Peru and Thai in Thailand. Migrants from Scandinavia, Greece, and Lebanon learned languages of the Americas as they crossed the Atlantic. As so many times before, but now on a larger scale, people crossed community boundaries, and in so doing reinforced the creative energies of human society.
