ABSTRACT
Languages and lects are acquired, deployed, restricted, encouraged, communicated, displayed, (re)created, and lost across the lifespan. The trajectories of languages – and here the authors deliberately (and, for some, provocatively) uncouple the concept of a language from habitual understandings in traditional discussions of acquisition – are not linear, regular, or without disruption. Elizabeth and Woldemariam were the earliest of early adopters of the potential of examining language and other meaning-making resources in the public space, with a joint presentation at the first Linguistic Landscape Workshop in Tel Aviv in 2007. At the same time, the collaboration between Elizabeth and Woldemariam presaged the belated recognition of the contributions made by scholars in the Global South, with their body of work serving to highlight the importance of Southern perspectives to work in sociolinguistics and beyond.
