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1.4 Introductory remarks and definitions

- Bilingualism and bilinguality are common phenomena
- Bilingualism:
-- 193 countries and approx. 7000 languages
-- Grosjean (1982); Auer and Wei (2007): 50% or more of the world's population are either bilingual or live in a bilingual society
-- Especially Asian and African societies are mostly multilingual
-- The Economist (2011): 800 languages spoken in New York City
-- Monolingual societies are/were typical for Europe and the Americas
-- One nation - one language = idea developed in the late 18th century
- Bilinguality:
-- German statistical figures for 2012: 35,4% of children under 5 years are from immigrant families
-- Bilinguality is not an exception