The anthology is based on the premise that multilingualism today, though it shares many features with multilingualism in the past, represents an emergent and special linguistico-social global condition, a new linguistic dispensation. Contributors explore trends that underlie and breed multilingualism, focusing on the quintessential and unique properties of current multilingualism. Among the topics are trilingualism in the Basque Autonomous Community and Malta from a socio-educational perspective, the time dimension of minority language use in Ireland, emerging and conflicting forces of polyphony in the Berlin speech community after the fall of the wall and their impact on the social identity of adolescents, endangered languages and endangered archives in the Russian Federation, and centralized and decentralized responses to linguistic diversity in Ethiopia and South Africa. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)