What a Belizean tourist village can teach us about language, multilingualism and diversity

What is it about?

This book review discusses "Liquid Languages" (Schneider 2025). Although the book primarily examines language ideologies in a multilingual tourist village in Belize, its implications go far beyond the context of its Caribbean research site: Schneider invites us to reconsider the way we think about language and categorise different 'languages'. The author demonstrates the shortcomings of Western traditions that construct languages as clearly separate entities, and language boundaries as clear-cut. Instead, our language practices, together with the identities that we convey through language, are ever-changing and fluid.

Featured Image

Photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash

Photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Over the past decades, sociolinguists have become increasingly critical of labels that force language practices into neat categories and make them appear homogenous. This book offers valuable insights into why 'languages', 'dialects' or 'creoles' are never monolithic and clearly definable objects. It also provides us with alternative perspectives to talk about, and study language varieties. And it highlights the role of speakers and researchers in constructing these varieties.