Languages in contact always co-exist in hierarchies, reflecting historical processes of adaptation and power relations between their speakers. This talk considers language contact in the written mode from the point of view of choice, that is, choice of language and choice of writing system. A wider range of factors that have a bearing on choice in contact situations of languages and their writing systems must be taken into consideration: political, social, linguistic and ideological. Examples of each kind from the Eurocentric and Sinocentric worlds are discussed and compared with each other. Particular attention is paid to the relationship bilingual writers create between the units of two languages and two writing systems which, from a sociolinguistic point of view, is seen as indicative of the status and function of the languages involved.

Florian Coulmas is Professor of Japanese Studies at the IN-EAST Institute of Duisburg-Essen University. From 2004 to 2014, he was director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo. His research and publications are in two fields: the Sociology of Language, and Japanese Studies. He is Associate Editor of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language. His scholarly publications include many monographs, edited works, and about 50 articles. His recent books include Tokio. Vom Glück urbanen Lebens (Beck, 2014), Writing and Society. An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2013), Population Decline and Ageing in Japan - The Social Consequences (Routledge, 2007), and Sociolinguistics. The Study of speakers' choices (Cambridge University Press, 2005/2013). Some of his works have been translated into Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, and Chinese.  He is currently working on a project about language policy.