This volume is the first handbook dedicated to language attrition, the study of how a speaker's language may be affected by crosslinguistic interference and non-use. The effects of language attrition can be felt in all aspects of language knowledge, processing, and production, and can offer unique insights into the mind of bilingual language users. In this book, international experts in the field explore a comprehensive range of topics in language attrition, examining its theoretical implications, psycho- and neurolinguistic approaches, linguistic and extralinguistic factors, L2 attrition, and heritage languages. The chapters summarize current research and draw on insights from related fields such as child language development, language contact, language change, pathological developments, and second language acquisition.

Monika S. Schmid is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Essex, having previously held positions at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Her research focuses on various aspects of first language attrition and has been published in journals such as Bilingualism: Language and Cognition and Applied Psycholinguistics. She is the author of several books including Language Attrition (CUP, 2011) and First Language Attrition, Use, and Maintenance: The Case of German Jews in Anglophone Countries (Benjamins, 2002). Barbara Köpke is Professor of Neuropsycholinguistics at the University of Toulouse 2 and head of the Octogone-Lordat Laboratory. Her research involves neuro- and psycholinguistic aspects of language processing in bilingual subjects with specific attention to 'extreme' situations such as L1 attrition, simultaneous interpreting, and aphasia. Her work has appeared in journals such as Language, Interaction and Acquisition and International Journal of Bilingualism, and she is the editor of a special issue of Journal of Neurolinguistics on first language attrition. Monika S. Schmid and Barbara Köpke are co-editors, with Merel C. J. Keijzer and Susan Dostert, of Language Attrition: Theoretical Perspectives (Benjamins, 2007).