Portuguese as a contact language in Galicia

2021 ◽  
pp. 147-176
Author(s):  
Xosé Luís Regueira
Keyword(s):  
Contact Language

Cognate similarity and intervocalic /d/ production in Riverense Spanish

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692199680
Author(s):  
Michael Gradoville ◽  
Mark Waltermire ◽  
Avizia Long
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Acoustic Measurements ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects Model ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Phonetic Realization

Aims and objectives: While previous research has shown that phonetic variation in language contact situations is affected by whether a word has a cognate in the contact language, this paper aims to show that such an effect is not monotonic. According to the usage-based model, items in memory are organized according to similarity, thus we anticipated that formally more similar cognates would show a stronger cognate effect. Methodology: This variationist sociophonetic study investigates the relationship between cognate similarity and phonetic realization. We examined this relationship in the bilingual community of Rivera, Uruguay, in which both Portuguese and Spanish are spoken with regularity. Specifically, we focused on intervocalic /d/, which in monolingual Spanish is realized as an approximant [ð̞] or phonetic zero, but in monolingual Brazilian Portuguese is produced as a stop [d] or, in most varieties, an affricate [ʤ] before [i]. Data and analysis: We analyzed a corpus of sociolinguistic interviews of the Spanish spoken in Rivera. Acoustic measurements were taken from approximately 60 tokens each from 40 different speakers. Using a linear mixed-effects model, we examined the relationship between several predictors and the degree of constriction of intervocalic /d/. Findings/conclusions: While there is an overall frequency effect whereby more frequent words exhibit less constriction of intervocalic /d/, as both frequency and cognate similarity increase, less constriction of intervocalic /d/ obtains. Therefore, frequent cognates in Portuguese that have very similar forms affect the production of intervocalic /d/ more so than other cognates. Originality: No previous study has demonstrated that the cognate effect on phonetic variation in a situation of language contact is regulated by form similarity between cognate pairs. Significance/implications: The data support the usage-based model in that similar cognates have more lexical connections and can therefore show greater influence on phonetic realization than can cognates that share less phonetic material.

The Gulf of Guinea Creoles

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tjerk Hagemeijer
Keyword(s):  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Central Administration ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Significant Extent ◽  
Genetic Relation ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
Surrounding Areas ◽  
The Town ◽  
Rule Out

Especially since Ferraz (1974, 1975, 1979), it has been generally accepted that the four Gulf of Guinea creoles (GGCs) — Santome (ST), Angolar (ANG), Lung’ie (LU), and Fa d’Ambô (FA)2 — are closely related languages based on historical and linguistic data. Ferraz shares his view on the type of genetic relation between these creoles in the following quote: To take the GG [Gulf of Guinea] case, it would not be plausible to assume that the contact language which developed in the town of São Tomé and the surrounding areas was the same as that which gave rise to Ang[olar], Pr[incipense], and Pag[alu]4. There are enough differences between each of these languages to rule out such a possibility. It would be closer to the truth to say that the four contact languages show many resemblances because, to a large extent, they grew up together, with slaves and settlers introduced through the central administration in São Tomé. (…). Hence different languages developed in the archipelago rather than dialects of one contact language. (Ferraz 1987: 348) This paper will reassess the linguistic relation between the GGCs and the typological contribution of the African strata. It will be argued that there is substantial linguistic evidence that the GGCs are to a significant extent the result of a common ancestor, which throughout the paper will be labelled the proto-Gulf of Guinea creole (proto-GGC), and that this common ancestor derived most of its features from its Nigerian substrate rather than from western Bantu.

English as a Lingua Franca in the Expanding Circle

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Expanding Circle ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
First Languages ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The One

This article discusses English in terms of its role as a contact language among expanding circle users of English from different first languages. It begins by observing both similarities between English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and other lingua francas, and the difference in scale between them, with ELF involving a far higher number of people and first languages. The article goes on to explore empirical research into ELF, and its key findings: on the one hand, that certain “nonstandard” English forms are regularly preferred to “standard” (i.e. native) ones, and on the other, that ELF is far more affected by context and accommodation processes, and, therefore, far more diverse, than native Englishes. The notion of “community of practice,” it is argued, is, thus, more appropriate to ELF than that of “speech community.” The article concludes by considering three key areas of ELF research that need to be tackled.

A multifactorial analysis of contact-induced change in speech reporting in written White South African English (WSAfE)

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
HAIDEE KRUGER ◽  
BERTUS VAN ROOY
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Conditional Inference ◽  
Similar Frequency ◽  
Frequency Distributions ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
Conditional Inference Tree ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
Trajectories Of Change ◽  
A Site

This article presents a corpus analysis of changes over a period of two centuries in speech-reporting constructions in written White South African English (WSAfE), a native variety of English that has been in contact with Afrikaans throughout its history. The analysis is based on register-differentiated comparable diachronic corpora of WSAfE, its parent variety, British English (BrE), and the contact language, Afrikaans. Three related reported-speech constructions are analysed, focusing on changes in the relative frequencies of variants of each construction. These constructions show ongoing change, with similar trajectories of change for WSAfE and BrE in some cases, but divergent trajectories in others. In the latter case, WSAfE and Afrikaans converge on similar frequency distributions, which follow from an accelerated rate of change or a slowing down of the rate of change for particular features in WSAfE in comparison to BrE. Descriptive findings are supported by conditional inference tree modelling. The effect of frequency on reinforcing similar patterns of change in WSAfE and Afrikaans, as well as simplification through the levelling of register differences in WSAfE and Afrikaans are proposed as explanations. The study highlights the importance of converging norms in a multilingual publication industry as a site of contact.

LANGUAGE CONTACT AND CHANGE: SUMMARY OBSERVATIONS

2003 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 243-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Richard Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
Language Loss ◽  
The European Union ◽  
New Members ◽  
The Past ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
General Topic ◽  
Language Contact And Change

Various facets of the general topic of multilingualism, including language contact, have been dealt with in previous ARAL volumes (e.g., under separate entries in volumes 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, and 15) and as a major substantive focus in volumes 6, 14 and 17. Nonetheless, it does not seem at all surprising that we return to the specific topic of language contact and change in volume 23 given the worldwide incidence of the phenomenon and the attention, and often controversy, which various aspects of language contact, language change or language loss arouses. Thus, I find it interesting that, within the past 12 months, issues related to language contact and derivative implications have surfaced as important factors in public discussions in such disparate settings as the November 2002 elections in several of the states in the United States, the admission of new members to the European Union, and immigration to Australia. Clearly, the topics of language contact and language change are salient and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

Contextualising the emergence of English-induced morphological borrowing in Spanish

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-412
Author(s):  
Amanda Roig-Marín
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Language Studies ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
Linguistic Innovation ◽  
Tv Shows ◽  
Peninsular Spanish ◽  
Unique Status ◽  
English I

Abstract This article concentrates on the competing forces underlying the use of the English morpheme -er in Spanish. Despite some asymmetries concerning the semantics of this morpheme in Spanish and English, I argue that we are witnessing one of the earliest instances of morphological borrowing in Spanish: -er has achieved a unique status in peninsular Spanish in so far as speakers have started to use it productively to mean “an avid fan of X”. In order to support my argument, I provide empirical evidence and place this phenomenon within the framework of both contact language studies and fandom studies, particularly online fandom communities, the forerunners of this linguistic innovation in fields such as music, politics, or TV shows.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document