scholarly journals Non-Dravidian elements and (non)diasystematic change in Malayalam

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Savithry Namboodiripad
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Attractive Alternative ◽  
Considerable Influence ◽  
Loanword Phonology ◽  
Fundamental Distinction ◽  
Ideal Framework ◽  
Dravidian Language ◽  
Semantic Domains ◽  
Contact Effects

By introducing a distinction between diaconstructions, which are language non-specific, and idioconstructions, which are language-specific, Diasystematic Construction Grammar (DCxG) cap- tures the fact that the borders between languages are often blurred (Höder 2012). Building on other construction-theoretic approaches, DCxG characterizes all languages as consisting of emergent sub-patterns of constructions. This includes hybrid or high-contact languages, which differ only in that those sub-patterns can be attributed (by analysts, not necessarily speakers) to a particular language. As such, DCxG provides an ideal framework for analyzing high-contact languages while also capturing smaller-scale contact effects. Crucially for those studying language contact, this does away with a need for a fundamental distinction between high- and low-contact languages (e.g., Faraclas & Klein 2009, Mufwene 2000).This chapter presents a DCxG analysis of non-Dravidian sounds and words in Malayalam, a Dravidian language with considerable influence from Sanskrit and English, as spoken in Kerala, India. Both Sanskrit- and English-origin words are highly frequent and appear across a variety of semantic domains. Analogous to Latinate and Germanic morphophonological sub-patterns in English, Sanskrit and English words in Malayalam have phonological patterns which are not found in Dravidian-origin words, such as heteroorganic clusters, certain codas, and voiced aspirated stops. I argue that any analysis of Malayalam must account for non-Dravidian sub-patterns, and I consider DCxG to be an attractive alternative to constraint-based approaches to loanword phonology.

Simple metathesis in loanword phonology: the Arabic-Romance language contact

2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
pp. 1049-1084
Author(s):  
Yvonne Kiegel-Keicher
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Stressed Syllable ◽  
Romance Language ◽  
Syllable Weight ◽  
Systematic Process ◽  
Loanword Phonology

AbstractSimple metathesis can be found in numerous Ibero-Romance arabisms compared with their Andalusi Arabic etyma. The analysis of a corpus of Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan arabisms illustrates its effects on syllable structure and syllable weight. It can be shown that Arabic-Romance simple metathesis constitutes a motivated structural change that provides for typologically unmarked syllable weight relations within the word. After the resyllabification it entails the involved unstressed syllables no longer excede the stressed syllable in weight. However, it is not an obligatory, systematic process, but merely an optional tendency, which corresponds to the universal tendency expressed by the Weight Law.

Bilingualism and sound change: perception in the /ʎ/-/j/ merger process in Majorcan Spanish

2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-133
Author(s):  
Assumpció Rost Bagudanch
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Sound Change ◽  
Balearic Islands ◽  
Chance Level ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Inhibiting Effect ◽  
Change Perception ◽  
Merger Process ◽  
Linguistic Behaviour ◽  
Contact Effects

AbstractYeísmo has been accounted for as a merger process occurring in Spanish irrespective of language contact effects though some scholars have claimed that the interference between Spanish and the variety of Catalan spoken in Majorca (Balearic Islands, Spain) has an inhibiting effect on yeísmo. This paper focusses on whether this inhibiting effect can be demonstrated at the perception level and whether it has an effect in the linguistic behaviour of bilinguals. To examine these effects, we conducted an identification experiment with three groups of listeners (Majorcan Catalan-dominant bilinguals, Spanish-dominant bilinguals and a control group of Spanish monolinguals). Results show that Catalan dominants do recognise [ʎ] stimuli, but Spanish dominants only identify [ʎ] at chance level. Consequently, it would seem that bilingual subjects display a bimodal performance at the perception level.

scholarly journals Bidirectionality of language contact: Spanish and Catalan vowels

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 159
Author(s):  
Annie Helms
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Balearic Islands ◽  
Production Data ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Public Spheres ◽  
Disproportionate Number ◽  
Probabilistic Nature ◽  
Contact Effects

The disproportionate number of studies in Barcelona and the Balearic Islands observing Spanish contact effects in Catalan production, rather than Catalan contact effects in Spanish production, is an oversight of bidirectionality and the probabilistic nature of social factors in situations of language contact. Accordingly, the present study analyzes both Catalan and Spanish mid front vowel production data from Barcelona to investigate whether Catalan contact effects occur in Spanish via a process of dissimilation, and whether such effects are strengthened in younger speakers due to the relatively recent implementation of Catalan linguistic policy in the educational and public spheres. The results are suggestive of dissimilation, where phonetic distinctions are maintained between Spanish /e/ and the two Catalan mid front vowels across both F1 and F2. Additionally, analyses of variance across F1 and F2 reveal that Spanish /e/ productions across F1 are more diffuse in younger speakers and Catalan mid front vowels across F2 are less diffuse, providing evidence of reciprocity in contact effects. These results underscore the bidirectional nature of language contact and advocate for the use of variance of F1 and F2 as a metric of phonological contact effects.

scholarly journals Reappraising the Eff ects of Language Contact in the Torres Strait

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erich Round ◽  
Jessica Hunter ◽  
Claire Bowern
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Relationship ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Considerable Influence ◽  
Loan Words ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Phonological Features ◽  
History Of ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Australian Languages

AbstractThe contact history of the languages of the Eastern and Western Torres Strait has been claimed (e.g. by Dixon 2002, Wurm 1972, and others) to have been sufficiently intense as to obscure the genetic relationship of the Western Torres Strait language. Some have argued that it is an Australian (Pama-Nyungan) language, though with considerable influence from the Papuan language Meryam Mir (the Eastern Torres Strait language). Others have claimed that the Western Torres language is, in fact, a genetically Papuan language, though with substantial Australian substrate or adstrate influence. Much has been made of phonological structures which have been viewed as unusual for Australian languages. In this paper we examine the evidence for contact claims in the region. We review aspects of the phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon of the Eastern and Western Torres Strait languages with an eye to identifying areal influence. This larger data pool shows that the case for intense contact has been vastly overstated. Beyond some phonological features and some loan words, there is no linguistic evidence for intense contact; moreover, the phonological features adduced to be evidence of contact are also found to be not specifically Papuan, but part of a wider set of features in Australian languages.

English and Celtic: contact-induced change in history

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (s2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Hickey
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Anglophone World ◽  
Contact Effects

AbstractThis paper offers an overview of current research into the contact between English and Celtic, both in its historical and geographical dimensions. It attempts to classify contact scenarios by their type and the linguistic effects they engender. A number of examples are discussed which illustrate typical contact effects, and generalizations are made about contact-induced language change which can be taken to apply to further cases of language contact beyond the anglophone world.

Intonation and Prosody in Creole Languages: An Evolving Ecology

2022 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 343-364
Author(s):  
Shelome Gooden
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Language Typology ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Linguistic Inquiry ◽  
Creole Languages ◽  
Untapped Resource ◽  
Typological Classification ◽  
Contact Effects

Research on the prosody and intonation of creole languages has largely remained an untapped resource, yet it is important for enriching our understanding of how or if their phonological systems changed or developed under contact. Further, their hybrid histories and current linguistic ecologies present descriptive and analytical treasure troves. This has the potential to inform many areas of linguistic inquiry including contact effects on the typological classification of prosodic systems, socioprosodic variation (individual and community level), and the scope of diversity in prosodic systems among creole languages and across a variety of languages similarly influenced by language contact. Thus, this review highlights the importance of pushing beyond questions of creole language typology and genetic affiliation. I review the existing research on creole language prosody and intonation, provide some details on a few studies, and highlight some key challenges and opportunities for the subfield and for linguistics in general.

Code-switching and loan translation in German-American

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Dux
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Mental Lexicon ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
German Dialects ◽  
German American

Abstract This squib applies and extends insights from (Diasystematic) Construction Grammar to the code-switching and loan-translation of English verbs (and verbal constructions) in US-German dialects. After presenting recent findings about the nature and interaction of language contact phenomena, I introduce the constructional principles guiding the analysis and the data sources. I then present a wide array of data and formulate hypotheses regarding the processes and motivations underlying each type, appealing to a constructional and usage-based view of the bilingual’s mental lexicon.

Feature diffusion vs. contact effects in the evolution of new Englishes

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar W. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Contact Conditions ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
The World ◽  
Contact Effects

This paper proposes an investigation of New Englishes in a diachronic and typological-comparative perspective. It is suggested that the structural and functional constituents of these varieties can be accounted for by either of two processes, labelled diffusion (the largely unmodified transmission of earlier forms of English (dialectal and standard) through space and time), and selection (the choice of a new, typically indigenous item in a process of feature competition under language contact conditions); some tentative properties of these processes are discussed. Subsequently, the framework is applied to a documentation and interpretation of negation patterns as found in many New Englishes around the world.

scholarly journals Grammaticalization and language contact in a discourse-pragmatic change in progress: The spread of innit in London English

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Heike Pichler
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Linguistic Data ◽  
Phonetic Reduction ◽  
Functional Versatility ◽  
Contact Effects

Abstract This variationist analysis investigates the development and spread of innit as an invariant tag in London English. The sociolinguistic distribution of innit in a socially stratified corpus of vernacular speech suggests that the form's emergence and spread were initiated and propelled system-internally through changes associated with grammaticalization. Frequency triggered phonetic reduction of isn't it to innit; loss of syntactic-semantic usage constraints and growing functional versatility enabled innit to seize the range of contexts and functions of grammatically-dependent tags (e.g. didn't you, weren't we), virtually ousting these from the system of negative-polarity interrogative tags. Examination of cross-linguistic data and comparisons with relevant pre- and non-contact varieties indicate multiple language contact and grammatical replication may have played an ancillary role. I flag some challenges of establishing contact effects in discourse-pragmatic change, and propose that the promotion of innit for invariant use was governed by its low salience and social indexicality of localness. (Innit, question tags, (Multicultural) London English, grammaticalization, language contact, grammatical replication)*

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