Norval Smith, Tonjes Veenstra, Enoch O. Aboh (eds.). Advances in Contact Linguistics: In honour of Pieter Muysken (= Contact Language Library, 57). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins, 2020. VIII + 400 pp. ISBN 978 90 272 0756 2. €105,00 (hb).

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-303
Author(s):  
Kees Versteegh
Keyword(s):  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Contact Language

Mixed Languages

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicity Meakins
Keyword(s):  
Structural Evolution ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Rare Category ◽  
Sociohistorical Context ◽  
Mixed Languages

Mixed languages are a rare category of contact language which has gone from being an oddity of contact linguistics to the subject of media excitement, at least for one mixed language—Light Warlpiri. They show considerable diversity in structure, social function, and historical origins; nonetheless, they all emerged in situations of bilingualism where a common language is already present. In this respect, they do not serve a communicative function, but rather are markers of an in-group identity. Mixed languages provide a unique opportunity to study the often observable birth, life, and death of languages both in terms of the sociohistorical context of language genesis and the structural evolution of language.

scholarly journals Semantic Map Borrowing – Case Representation in Northeastern Romani Dialects

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Tenser
Keyword(s):  
Language Model ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Case Representation ◽  
Semantic Maps ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
Problematic Issue ◽  
Case Markers ◽  
Compare And Contrast

Recent studies in contact linguistics have emphasized the aspect of language-internal grammaticalization that is triggered by accommodation to an external (contact-language) model (e.g. Heine and Kuteva, 2005). This is based on the notion that speakers make use of the available resources in order to match them to those of the target language. A problematic issue is contact-induced change in the domain of case representation. Synthetic case markers are usually thought of as fully grammaticalized morphemes. If contact-induced grammaticalization is, as Heine and Kuteva suggest, much like monolingual grammaticalization, unidirectional, how do we treat instances of rearrangement of the semantic meaning and scope of case markers? I will discuss this problem by examining a sample of Romani dialects, belonging to the so-called Northeastern dialect group (see Matras, 2002). Relying on specific constructions, like Subject of Negative Existence, External Possession, Privative, Partitive etc., I will compare and contrast the Northeastern dialects with their respective contact languages (Russian and Polish). Using semantic maps, I will demonstrate how the Romani dialects in question restructure their case representation system to accommodate to the systems of the model languages, and will discuss what it is exactly that gets equated when two languages come into contact.

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.

scholarly journals Comparative sociolinguistic perspectives on the rate of linguistic change

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Terttu Nevalainen ◽  
Tanja Säily ◽  
Turo Vartiainen
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Specific Topic ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
Historical Sociolinguistics ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors

AbstractThis issue of the Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics aims to contribute to our understanding of language change in real time by presenting a group of articles particularly focused on social and sociocultural factors underlying language diversification and change. By analysing data from a varied set of languages, including Greek, English, and the Finnic and Mongolic language families, and mainly focussing their investigation on the Middle Ages, the authors connect various social and cultural factors with the specific topic of the issue, the rate of linguistic change. The sociolinguistic themes addressed include community and population size, conflict and conquest, migration and mobility, bi- and multilingualism, diglossia and standardization. In this introduction, the field of comparative historical sociolinguistics is considered a cross-disciplinary enterprise with a sociolinguistic agenda at the crossroads of contact linguistics, historical comparative linguistics and linguistic typology.

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.

scholarly journals Lingue in contatto: un caso di prestigio linguistico

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Mila Samardžić
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Literary Language ◽  
Italian Language ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Languages In Contact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Middle Ages

Languages in contact: a case of linguistic prestige The article aims to offer a review of the influences exerted by the Italian language (and the Venetian dialect) on the Serbian literary language as well as on the local dialects. These impacts date back to the Middle Ages and, in practice uninterruptedly, persist to the present day. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate how, due to socio-economic and cultural circumstances, Italian has been able to establish itself as a prestigious language compared to Serbian and how the relationship between the two languages over the centuries has always been essentially monodirectional. Key words: Language loans, Contact Linguistics, Italian, Serbian, Linguistic Prestige

scholarly journals Usage-Based Contact Linguistics: Effects of Frequency and Similarity in Language Contact

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-481
Author(s):  
Nikolay Hakimov ◽  
Ad Backus
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Usage Frequency ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Linguistic Behavior

Abstract The influence of usage frequency, and particularly of linguistic similarity on human linguistic behavior and linguistic change in situations of language contact are well documented in contact linguistics literature. However, a theoretical framework capable of unifying the various explanations, which are usually couched in either structuralist, sociolinguistic, or psycholinguistic parlance, is still lacking. In this introductory article we argue that a usage-based approach to language organization and linguistic behavior suits this purpose well and that the study of language contact phenomena will benefit from the adoption of this theoretical perspective. The article sketches an outline of usage-based linguistics, proposes ways to analyze language contact phenomena in this framework, and summarizes the major findings of the individual contributions to the special issue, which not only demonstrate that contact phenomena are usefully studied from the usage-based perspective, but document that taking a usage-based approach reveals new aspects of old phenomena.

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