Linguistic Contact and Language Change
An Introduction

Explores how linguistic contact sparks language change in real-world situations in the past and present.

Robert McColl Millar (Author)

9781009069090, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 December 2024

218 pages
25.4 x 17.9 x 1.2 cm, 0.48 kg

'The writing is also accessible and approachable for students who have not yet reached an advanced level of linguistic study.' Joseph Bauman, Penn State University

Linguistic contact is a reality of everyday life, as speakers of different languages come into contact with one another, often causing language change. This undergraduate textbook provides a means by which these processes, both modern and historical, can be analysed, based on cutting-edge theoretical and methodological practices. Chapters cover language death, the development of pidgins and creoles, linguistic convergence and language contact, and new variety formation. Each chapter is subdivided into key themes, which are supported by diverse and real-world case studies. Student learning is bolstered by illustrative maps, exercises, research tasks, further reading suggestions, and a glossary. Ancillary resources are available including extra content not covered in the book, links to recordings of some of the language varieties covered, and additional discussion, presentation and essay topics. Primarily for undergraduate students of linguistics, it provides a balanced, historically grounded, and up-to-date introduction to linguistic contact and language change.

1. Introduction
2. Language death, language attrition and language contact
3. Pidgins and Creoles
4. Semi-Creoles (varieties with Creole-like features which are not Creoles)
5. Macro-convergence
6. Close-variety convergence and change: the Koine
7. Some final thoughts.

Subject Areas: Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF]