A model of contact-induced language change: Testing the role of second language speakers in the evolution of Mozambican Portuguese.

Anna Jon-And,Elliot Aguilar

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0212303

Anna Jon-And, Elliot Aguilar

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212303

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Abstract

Language change is accelerated by language contact, especially by contact that occurs when a group of speakers shifts from one language to another. This has commonly been explained by linguistic innovation occurring during second language acquisition. This hypothesis is based on historical reconstructions of instances of contact and has not been formally tested on empirical data. In this paper, we construct an agent-based model to formalize the hypothesis that second language speakers are responsible for accelerated language change during language shift. We compare model predictions to a unique combination of diachronic linguistic and demographic data from Maputu, Mozambique. The model correctly predicts an increased proportional use of the novel linguistic variants during the period we study. We find that a modified version of the model is a better fit to one of our two datasets and discuss plausible reasons for this. As a general conclusion concerning typological differences between contact-induced and non-contact-induced language change, we suggest that multiple introductions of a new linguistic variant by different individuals may be the mechanism by which language contact accelerates language change.

Highlights

Language contact is the encounter between speakers of different languages
While all languages change over time, language contact is widely believed to accelerate the pace of language change [1]
We found that the rate of increase of the novel variant was most sensitive to μ and r, whose product determined the rate of introduction of the novel variant

Summary

Introduction

Language contact is the encounter between speakers of different languages. While all languages change over time, language contact is widely believed to accelerate the pace of language change [1]. History is rife with examples of language shift, such as the spread of vulgar Latin across the Roman Empire in Western Europe, or the adoption of Arabic during the Muslim conquests in the Middle East and North Africa. A widely accepted explanation for the increased change is that language shift involves large proportions of new speakers who acquire the growing language as a second language (L2).

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