Intense Language Contact Research Articles

Contact influence in the Tjhauba variety of Kgalagadi

Tjhauba, spoken in northwestern Botswana, is a regional variety of the Bantu language Kgalagadi. Tjhauba exhibits a number of striking linguistic differences with respect to other, previously described Kgalagadi varieties, some the result of language-internal changes, but mostly due to contact with different surrounding Khoisan and Bantu languages. Making use of newly collected field data, this paper shows that Tjhauba has an extensive inventory of click phonemes, contrasting different click accompaniments and, in the speech of elderly speakers, also different click types. Tracing the sources of Tjhauba click words shows that these originate in different Khoisan languages, but also in the Bantu click language Yeyi. Semantically, click words, but also loanwords that do not contain clicks, cluster in the domain of flora and fauna, particularly species found in or close to water. These linguistic findings also shed light on the history of Tjhauba speakers. The adoption of a large number of click phonemes suggests intensive language contact, as still evidenced by ongoing Tjhauba/Khwe bilingualism. A number of the likely source languages for Tjhauba click words are no longer spoken in the area, suggesting contact situations that are no longer ongoing. Furthermore, clicks occur in loanwords, but unlike in neighbouring Bantu click languages, there is no evidence that clicks were also extended to inherited Tjhauba words. This suggests that the sound symbolic or identity marking functions of clicks as posited for other Bantu click languages do not play a role in Tjhauba.

Conditions for the Borrowing of Irregular Plurals in an Intense Language Contact Situation

This article is devoted to borrowing in Frisian of Dutch irregular plurals formed by suffixation and stem vowel lengthening; e.g. dak [dak] ‘roof’ - daken [da:k?/da:kn?] ‘roofs’ instead of Frisian dak [dak] - dakken [dakn?]. Irregular plural formation is unproductive in Dutch and uncommon in Frisian (except in a couple of historical borrowings). Although the appearance of irregular Dutch plurals in Frisian had not previously been described or investigated, we hypothesize their existence in spoken Frisian, based on analogical cases. However, they would not be borrowed without any limitations as various factors would affect their borrowability; e.g. words frequency, phonotactic constraints or paradigm alternation. This study is based on approximately 175 interview recordings. The participants were asked to name different objects shown to them during the interview picture task. The results confirm both the (quite frequent) use of Dutch irregular plurals in Frisian and the involvement of different (morphological) factors in the borrowing processes. Accordingly, borrowing of such plurals is not only a lexical matter, but also a grammatical one. Phonotactic factors do not appear to play any significant role, but paradigm alternation seems to be decisive in whether a plural can successfully be borrowed or not.

The Invention of the Maghreb: Between Africa and the Middle East

The Invention of the Maghreb: Between Africa and the Middle East

On the rise: The expansion of Serial Verb Constructions in Tariana

The emergence and the expansion of serial verbs can be affected by language contact. This paper focuses on a case study from Tariana, a highly endangered Arawak language spoken in the multilingual Vaupés River Basin Linguistic Area in Brazilian Amazonia. Tariana has numerous types of asymmetrical and symmetrical serial verbs highly frequent in discourse of all genres. Two kinds of serial verbs are on the rise. A construction involving a prefixed form -siwa with an emphatic, reciprocal, sociative, and reflexive meaning is developing into a serial verb construction. The motivation for this development lies in intensive language contact with the unrelated Tukano, now the major language in use by the extant speakers of Tariana, where reflexive and reciprocal meanings are expressed through serial verbs. The integration of recapitulating verb sequences with the verb -ni ‘do, make’ into the system of serial verbs is indirectly linked to the impact of Tucano where the verb meaning ‘do, make’ is used as a recapitulating device in bridging linkage. The development of recapitulating serial verbs in Tariana can be partly seen as an independent innovation, and as an outcome of language-internal pressure to create further serial verbs, expanding and extending the productive and much-deployed mechanism in the language.

Marginal contrast in loanword phonology: Production and perception

Though Dutch is usually described as lacking a voicing contrast at the velar place of articulation, due to intense language contact and heavy lexical borrowing, a contrast between /k/ and /g/ has recently been emerging. We explored the status of this contrast in Dutch speakers in both production and perception. We asked participants to produce loanwords containing a /g/ in the source language (e.g., goal) and found a range of productions, including a great many unadapted [g] tokens. We also tested the same speakers on their perception of the emerging [k] ~ [g] contrast and found that our participants were able to discriminate the emerging contrast well. We additionally explored the possibility that those speakers who use the new contrast more in production are also better at perceiving it, but we did not observe strong evidence of such a link. Overall, our results indicate that the adoption of the new sound is well advanced in the population we tested, but is still modulated by individual-level factors. We hold that contrasts emerging through borrowing, like other phonological contrasts, are subject to perceptual and functional constraints, and that these and other ‘marginal contrasts’ must be considered as full-fledged parts of phonology.

Gender Agreement in Correntino Spanish

Abstract This article provides qualitative and quantitative analyses of variable gender agreement in Correntino Spanish, the variety of Spanish spoken by both Spanish-Guarani bilinguals and Correntino Spanish monolinguals in the province of Corrientes, Argentina. Drawing on data collected from fieldwork in the province, it will be shown that this variation is conditioned by distance effects and modifier class. Synchronic gender agreement variation in Correntino Spanish is attributed to diachronic source language agentivity effects (Van Coetsem, 1988) given the lack of gender inflection in Guarani. This phenomenon would be unsurprising as a contact effect if found synchronically only in bilinguals; however, its occurrence in monolinguals sets it aside as a rare instance of variable gender agreement in monolingual Spanish. This loosening of gender agreement mirrors the development of gender in Argentine Guarani (Cerno, 2010), and these phenomena taken together shed light on the malleability of gender systems under situations of intense language contact. Together they provide a valuable example of mutual contact-induced changes in gender systems.

Intonational and Syntactic Innovations in a Language Contact Situation: An Explorative Study of Yes/No Questions in Paraguayan Guarani-Spanish Bilinguals.

Whereas the intonation of Spanish varieties has received considerable attention in the past few decades, the research has so far not included the variety of Spanish spoken in Paraguay, where intensive language contact between the Indigenous Guarani language and Spanish since the 16th century has led to widespread bilingualism. This study compares the F0 patterns of yes/no questions in Guarani-dominant bilinguals with those of Spanish-dominant bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals, formalized within the Autosegmental-Metrical model of intonation phonology. Results show no particular differences between the three groups, with all groups producing an H+L*LH% pattern in all types of yes/no questions, the exception being counter-expectational and echo yes/no questions, which were also realized with an L+¡H* L% contour. In spite of the fact that Guarani-dominant bilinguals exhibited more tonal variation in biased yes/no questions, the findings appear on the whole to support the convergence of two intonational systems due to the long period of contact. Furthermore, both bilingual groups made use of Guarani question particles and other Guarani expressions in their productions. Interestingly, across all groups, some speakers occasionally used the calque expression ¿Será que . . . ("Will it be that . . .?") at the beginning of questions; this construction can be considered to have become grammaticalized as a question particle. Taken together, the intonational and syntactic innovations apparent in Paraguayan Spanish point toward language change brought about by intensive contact with Guarani and show how two levels of linguistic structure-intonation and syntax-may evolve differently.

The Phonological System of TumɁi

As part of a linguistic research team I recorded a Khoisan language currently spoken by three people in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Since the variety of language spoken in this location is close to varieties of both the Khoekhoe and Tuu language families, the question of genetic affiliation and classification within the Khoisan language cluster becomes significant. Although reported to have significant lexical similarities due to intensive language contact (Güldemann 2006), extensive research provides evidence of numerous linguistic differences which distinguish between the varieties within the Khoisan families mentioned above (Beach 1938, Bleek 1930, Ladefoged & Traill 1994, Miller, Brugman, Sands, Namaseb, Exter & Collins 2007). Overall, this project attempts to answer the question: How unique is this undocumented language TumɁi in comparison to varieties of geographically neighbouring Khoisan language clusters? This comparative analysis is comprised of a detailed description of the vowel and consonant systems, as well as evidence of phonetic and phonological contrasts. The clear focus on the analysis of sound contrasts is a consequence of limited data due to speaker competence. As a result of intense incomplete acquisition and linguistic attrition, the consultants produce utterances using Khoisan content words within an Afrikaans framework (Killian 2009). Specific research questions include: What is the sound inventory of this language? Are there phonation or glottalization contrasts in vowels? Are there laryngeal contrasts in consonants? What kinds of clicks make up the inventory? This project is a direct effort toward the revitalization and documentation of indigenous languages. Determining the genetic affiliations of this language which is positioned relatively equidistant to the surrounding languages, would also contribute to gaps within the linguistic isoglosses in South Africa.

RESEARCH OF LINGUOCULTURAL ASPECTS OF THE TERMINOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL TOURISM

The issue of the relationship and interconnection of language and culture has always aroused considerable interest of many linguists, who, despite the originality of approaches to this issue, consider culture and language in interaction. Modern linguistics seeks to comprehend the cultural consciousness of a single nation through linguistic means. International tourism continues to grow and diversify exponentially, creating situations of intense language contact and giving rise to unexpected sociolinguistic dynamics and phenomena.

Codeswitching auf einem hochdiversen urbanen Wochenmarkt: Kommerz, Kommunikation und Identität

Today's European cities exhibit a great cultural and linguistic diversity. Highly diverse urban areas bring together people from different sociolinguistic backgrounds and thus facilitate intense language contact, with speakers accessing diverse linguistic resources that they creatively use and mix (cf. e. g. Wiese 2020; Otsuji/Pennycook 2010; Pennycook/Otsuji 2015). Such linguistic practices include code-switching.
 In previous research on code-switching the focus was on relatively homogeneous settings, mostly bilingual communities (cf. Poplack 2015; Torres Cacoullos/Travis 2015; Bullock/ Toribio 2009). As a part of a larger project, we collected spontaneous speech data through audio and video recordings from a highly diverse street market in Berlin-Neukölln that is popular among locals and tourists, the “Maybachufer-Markt”.
 The analysis of our data reveals new insights with respect to sociolinguistic motivations underlying code-switching. In light of commercial intentions, vendors try to switch to a language according to how they construct the customers’ identity (cf. Bucholtz/Hall 2005; Pfaff-Czarnecka 2011). Besides vendors also commodify specific languages or multilingualism (Heller 2010) based on their and others’ language attitudes or they switch to a language for the purpose of maintaining the communication in sales conversations. Correlating these different factors, we will argue that code-switching is used with a commercial motivation in interactions between vendors and customers.

Borrowing non-canonical inverse between Kabardian and Abaza

Abaza, a polysynthetic ergative Northwest Caucasian language, shares with its neighbour and distant relative Kabardian a typologically peculiar use of the deictic directional prefixes monitoring the relative ranking of the subject and indirect object on the person hierarchy. In both languages, the cislocative (‘hither’) prefixes are used if the indirect object outranks the subject on the person hierarchy, and the translocative (‘thither’) prefixes are used in combinations of first person subjects with second person singular indirect objects. This pattern, reminiscent of the more familiar inverse marking and hence called ‘quasi-inverse’, is observed with ditransitive and bivalent intransitive verbs and is almost fully redundant, since all participants are unequivocally indexed on verbs by pronominal prefixes. I argue that this isogloss, shared by West Circassian (a close relative to Kabardian) but not with Abkhaz, the sister-language of Abaza, is a result of pattern replication under intense language contact, which has led to an increase of both paradigmatic and syntagmatic complexity of Abaza verbal morphology.

Slawisch-albanischer Sprachkontakt in vormoderner Zeit, ein kurzer Abriss

Slavic-Albanian language contact in premodern times, a sketchy overview. As a consequence of the arrival of Slavic in the Balkans, intensive language contact with the pre-Slavic local languages in the Balkans began. One of these local pre-Slavic languages is Albanian which is attested in written documents only since the 16th century AD. As a matter of fact, language contact between Albanian and Slavic must have been very close in the preceding centuries. This is confirmed by two factors. On the one hand the numerous Slavic loanwords which have been integrated into the Albanian lexicon. On the other hand, the equally numerous place-names in all of Albania, which are formed with Slavic lexical components. For the modern periods, the various linguistic contacts between Albanian and Slavic have been thoroughly investigated and presented, but there is no comprehensive account of the older periods. In this article, therefore, an attempt is made to sketch the Slavic influences on Albanian in the premodern periods, at least in the essential points. The focus is on the influences of Slavic on Albanian. The influence of Albanian on the neighboring Slavic languages, however, will be the subject of other investigations.

Asymmetrical Complexity in Languages Due to L2 Effects: Unserdeutsch and Beyond

This study examines asymmetries between so-called inherent and contextual categories in relation to the morphological complexity of the nominal and verbal inflectional domain of languages. The observations are traced back to the influence of adult L2 learning in scenarios of intense language contact. A method for a simple comparison of the amount of inherent versus contextual categories is proposed and applied to the German-based creole language Unserdeutsch (Rabaul Creole German) in comparison to its lexifier language. The same procedure will be applied to two further language pairs. The grammatical systems of Unserdeutsch and other contact languages display a noticeable asymmetry regarding their structural complexity. Analysing different kinds of evidence, the explanatory key factor seems to be the role of (adult) L2 acquisition in the history of a language, whereby languages with periods of widespread L2 acquisition tend to lose contextual features. This impression is reinforced by general tendencies in pidgin and creole languages. Beyond that, there seems to be a tendency for inherent categories to be more strongly associated with the verb, while contextual categories seem to be more strongly associated with the noun. This leads to an asymmetry in categorical complexity between the noun phrase and the verb phrase in languages that experienced periods of intense L2 learning.

L2 Greek in Roman Egypt: Intense language contact in Roman military forts

Abstract This paper will focus on analysing user-related variation in Greek in Egypt as seen through potsherd letters (ostraka) of the residents of Roman forts, praesidia, in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. The letters can be dated to the first and second centuries CE. I suggest that the linguistic situation in the forts can be seen as evidence of extensive language contact that was connected with the considerable economic activity of the Roman Empire. All military forts had several L2 Greek speakers of various ethnicity. In what follows I will suggest that Roman soldiers and their civil partners had created a system that can be described as a feature pool of Greek variables. I suggest that the data from Egypt show that L2 speakers of Greek had an effect on Greek at all grammatical levels, strengthening existing and ongoing endogenous changes by creating substantial contact-induced variation in phonology as well as in morphosyntax and even phraseology. The intense language contact suggests, in my opinion, that language dynamics of this period follow the resilience theory, where various different phases of the adaptive cycle can be simultaneous, as almost all possible varieties of Greek, from historical High Attic to Multiethnic Greek are in use.

Reconstruction Beyond Proto-Languages In the Middle Andes

The perception that the numerous similarities in lexicon, phonology and structure which unite the Quechuan and Aymaran language families in the Middle Andes region are due to intensive language contact prior to the stage of their proto-languages, rather than to a common genetic source as was previously assumed, has made it possible to visualize some of the originally inherited characteristics of each of the two linguistic lineages. This new perspective opens up multiple fields of further investigation, for instance, (a) determining the directionality of loan words (mainly from Quechuan to Aymaran, and rarely the other way around); (b) reconstructing the the structural profile of each of the two lineages prior to the beginning of their contact relation; and (c) creating the conditions for a separate external comparison of each lineage with other language families and isolates in the wider surroundings. In more general terms, it now appears possible to access earlier stages in the historical development of the Quechuan and Aymaran than that of the two proto-languages, to locate the original homeland of each lineage in relation to the newly established chronology, and to speculate on the societal context of the initial contact.

Northwest Mandarin, Standard Chinese, and Tibetan elements in Wutun lexicon

Abstract Wutun is a distinct form of Northwest Mandarin spoken by approximately 4000 people in a rural area called Seng ge gshong (‘the valley of the lion’) in the Wutun language, or Wutun 五屯 in Standard Chinese, located a few kilometers from Rong bo (Long wu 龙务), the county seat of Reb gong (Tongren 同仁), in the Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province, People’s Republic of China. This article analyzes some features of basic and cultural Wutun vocabulary (Northwest Mandarin, Standard Chinese, and Tibetan items, as well as hybrid and idiosyncratic words) exploring prospects for lexical borrowing in an intense language contact situation, as well as the impact of the environment, cultural influences, and linguistic prestige in the development of the lexicon of a small language community.

From SOV to SVO

The change in constituent order in English is one of the most thoroughly investigated changes in the history of the English language. Even so, there is still disagreement among scholars as to what caused the change. The aim of this article is to argue that it was the influence of the Scandinavians and their language, Old Norse, that caused English to abandon the SOV constituent order and instead adopt SVO constituent order. Because of the intense language contact between the two cultures, several linguistic features of Old Norse found their way into the English language. Numerous morphological features were borrowed from Old Norse, but especially the adoption of syntactic features such as stylistic fronting and CP-V2 suggests that Old Norse influence was strong enough to affect the basic syntax of English and thus strong enough to have initiated the change in English constituent order.

The contribution of grammar and lexicon to language switching costs: Examining contact-induced languages and their implications for theories of language representation

AbstractMany language pairs chosen in language switching studies differ randomly on multiple linguistic levels, thus obscuring the nature of switching costs. Contact-induced languages, i.e., creoles (e.g., Spanish-based Palenquero) and mixed languages (e.g., Media Lengua), having arisen in intense language contact scenarios, relate systematically to their source languages by displaying high proportions of cognates or shared grammar. This configuration can speak to the relative contribution of lexicon and grammar to switching costs. Results from a production and comprehension task show that switching costs are systematically tied to a language pair's grammatical distance. This suggests that switching costs may result from the re-generation of the morphosyntactic frame on switch trials. Emphasizing the value of testing psycholinguistic theories outside of the usual Western populations, the current study provides insight into the degree of shared mental representations between contact-induced languages and their source languages.

On case loss and svarabhakti vowels: the sociolinguistic typology and geolinguistics of simplification in North Germanic

AbstractWork in sociolinguistic typology and creole studies has established the theory that intensive language contact involving second language acquisition by adults tends to lead to grammatical simplification. This theory is built on many anecdotal case studies, including developments in the history of Continental North Germanic associated with contact with Middle Low German. In this paper, we assess the theory by examining two changes in the history of Norwegian: the loss of coda /Cr/ clusters and the loss of prepositional genitives. If the theory is correct, these changes should have been innovated in centers of contact with Middle Low German. We find that both changes in fact spread into southeastern Norwegian from Swedish. Since contact with Low German also took place in Sweden and Denmark, this is consistent with the theory. It opens questions for future research about the role of dialect contact in simplificatory change in North Germanic.

V2 and V3 Orders in North-American Icelandic

The finite verb typically occurs in second position in main clauses in Germanic languages other than English. Hence they are often referred to as ʽverb-second languagesʼ or V2-languages for short. The difference between a V2-language and a non-V2 language is shown in (i)–(ii) with Icelandic examples and English glosses (the finite verb is highlighted): In example (i) the finite verb occurs in second position in Icelandic, immediately following the subject María in Icelandic but in the English gloss it occurs in third position, following the adverb never. In (ii) the finite verb immediately follows the fronted (topicalized) object Maríu in Icelandic but in the English gloss the finite verb again occurs in third position, this time following the subject. This article discusses the influence of intense language contact (English/Icelandic) on the two V2-order types in North American Icelandic (NAmIce), a heritage language spoken in former Icelandic conclaves in North America. We show that the subject-first V2-order is more robust in NAmIce than the topic-first V2-order and less vulnerable to English influence, although both types are affected to some extent. This is interesting for two reasons. First, it has been argued that word order is typically less prone to cross-linguistic influence than for instance morphology. Second, these results suggest that, contrary to common assumption, the two types of V2-orders discussed here may have different syntactic sources in Icelandic syntax.