Language contact

Translations

contatto linguistico | contact linguistique | Sprachkontakt

Article

By language contact, we indicate any situation in which two linguistic codes are in contact with each other, resulting in the exchange of structural or lexical materials and in changes in one or more of the languages involved. When giving such a general definition, it is impossible to sketch a complete history of the studies. In general, observations on contact go back to the 19th century world of philology and historical linguistics, e.g. with the introduction of the concept of substratum by Ascoli. In the first half of the 20th century, observations of contact phenomena continued, resulting, in 1953, in the publication of the first comprehensive treatment by Weinreich (1953). Weinreich's work highlighted important situations of contact in the modern world, and triggered increasingly fine-grained theoretical frameworks, culminating in the work by Thomason and Kaufman (1988). A more comprehensive and extensive overview on the history of the studies on language contact (and on related problems such as mixed-language or [areality|ancient linguistic area]) is offered by Matras (2009).

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References

Matras, Y. 2009. Language contact, Cambridge. Thomason, S. and Kaufman, T. 1988. Language contact, creolization and genetic linguistics, Berkeley. Weinreich, U. 1953. Language contact, finding an problems, New York.