Introduction to Language Contact

With the exception of some unattested indigenous languages spoken in remote areas and by tribes that successfully defend themselves against any form of invasion, languages do not exist in a vacuum. They have always been surrounded by other languages, geographically, culturally, socially, politically, and functionally. People live side-by-side with people who speak entirely different languages, and people bring together languages within themselves as well. Little surprisingly, the particular linguistic setting has vast implications for the development of languages: The influence one language may have on another can extend from mere cultural and toponymic borrowing to heavy structural transfer, and from the birth of entirely new languages, like Tok Pisin, to the death of minority languages. Any endeavors to keep languages ‘pure’ from foreign influence have turned out unsuccessful. This course aims at introducing the discipline of language contact by zooming in on the mechanisms and outcomes of the different contact situations, individual and societal multilingualism, as well as language birth and language death. While our main focus will be on English, examples from other languages will need to be included as well to illustrate phenomena that cannot be observed otherwise. This seminar is designed for everyone willing to explore the world through the lens of languages and humans in contact.

Thomason, Sarah. 2001. Language Contact. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

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