Language in contact

Bilingualism and multilingualism are widespread phenomena in the world. When more than one language (or variety/dialect) is used in the same place at the same time, a language contact situation arises. Language contact is very common, not only at language borders but also as a result of migration. When speakers of different languages communicate with each other over time they affect each other's language - phonologically, morphologically, syntactically and semantically. The result of contact situations can be seen linguistically, in the growth of patterns of phonological, grammatical and lexical change, mixed forms of language (such as creoles and pidgins), and a general increase in bilingualism of various kinds. Other phenomena that are generated are code-switching and code-mixing. In a contact situation, the language with the lower status (for various socio-cultural reasons) always risks losing speakers to the language of higher status, and such a language shift could be the beginning of language endangerment.
Contact linguistics examines language contact phenomena from a general linguistic and sociolinguistic perspective, and is still a fairly new branch of research. These seminars will introduce various research projects in which language contact phenomena are analysed and related to different linguistic theories. The focus will be on the structural impact of language contact, i.e. grammatical features.
Everyone is welcome!

Christiane Andersen
Malin Petzell
Dep. of Languages and Literatures

Dates (more may be added)

21 February in room C456
10.15 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Speaker: Laura Downing
Bantu and Cushitic Pitch-Accent Systems: Similarity Due to Contact?

27 March in room C360
1.15 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Speakers: Nancy Kula and Lutz Marten
Parameters of morphosyntactic variation in Bantu