Understanding Language Contact

Evangelia Adamou, Barbara E. Bullock, Almeida Jacqueline Toribio

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780367766603
• eBook ISBN: 9781000903249
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Understanding Language Contact offers an accessible and empirically grounded introduction to contact linguistics. Rather than taking a traditional focus on the outcomes of language contact, this book takes the novel approach of considering these outcomes as an endpoint of bilingualism and multilingualism. Covering speech production and comprehension, language diffusion across different interactional networks and timeframes, and the historical outcomes of contact-induced language change, this book:

• Discusses both how these areas relate to one another and how they correspond to different theoretical fields and methodologies;
• Draws together concepts and methodological/theoretical advances from the related fields of bilingualism and sociolinguistics to show how these can shed new light on the traditional field of contact linguistics;
• Presents up-to-date research in a digestible form;
• Includes examples from a wide range of contact languages, including Creoles and pidgins; Indigenous, minority, and heritage languages; mixed languages; and immigrants' linguistic practices, to illustrate ideas and concepts;
• Features exercises to test students' understanding as well as suggestions for further reading to expand knowledge in specific areas.

Written by three experienced teachers and researchers in this area, Understanding Language Contact is key reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students approaching bilingualism and language contact for the first time.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of abbreviations
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part I From milliseconds to minutes: what bilinguals do when they speak or sign
• Part II From minutes to years: what bilinguals do when they communicate with others
• Part III From years to centuries: how languages change through contact
• Conclusion
• Answers to exercises
• Glossary
• Index