Language Contact : : An Introduction / / Sarah G. Thomason.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2013-2000
• VerfasserIn: Thomason, Sarah G.,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2001
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (320 p.)

GBS_insertPreviewButtonPopup('ISBN:9780748607198);What happens to different peoples and to their languages when they come into contact?Language contact is everywhere: many nations have more than one official language, and quite possibly most people in the world speak two or more languages. What happens to different peoples and to their languages when they come into contact?In this survey of the social, political and linguistic consequences of language contact, Sarah G. Thomason focuses on what happens to the languages themselves - sometimes nothing, sometimes new words enter a language, sometimes new sounds and sentence structures will spread across many languages in a large geographical region; more rarely, entirely new languages arise in a contact situation. Conversely, one of the languages in contact may vanish entirely, and issues of language endangerment and death are explored here, together with chapters on multilingualism, pidgins and creoles, mechanisms of interference and the origins and results of contact-induced language change.Accessibly written by a leading expert in the field, this book is an ideal introduction for beginning students at all levels, and a useful resource for postgraduates, teachers and academic linguists.Key FeaturesAccessibly written by a leading figure in the fieldSources and further reading provided for each chapterWorld map showing the location of the languages discussed"

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Contact Onsets and Stability -- 3 Multilingualism in Nations and Individuals -- 4 Contact-Induced Language Change: Results -- 5 Linguistic Areas -- 6 Contact-Induced Language Change: Mechanisms -- 7 Contact Languages I: Pidgins and Creoles -- 8 Contact Languages II: Other Mixed Languages -- 9 Language Death -- 10 Endangered Languages -- Appendix 1: A Map of Some Contact Situations Around the World -- Appendix 2: Official Language in the World's Nations -- Glossary -- References -- Language index -- Name index -- Subject index