Contact : the interaction of closely related linguistic varieties and the history of English / Robert McColl Millar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Millar, Robert McColl, 1966- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Languages in contact.

Physical Description:

ix, 210 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2016]

Summary:

While much has been written on dialect formation through contact between dialects of the same language, the question of what happens when closely related but linguistically discrete varieties come into contact with each other has largely been neglected. Here Robert McColl Millar sets out to redress this imbalance, giving the reader the opportunity to analyse and consider a variety of different contact scenarios where the language varieties involved are close relatives and to explore the question: are the results of contacts of this type different in nature from those where linguistically distant (or entirely different) varieties come into contact? Bringing together the diverse theoretical positions associated with the production of new dialects as well as those associated with contact between closely related but discrete language varieties, the book invites the-reader to evaluate different scholarly views using analysis from a range of different case studies, largely derived from the history and diversity of English. It then goes on to demonstrate the similarities in process and end result between contact involving discrete but closely related languages and between dialects of the same language, and in doing so offers a new and insightful approach to issues of language contact. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Some introductory thoughts 1

2 New dialect formation and near-dialect contact 16

3 New dialect formation and time depth 57

4 Linguistic contact and near-relative relationships 106

5 English in the 'transition period': the sources of contact-induced change 124

6 Conclusions 171.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 178-205) and index.

ISBN:

9781474409087

1474409083

OCLC:

950450532