Εισαγωγή στη γλωσσική επαφή [Language contact: an Introduction]

Language contact is observed everywhere and is as old as language itself. Μost people in the world speak two or more languages and many nations have more than one official language. What exactly is language contact? In what environments does it work, through what stages does it go, and what implications does it carry for the languages themselves and their speakers?

In this survey of the social, political, and historical factors of language contact, Sarah G. Thomason focuses on the types, rate, and intensity of contact situations, as well as on the mechanisms of linguistic interference, and the results of contact-induced language change. Sometimes new words simply enter a language, but the consequences of contact may often be complex and intricate, such as the typological restructuring of entire phonological, morphological, and syntactic systems. In some cases, linguistic features diffuse over wide geographical regions and affect many languages at the same time, thus forming linguistic areas such as the Balkan Sprachbund, a member of which is Greek. Depending on the conditions of contact, even new languages, such as pidgin and creoles, emerge, while others contract and eventually become extinct.

Accessibly written by a leading expert in the field, this book is an ideal introduction for students, and a useful resource for teachers and academic linguists.

Sarah G. Thomason is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Michigan.