Dialect Contact

New research expands the linguistic understanding of dialect contact in specific communities and individuals

Dialect contact occurs whenever speakers of mutually intelligible language varieties interact. Many linguists are interested in the outcome of such contact—how it leads people and languages to vary and change, and what such patterns can reveal about language, mind, and society. Dialect contact can thus be approached as an individual-level or a community-level phenomenon; a cognitive process or a social one.

In Dialect Contact, international contributors present studies touching on both perspectives, representing languages and varieties spanning five continents. The chapters shed light on the many factors influencing dialect change and highlight the importance of considering the contact dynamics that are specific to individual people and communities.

This book will benefit sociolinguistics scholars and students interested in the outcomes of dialect contact, the implications of contact for understanding language change, and the various methods used to investigate contact effects in individuals and communities.