In:Lifespan Acquisition and Language Change: Historical sociolinguistic perspectives
Edited by Israel Sanz-Sánchez
[Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics 14] 2024
► pp. 84–103
Chapter 4The dynamics of lifelong acquisition in dialect contact and
change
Published online: 4 April 2024
https://doi.org/10.1075/ahs.14.04hen
https://doi.org/10.1075/ahs.14.04hen
Abstract
Acquisition research involving speakers of
mutually intelligible varieties (dialects) or mutually unintelligible varieties (languages) reveals a wide range of possible acquisition
outcomes at different life stages and their potential to shape
language change across the community. Since contexts of dialect
contact often include language contact, attempts to understand
the link between dialect acquisition and dialect change must also
consider language contact as a potential factor. This chapter
surveys the research on dialect contact and lifespan change in
contexts of language maintenance in both non-mobile and mobile
languages users as a window into the human capacity for lifelong
acquisition and change. The chapter adopts a linguistic repertoire
focus, recognizing that bidialectalism/bilingualism is a matter of
degree, and that language dominance plays a key role in
crosslinguistic transfer. This proposal is illustrated with a case
study of dialect and language contact in Early Modern Dutch.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Language variation, dialect contact and change across the lifespan: Past findings, future directions
- 3.The relevance of speakers’ linguistic repertoires to dialect contact and change
- 4.Lifelong acquisition, contact and change: The case of /f/ and /v/ in Early Modern Dutch
- 5.Acquisition across the lifespan and the historical sociolinguistics of dialect contact and change: Challenges and opportunities
- 6.Conclusion
Notes References
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