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Unravelling the potential emergence of a fused lect

Analysing the Northern Kasaragod Variety of Malayalam using the exoskeletal frame model

ORCiD logo with link | Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
ORCiD logo with link | Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Published online: 22 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.24055.san
Abstract
This study investigates the potential emergence of a fused lect in the Northern Kasaragod Variety of Malayalam (NKV-M), a speech variety shaped by prolonged contact with Malayalam, Kannada and Tulu. We examine verb-internal language mixing patterns using the exoskeletal framework with late insertion (originally proposed in Borer, H. (2003). Exo-skeletal vs. endo-skeletal explanations: Syntactic projections and the lexicon. In J. Moore & M. Polinsky (Eds.), The nature of explanation in linguistic theory (pp. 31–67). Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), integrating sociolinguistic and formal approaches. Our findings reveal that the underlying syntactic skeleton of NKV-M is primarily derived from Malayalam. However, it incorporates agreement features into the T-projection, resulting in a fused T-Agr projection within the Tense Phrase. This fusion, which is absent in Standard Malayalam, reflects contact-induced retention of South Dravidian features. Morphological levelling among younger speakers and increasing conventionalisation of mixed forms indicate a trajectory towards a fused lect as defined by Auer ( (1999). From codeswitching via language mixing to fused lects. International Journal of Bilingualism, 3(4), 309–332. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, Auer, P. (2014). Language mixing and language fusion: when bilingual talk becomes monolingual. In J. Besters-Dilger, C. Dermarkar, S. Pfänder, & A. Rabus (Eds.), Congruence in Contact-induced Language Change: Language Families, Typological Resemblance, and Perceived Similarity (pp. 294–336). De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). This study demonstrates that NKV-M exhibits systematic, rule-governed variation rather than spontaneous code-mixing, and we argue that the exoskeletal model effectively captures this mixing pattern.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Profiling the target area and the languages spoken
    • 1.2Methodology
  • 2.Theoretical framework
    • 2.1Language variation and change through a sociolinguistic perspective
    • 2.2Models of language mixing
    • 2.3A late-insertion-based exoskeletal frame model
      • 2.3.1Language mixing in American Norwegian
      • 2.3.2Language mixing in Dakkhini
  • 3.Data for analysis
    • NKV-Malayalam
    • Formal spoken Malayalam (Standard Malayalam)
  • 4.Key findings
    • 4.1Structural architecture of NKV-Malayalam
      • Syntactic framework
      • Functional morphology
      • Contact-induced maintenance of a fused T-Agr projection
    • 4.2Age-graded variation in subject-verb agreement patterns
    • 4.3Morphological levelling toward Formal Spoken Malayalam
    • 4.4Emergence of a partially conventionalised fused lect
    • 4.5Multilingual acquisition patterns
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Sociolinguistic analysis of NKV-Malayalam
    • 5.2An analysis of the NKV-M using the exoskeletal frame approach
      • 5.2.1Underlying syntactic skeleton
      • 5.2.2Late insertion of morphophonological exponents
    • 5.3NKV-M as a potential fused lect
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Data availability statement
  • Notes
  • References
References (36)
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