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Language Contact and New Dialect Formation: Evidence from German in North America
Author(s) -
Nützel Daniel,
Salmons Joseph
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
language and linguistics compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.619
H-Index - 44
ISSN - 1749-818X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2011.00308.x
Subject(s) - german , language contact , linguistics , conservatism , variation (astronomy) , immigration , history , sociology , political science , archaeology , philosophy , law , physics , politics , astrophysics
When viewing language and dialect contact through the lens of the social settings of variation and acquisition, it becomes apparent that the types and degrees of conservatism in colonial dialects of German are tightly tied to the varieties learned and the patterns of acquisition in the community. Working within the framework of recent theories on stability in language contact and new dialect (koine) formation, the authors explore what the basic social settings of some German‐American immigrant communities in Indiana and Wisconsin reveal about the structural consequences of language and dialect contact.