historical contact

historical and contact linguistics back to home page

My work on historical linguistics, including contact linguistics and sociophonetics, has focused on languages with moderate to heavy morphology. My basic conclusions can be summed up by these points:

morphosyntactic and lexical systems are generally stable, due to some combination of functional adaptiveness and inertia (force of habit)
if related languages have at least moderate morphological complexity, morphology is more reliable for subgrouping and long-distance relationships than lexicon (example: Uto-Aztecan)
vocalic sound changes that do not involve weakening can be driven by ethological factors connected to size symbolism, and changes in progress correlate (statistically) with gender (Gordon & Heath)
most other sound changes are lenitions, deletions, and other feature-reducing processes, favored by prosodic factors
whatever their causes, sound changes operate without regard for the damage they do to morphosyntactic systems
when morphosyntactic systems are disrupted by sound change, they are repaired by recruiting new morphemic material to express existing categories, with no generational gap
recruitment of new phrasal constructions to replace moribund ones are often misanalysed as independent syntax-to-morphosyntax “grammaticalization” processes that follow universal paths of change without regard for the incumbent grammar or other ongoing grammaticalizations
sometimes a morpheme undergoing terminal phonetic erosion is abruptly renewed by recruiting an external morpheme that shares a phonological feature with it (such as an initial consonant); these are “hermit-crab” restructurings that cannot be analysed as gradual grammaticalizations (example: Uto-Aztecan)
when critically important relational morphemes (linkers), such as the inverse marker in direct-inverse systems, undergo phonetic erosion, another morpheme may be recruited to replace it, initially with a foot in the door followed by rapid spreading to replace the outgoing morpheme (“lost wax”)
languages can shift fairly rapidly from dependent-marking to head-marking (example: Songhay)
languages can shift fairly rapidly from one SVO/SOV/VSO constituent-order regime to another, without creolization (example: Songhay)
in rapid language shift, and to a lesser extent in longer-term mixed sub- and ad-stratal diffusion, substratal phonology and prosody along with some morphological simplification, but usually no basic lexicon, are applied to the forms of the target (superstratum) language (example: Moroccan Arabic)
prosodic changes due to language shift may set off a chain reaction of morphological reshapings in the target language, if the latter’s morphology had depended on prosody (tones, stress, vowel length) (example: Moroccan Arabic
in rapid language shift, if the target language adopts a substratal morphosyntactic phrasal pattern that requires a crucial linking morpheme, the actual substratal morpheme may survive in the target (examples: Mande to Songhay, Late Latin to Moroccan Arabic)
in verb borrowings from languages with complex verb paradigms, the form borrowed tends to be one that occurs (with or without additional apparent affixes) in multiple functions (e.g. infinitive and imperative and participle) (example: French & Spanish into Moroccan Arabic)
in such verb borrowings, if the target language itself is complexly inflected, it tries to identify the (morpho-)phonological form of the borrowing, e.g. an apparent affix or an apparent apophonic grade, in the context of the target’s existing morphology, and analogically creates a full paradigm for the borrowing (example: Moroccan Arabic)

My detailed historical linguistic (including contact linguistic) publications have been on Uto-Aztecan (mainly during student days), Australian languages, Songhay, and Moroccan Arabic. I plan to work on Dogon and Songhay historical linguistics next.

books
      1989            From code‑switching to borrowing: A case study of Moroccan Arabic. (Library of Arabic Linguistics, 9.) London and New York: Kegan Paul International.
                                    ISBN 0-7103-0118-9
      1978b         Linguistic diffusion in Arnhem Land. Canberra: AIAS.
                                    http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-001A-2952-0
                                    http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/117642

articles
      in press       Vowel-length merger and its consequences in early Moroccan Arabic. Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik.
      *2015          D-possessives and the origins of Moroccan Arabic. Diachronica 32(1):1-33.
                                    DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/dia.32.1.01hea
      *2011a        Innovation of head-marking in Humburi Senni (Songhay, Mali). Diachronica 28(1):1-24.
                                    DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/dia.28.1.01hea
      2007a          Stretching ablaut: morphological adaptation of new *CCu and *CCi stems in Moroccan Arabic. In: Mustafa Mughazy (ed.), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics XX, pp. 3-24. Philadelphia: Benjamins.
      2001            Borrowing. In: R.. Mesthrie (ed.), Concise encyclopedia of sociolinguistics, 432-42. Oxford: Pergamon, 2001. [reprint, with slightly updated bibliography]
      2000a          SIFT-ing the evidence: adaptation of a Berber loan for 'send' in Moroccan Arabic. In: S. Chaker & A. Zaborski (eds.), Études berbères et chamito-sémitiques: Mélanges offerts à Karl-G. Prasse, 223-32. Paris/Louvain: Peeters.
      2000b         Crawling toward enlightenment: the verb HBU in Moroccan Arabic, in Christiane Schaner-Wolles, John Rennison & Friedrich Neubarth (eds.), Naturally! Linguistic studies in honour of Wolfgang Ulrich Dressler presented on the occasion of his 60th birthday, 183-93. Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier.
      1999            Sino-Moroccan citrus: borrowing as a natural linguistic experiment. In: Lutz Erhard & Mohammed Nekroumi (eds.), Tradition und innovation: Norm and deviation in Arabic and Semitic linguistics, 168-76. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
      *1998a        Hermit crabs: formal renewal of morphology by phonologically mediated affix substitution. Language 74:728-59.
                                    https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/417001.pdf
      *1998b        (Matthew Gordon & J. Heath) Sex, sound symbolism, and sociolinguistics, Current Anthropology 39:421-49.
                                    DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/204758
      1994a          Borrowing. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, vol. 1, 383-94. Oxford & NY: Pergamon.
      *1997b        Lost wax: abrupt replacement of key morphemes in Australian agreement complexes, Diachronica 14(2):197-232.
                                    DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/dia.14.2.02hea
      1994a          Borrowing. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, vol. 1, 383-94. Oxford & NY: Pergamon.
      1990            Verbal inflection and macro‑subgroupings of Australian languages: The search for conjugation markers in non‑Pama‑Nyungan. In: Philip Baldi, ed., Linguistic change and reconstruction methodology, 403-417. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
      1987a          Hasta la mujerra! and other intances of playful language mixing in Morocco. Mediterranean Language Review 2:113-16.
            http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13173/medilangrevi.2.1986.0113
      1987b         Story of *-n-: *CV- vs. *CV-n- noun-class prefixes in Australian languages. In: Donald Laycock & Werner Winter (eds.), A world of language: Papers presented to Professor S.A. Wurm on his 65th birthday, 233-43. (Pacific Linguistics, C-100). Canberra: Australian National University, Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies.
                                    DOI:10.15144/PL-C100 (volume)
                                    (soon to be online, http://sealang.net/archives/pl/, search under title = World of, scroll to p. 233)
      *1985b        Proto-Northern Uto-Aztecan participles. International Journal of American Linguistics 51(4):441-3.
                                    https://doi.org/10.1086/465924
      1984            Language contact and language change. Annual Review of Anthropology 13:367‑84. Palo Alto: Annual Reviews, Inc.
      1983a          On structural determinism in borrowing: Moroccan Arabic. In: P. H. Nelde, ed., Theorie, Methoden und Modelle der Kontaktlinguistik, 52‑58. Bonn: Dümmler.
      *1981a        A case of intensive lexical diffusion: Arnhem Land, Australia. Language 57(2):335‑67.
                                    DOI: 10.2307/413694
                                    https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/413694.pdf
      1981e          Hermit crabs in Uto‑Aztecan. In: B. Johns and D. Strong (eds.), Syntactic change, 35‑58. Dept. of Linguistics, Univ. of Michigan.
      1979b         Diffusional linguistics in Australia: Problems and prospects. In: S. Wurm, ed., Australian linguistic studies, 395‑418. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
      *1978b        Uto‑Aztecan *na‑class verbs. International Journal of American Linguistics 44(3):211‑22.
                                    https://doi.org/10.1086/465546
      *1977a        Uto‑Aztecan morphophonemics. International Journal of American Linguistics 43(1):27‑36.
                                    https://doi.org/10.1086/465452
                                    see also “Erratum. IJAL 44(2):165
                                    http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/465541

review articles
in press Halfway up the mountain: A review article. On: T. Givón, The diachrony of grammar (2 vols.). Language Dynamics and Change.
in press Cyclical ups and downs: A review article. On: Elly van Gelderen (ed.), Cyclical change (2009); Cyclical change continued (2016). Studies in Language.

reviews
      2016            Nassenstein, Nico & Andrea Hollington, eds. Youth language practices in Africa and beyond. Anthropological Linguistics 58(2):215-216.
      2015            Stroik, Thomas & Michael Putnam, The structural design of language; Denis Bouchard, The nature and origin of language. Linguistic Typology 19(3):463-468.
      2013            Fiona McLaughlin, ed. The languages of urban Africa. Anthropological Linguistics 55(4):399-400.
      2013            Storch, Anne. Secret manipulations: Language and context in Africa. Anthropological Linguistics 55(4):395-397.
      2013            Hieda, Osamu, Christa König, & Hirosi Nakagawa, eds. Geographical typology and linguistic areas, with special reference to Africa. Anthropological Linguistics 55(4):397-399.
      2012            Lefebvre, Claire, ed. Creoles, their substrates, and language typology. Anthropological Linguistics 54(3):305-8.
      2012            Trudgill, Peter. Sociolinguistic typology. Anthropological Linguistics 54(4):404-7.
      2012            Sampson, Geoffrey, David Gil, & Peter Trudgill, eds. Language complexity as an evolving variable. Anthropological Linguistics 54(4):401-4.
      2003            Labov, William. Principles of linguistic change; volume 2: Social Factors. Anthropological Linguistics 45(4):466-73.
      1999            Campbell, Lyle. American Indian Languages: The historical linguistics of NativeAmerica. Anthropological Linguistics 41(1):125-26.
      1994            Nichols, Johanna, Linguistic diversity in space and time. Anthropological Linguistics 94:92-96.
      1994            O'Grady, Geoffrey & Darrell Tryon, Studies in comparative Pama-Nyungan. Language 70(4):864-5. [book notice]
                                    DOI: 10.2307/416361
                                    http://www.jstor.org/stable/416361
      1994            Miehe, Gudrun. Die Präfixnasale im Benue-Congo und im Kwa: Versuch einer Widerlegung der Hypothese der Nasalinnovation des Bantu. Language 70(4):862-3. [book notice]
                                    DOI: 10.2307/416359
                                    http://www.jstor.org/stable/416359
      1989            van Coetsem, Frans. Loan phonology and the two transfer types in Language Contact. Language 65(2):384‑87. [book notice]
                                    DOI: 10.2307/415340
                                    http://www.jstor.org/stable/415340
      1986            Davies, Alan, C. Criper, & A. P. R. Howatt, eds. Interlanguage. Language 62(4):962‑63. [book notice]
                                    DOI: 10.2307/415213
                                    http://www.jstor.org/stable/415213
      1986            Versteegh, Kees. Pidginization and creolization: The case of Arabic. Language 62(4):952‑53. [book notice]
                                    DOI: 10.2307/415201
                                    http://www.jstor.org/stable/415201
      1984            Heine, Bernd. The Nubi language of Kibera: An Arabic creole. Language 60(4):991‑92. [book notice]
                                    10.2307/413827
                                    http://www.jstor.org/stable/413827

[last update Oct 2017]

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