6. What happens when languages come in contact?

metathesis

a change in the order of two adjacent sounds

language change: lexical

losing, borrowing or coining new words

language change: phonological

changes to pronunciation

language change: syntactic

loss or addition of modifications of grammatical structures

language change: semantic

change in meanings

analogy

a process whereby something in a language changes to be more like something else in the language with which it is somehow associated, to which it bears a similarity

prescriptive grammar

concerned with what it believes to be correct grammar, combatting what it views as incorrect

language contact

two or more languages are spoken in the same or adjoining regions and there is a degree of communication between the people there

language shift

the replacement of one’s main language (L1) by another language (L2)

core value

values that form the most fundamental components of a group’s culture

subtractive bilingualism

abandon L1 after learning L2

individual bilingualism

the use of two (or more) languages by an individual

societal bilingualism

the use of two (or more) languages within a given community

balanced bilinguals

fully competent in both languages, almost impossible

dominant bilinguals

dominant in one language; dominance doesn’t apply to all domains

passive bilinguals

retain receptive skills

safe language

the language is used by all ages, from children up

unsafe language

the language is used by some children in all domains; it is used by children in limited domains

definitively endangered language

the language is used mostly by the parental generation and up

severely endangered language

the language is used mostly by the grandparental language and up

critically endangered language

the language is used mostly by very few speakers, of the great-grandparental generation

extinct

there are no speakers