Language Contact

TL;DR: Language contact studies the dynamics and outcomes of multilingual interaction, intersecting with various branches of linguistics and encompassing a wide range of linguistic investigation areas. Despite its relatively young age, the field has a significant impact on language variation and change.

Abstract: The study of language contact addresses the dynamics and outcomes of multilingual interaction. Accordingly, it intersects with many branches of linguistics, including sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and psycholinguistics. It also engages with the full range of areas of linguistic investigation, from discourse to lexicon to grammar, and spanning phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics/pragmatics. Despite its wide relevance and a relatively long pedigree, language contact as a field of study in its own right is relatively young, having come into its own only in the latter half of the 20th century. This bibliography focuses on language contact from the perspective of its effects on the languages involved; in other words, the approach taken here is grounded primarily in the study of language variation and change, although it necessarily keeps social and psycholinguistic considerations in view. The vast literature on new languages that arise in contact conditions is not directly addressed here; the reader may consult the separate Oxford Bibliographies in Linguistics articles “Pidgins”, “Creoles”, “Grammatical Categories in Creoles”, and “Mixed Languages” for information on those topics. Further coverage of areas relating to language contact is also provided in the Oxford Bibliographies in Linguistics articles “Bilingualism and Multilingualism”, “Psycholinguistic Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism”, “Language Shift”, and “Linguistic Areas”.