Contact: The Interaction of Closely Related Linguistic Varieties and the History of English
Robert McColl Millar
Abstract
Contact discusses the ways in which linguistic contact between closely related varieties differs from contact between fully discrete varieties. Particular focus is given to the development of English. Case studies are taken from recent contact of this type – such as the creation of New Zealand and Australian English. These are then compared with similar contact areas, such as Irish English, Ulster Scots and the Scots dialects of Orkney and Shetland. Finally, the rapid breakdown of inflection in late Old English and early Middle English will be considered as an example of near-relative contact. ... More
Keywords: English, Scots, Contact Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Koineisation
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2016 | Print ISBN-13: 9781474409087 |
| Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: January 2018 | DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9781474409087.001.0001 |
