Convergence and divergence in language obsolescence
Published in Current Issues in Unity and Diversity of Languages, 2009
Previous research on language attrition has distinguished between internally and externally motivated change and between convergent and divergent change, with most literature focusing on speech communities that have undergone either one or the other type of change. In this paper, I argue that these types of change may coexist within the same community or even the same speaker, with the result that the obsolescing language becomes simultaneously more similar to and more different from the contact language. The results of a crossgenerational acoustic study of Southeastern Pomo (Northern Hokan, Pomoan) indicate that in the domain of phonetics and phonology, the speech of the last fluent generation has converged with English in some ways and diverged from it in other ways.
Recommended citation: Chang, C. B. (2009). Convergence and divergence in language obsolescence. In M. Pak (Ed.), Current issues in unity and diversity of languages (pp. 933–952). Seoul, South Korea: Linguistic Society of Korea.
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