Linguistic Contact and Language Change

Linguistic contact is a reality of everyday life, as speakers of different languages come into contact with one another, often causing language change. This undergraduate textbook provides a means by which these processes, both modern and historical, can be analysed, based on cutting-edge theoretical and methodological practices. Chapters cover language death, the development of pidgins and creoles, linguistic convergence and language contact, and new variety formation. Each chapter is subdivided into key themes, which are supported by diverse and real-world case studies. Student learning is bolstered by illustrative maps, exercises, research tasks, further reading suggestions, and a glossary. Ancillary resources are available including extra content not covered in the book, links to recordings of some of the language varieties covered, and additional discussion, presentation and essay topics. Primarily for undergraduate students of linguistics, it provides a balanced, historically grounded, and up-to-date introduction to linguistic contact and language change.

Author Biography

Robert McColl Millar is Professor in Linguistics and Scottish Language at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He has a particular interest in the ways in which history, economics, and ideology interact with language use, now and in the past. He his recent publications include A Sociolinguistic History of Scotland (2020), Trask’s Historical Linguistics, 4th edition (2023), and A History of the Scots Language (2023).