3. Language contact.

Language contact is a situation of geographical contiguity or close social proximity between languages or dialects, so that a degree of bilingualism comes to exist within a community. The languages (also called contact vernaculars) then begin to influence each other, such as by introducing loan words or making changes in pronunciation and even grammar. Language contact may cause convergence of dialects and convergence of individual languages. Convergence of individual languages may result in the appearance of a new language. The most dramatic examples of such languages are pidgins and creols. Not infrequently, convergence results in the form of a language that becomes standardized and acquires the status of a national language.

Convergence of dialects takes place when one of the dialects spoken in a particular region integrates the features of the neighboring dialects, and thus becomes more elaborated. E.g. the Russian language, traced back to the 11^th century, is based on the central (Moscow) dialect, which in the 16^th – 17^th centuries became standardized, having integrated the features of the northern and southern dialects. Same holds for the Ukrainian language, traced back to the 14^th century. Among the three groups of its dialects – south-eastern, south-western, and northern – the basic dialects are south-eastern, which developed into a standard language in the 17^th -18^th centuries, having acquired some features of the other dialects.

Convergence of languages has two major cases: convergence via proximity and convergence via assimilation.

• Convergence via proximity is found within adjacent speech communities (mostly living on the frontier of two countries), which tend to borrow words and sounds from each other. The grammatical systems of such languages remain intact. The set of phonetic and lexical forms borrowed into the target language from the source language or languages is called the adstratum. E.g. the Polish words and prosody borrowed into Ukrainian used in the West of Ukraine; the words from the languages of American Indians borrowed into American English and Canadian English. In some cases, the proximity of several speech communities and their intensive contacts may affect not only the sound system and the vocabulary of languages, but their grammatical systems as well. Dew to the borrowings from morphology and syntax, even genetically dissimilar languages may become alike. Such languages form a linguistic area. E.g. the Balkan linguistic area that includes Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Albanian, and New Greek. (See Aitchison, p. 155 –156).

• Convergence via assimilation is found within mixed speech communities living on one and the same territory. Typically, one of such communities is socially dominant. It may be assimilated with the dominated community, which results in the appearance of a new ethnos. One of the two languages may substantially influence the grammatical system of another language. Such an influence may happen in two directions: a dominated language, which was previously spoken in this region, may influence the dominant language, and vive versa. A set of forms inherent in the previous (dominated) language, which influenced the structure of the later (dominant) language, is called the substratum. E.g. the set of Celtic forms that caused modification of the Latin language in ancient Gaul. A set of forms inherent in the later (dominant) language, which influenced the structure of the previous (dominated) language, is called the superstratum. E.g. the set of Norman French forms that caused modification of Old English. The substratum and superstratum cause substantial changes in the language which remains native for some speech community.

• Pidgin is a native language of no one. It emerges when members of two mutually unintelligible speech communities attempt to communicate. A pidgin is used at first in a limited set of circumstances. It typically develops on trade routes and in costal areas, so it is often called a trade language. The phonology, syntax and lexicon in a pidgin are simpler than in an ordinary language. A pidgin is usually based on one language, though it soon acquires an admixture of other languages, as well as an independent construction of its own. Many pidgins are based on European languages, reflecting the history of colonialism, e.g. Tok Pisin spoken in Papua New Guinea is based on English, but it also has plenty of non-English syntactic constructions. Some pidgins are based on the native tongues of a region, e.g. African pidgins based on Bantu. The number of pidgins in the world amounts to 50; they are mostly used in South-East Asia, Oceania, and Africa. Sometimes pidgins are given an official status by the community, e.g. Tok Pisin. (See Aitchison, p. 118 –119).

Pidgins contrast with creoles, which evolve when pidgins acquire native speakers. The process of expanding the structural and stylistic range of the pidgin is called creolization. Once the pidgin becomes a creole, ist system rapidly develops: the syntax becomes more complex, and extra vocabulary items are created. Fairly soon, if it continues to develop, a creole is very likely to be indistinguishable from a ‘full’ language. In some circumstances, a creole can be devoured by its parent, if the latter has more prestige in the society. The words and constructions from the base language gradually replace the creole ones. This process is known as decreolozaion. (See Aitchison, p. 119 – 120).