- Copyright Page
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- List of Tables
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Contact-Induced Linguistic Change: An Introduction
- Theories of Language Contact
- Contact-Induced Change and Phonology
- Morphology and Contact-Induced Language Change
- Syntax and Contact-Induced Language Change
- Semantic Borrowing in Language Contact
- Sociolinguistic, Sociological, and Sociocultural Approaches to Contact-Induced Language Change: Identifying Chamic Child Bilingualism in Contact-Based Language Change
- Code-Switching as a Reflection of Contact-Induced Change
- First- and Second-Language Acquisition and CILC
- Language Contact and Endangered Languages
- Pidgins
- Creoles
- Mixed Languages, Younger Languages, and Contact-Induced Linguistic Change
- Language Contact in Celtic and Early Irish
- English and Welsh in Contact
- Language Contact in the History of English
- Contact-Induced Language Change in Spanish
- Language Contact in Tagdal, a Northern Songhay Language of Niger
- Language Contact in the West Chadic Language Goemai
- Language Contact in Berber
- Contact Influences on Ossetic
- Northeastern Neo-Aramaic and Language Contact
- Contact and the Development of Malayalam
- Language Contact in Korean
- Language Contact in Khmer
- Language Contact in Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri
- Language Contact and Tok Pisin
- Bidirectional Borrowing of Structure and Lexicon: The Case of the Reef Islands
- Language Contact in Unangam Tunuu (Aleut)
- The Lower Mississippi Valley as a Linguistic Area
- Language Contact Considering Signed Language
- Language Contact in Paraguayan Guaraniˊ
- Language Contact in Cape Verdean Creole: A Study of Bidirectional Influences in Two Contact Settings
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
Britain is not and never has been monolingual. The 2011 census counted inhabitants of Britain speaking nearly ninety languages, including Slovenian, Farsi, Tagalog, and Swahili; a visitor to mid-twelfth-century London might have heard as many as fourteen languages: English, French, German, Flemish, Danish, Genoese, Spanish, Breton, Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Hebrew, Arabic, and Greek. Britain has therefore of necessity always been a site of language contact. This chapter focuses on what influence this language contact has had on British English, a topic of increasing interest to historical linguists. Following a brief account of some of the methodological challenges attendant on studying historical language contact, the chapter sketches the influence of the four main contact influences on English: Celtic, Latin, Norse, and French.
Keywords: language, borrowing, calque, English, French, Latin, Norse, Celtic
Joan C. Beal is Professor Emerita at the University of Sheffield and was formerly Director of the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition at the University of Sheffield. Her books include An Introduction to Regional Englishes (Edinburgh University Press, 2010) and English in Modern Times 1700–1945 (Hooder Arnold, 2004).
Mark Faulkner is Ussher Assistant Professor of Mediaeval Studies at Trinity College Dublin, whither he came in 2016 after previous appointments at University College Cork and the University of Sheffield. He has published extensively on Old and Middle English.
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- Copyright Page
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- List of Tables
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Contact-Induced Linguistic Change: An Introduction
- Theories of Language Contact
- Contact-Induced Change and Phonology
- Morphology and Contact-Induced Language Change
- Syntax and Contact-Induced Language Change
- Semantic Borrowing in Language Contact
- Sociolinguistic, Sociological, and Sociocultural Approaches to Contact-Induced Language Change: Identifying Chamic Child Bilingualism in Contact-Based Language Change
- Code-Switching as a Reflection of Contact-Induced Change
- First- and Second-Language Acquisition and CILC
- Language Contact and Endangered Languages
- Pidgins
- Creoles
- Mixed Languages, Younger Languages, and Contact-Induced Linguistic Change
- Language Contact in Celtic and Early Irish
- English and Welsh in Contact
- Language Contact in the History of English
- Contact-Induced Language Change in Spanish
- Language Contact in Tagdal, a Northern Songhay Language of Niger
- Language Contact in the West Chadic Language Goemai
- Language Contact in Berber
- Contact Influences on Ossetic
- Northeastern Neo-Aramaic and Language Contact
- Contact and the Development of Malayalam
- Language Contact in Korean
- Language Contact in Khmer
- Language Contact in Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri
- Language Contact and Tok Pisin
- Bidirectional Borrowing of Structure and Lexicon: The Case of the Reef Islands
- Language Contact in Unangam Tunuu (Aleut)
- The Lower Mississippi Valley as a Linguistic Area
- Language Contact Considering Signed Language
- Language Contact in Paraguayan Guaraniˊ
- Language Contact in Cape Verdean Creole: A Study of Bidirectional Influences in Two Contact Settings
- Index