Language convergence

Language convergence is a type of linguistic change in which languages come to resemble one another structurally as a result of prolonged language contact and mutual interference, regardless of whether those languages belong to the same language family, i.e. stem from a common genealogical proto-language.[1] In contrast to other contact-induced language changes like creolization or the formation of mixed languages, convergence refers to a mutual process that results in changes in all the languages involved.[2] The term refers to changes in systematic linguistic patterns of the languages in contact (phonology, prosody, syntax, morphology) rather than alterations of individual lexical items.[3]

  1. ^ Crowley, Terry; Bowern, Claire (2010). An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 269–272. ISBN 0195365542.
  2. ^ Thomason, Sarah (2001). Language Contact: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 89–90, 152. ISBN 0748607196.
  3. ^ Hickey, Raymond, ed. (2010). The Handbook of Language Contact. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 19, 68–9, 76, 285–87. ISBN 1444318160.