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Papers by Sarah Thomason

Salish of two well-defined root classes, which we will call monovalent and bivalent roots.) We pr... more Salish of two well-defined root classes, which we will call monovalent and bivalent roots.) We present arguments for identifying these as valency classes, rather than appealing to the categories 'unergative' and 'unaccusative', as several other authors have done; we also argue that, at least for this language, it is necessary to distinguish valency from transitivity. We will describe and motivate the four diagnostics that we have used to classify simple roots, and we will discuss briefly the small group of 'ambi-valent' roots for which the diagnostics do not all cluster together. 2 Finally, we will append a list of the roots whose classification we have determined so far. Our primary source for this analysis is the monumental Dictionary of the Kalispe/ or Flathead Indian Language, compiled in the middle decades of the 19th century and printed in 1877-79 at St. Ignatius Mission in Montana. The existence of this dictionary is of course well known to Salishanists, but the mat('fial in it has (as far as we know) hardly been exploited at all in linguistic analyses of Salish an languag~s. We will begin our discussion, therefore, by introducing the dictionary to readers who m~y not be familiar with its history, its scope, and the reasons why it is of considerable potential value for Salishan studies. 288 2. TilE JESUITS' DICTIONARY. The dictionary comprises two volumes-'Kalispel-English' (644 pages) and 'English-Kalispel' {456 pages)-together with a 36-page Appendix to the first volume giving verb conjugations, remarks on reduplication patterns and their functions, and a short list of verbal suffixes 'of which no specific mention is made in the Grammar' (i.e. Mengarini's grammar; see below). The date and publisher of the dictionary are given on the title page of each volume ('St. Ignatius Print, Montana. 1877-8-9'), but the authorship cannot be determined from any information in the dictionary itself. The title page carries this information: A Dictionary of Ihe /(alispel or Flat-head Indian Language, compiled by the missionaries of the Society of Jesus'. On the back of the title page is the note 'Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1879, by Rev. J. Giorda, S.J., In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington '. Since Giorda's name is the only one that appears on the dictionary, he has usually been assumed to have been the author of the entire work. For example, Vogt (1940:8) gives the full title-page information quoted above, but then says, 'Its 289 author was the Rev. J. Giorda, S.J.', and Carlson (1972:vi) refers to 'an extensive dictionary by Giorda'. As the title page indicates, however, the dictionary was not a one-man project. Moreover, the main author seems to have been Gregory Mengarini (1811-1886), not Joseph Giorda {d. 1882).

This paper explores the relationship between bilingualism and contact-induced language change, fo... more This paper explores the relationship between bilingualism and contact-induced language change, focusing on the question of which contributions might be expected from children and which from adults. The issue is reflected in debates among historical linguists as to whether internally-motivated language change is initiated by children during first-language acquisition or by adults-or by both. In language contact studies, it is possible to identify changes, usually temporary ones, that are initiated by children, and it is also possible to identify changes that are initiated by adults. The conclusion, therefore, is that both adults and children are responsible for contact-induced changes, although perhaps not for the same kinds of changes: shift-induced interference, which is due to imperfect learning of a target language by members of a speech community, is likely to be exclusively an adult phenomenon, or at least not primarily initiated by young children during first-language acquisition. I will not address in detail the question of the role of adults vs. the role of children in the initiation and spread of linguistic changes more generally, but some implications of the results from contact-induced change will be discussed in the concluding section. After laying some preliminary groundwork (§1), I will outline briefly the debate about agents of change in historical linguistics and then consider innovations introduced by children and adults in contact situations in which both child learners and adults have full effective access to the source language(s) (§2). Section 3 is devoted to innovations in contact situations that involve imperfect learning by a group, typically because of lack of full access to a target

Contact Languages, 1997

... Page 499. 486 Sarah G. Thomason References Boretzky, Norbert. 1985." Sind Zigeunersprach... more ... Page 499. 486 Sarah G. Thomason References Boretzky, Norbert. 1985." Sind Zigeunersprachen Kreols?" Akten des 1. Essener Kollo-quiums uber" Kreolsprachen und Sprachkontakte", ed. by Norbert Boretzky, Werner Enninger, and Thomas Stolz, 43-70. ...

Contact Languages, 1997

Mednyj Aleut Sarah G. Thomason University of Pittsburgh 1. Introduction Mednyj (or Copper Island)... more Mednyj Aleut Sarah G. Thomason University of Pittsburgh 1. Introduction Mednyj (or Copper Island) Aleut was spoken on Mednyj (Copper) Island, one of the two Commander Islands, which belong to Russia. ... 452 Sarah G. Thomason elsewhere in the Aleutians (ibid., pp. 70-71). ...

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1999

(The reader is referred to the previous issue of Bilingualism for the full text of the article.) ... more (The reader is referred to the previous issue of Bilingualism for the full text of the article.) The aim of the present article is, in the first place, to test hypotheses derived from the model for contact-induced language change as formulated in Thomason and Kaufman (1988 et ...

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2011

Jürgen Meisel argues that “grammatical variation. . .can be described. . .in terms of parametric ... more Jürgen Meisel argues that “grammatical variation. . .can be described. . .in terms of parametric variation”, and – crucially for his arguments in this paper – that “parameter settings do not change across the lifespan”. To this extent he adopts the standard generative view, but he then departs from what he calls “the literature on historical linguistics” (by which he means the generative literature only) in developing the arguments leading to his major claims: that only “transmission failure” resulting from L2 acquisition can produce parametric morphosyntactic change; that any L2 learners, children or adults, may be the agents of change; that such changes “happen less frequently than is commonly assumed”; and that, “in larger and more complex societies, situations in which L2 learners exert a major influence on a language are most likely to emerge in periods of substantial demographic changes” (his example is a plague that kills most members of a speech community). Adult L2 learners...

Language Dynamics and Change, 2016

The Viking hypothesis is fatally flawed, in part because syntax is readily borrowed in intense co... more The Viking hypothesis is fatally flawed, in part because syntax is readily borrowed in intense contact situations, while inflectional morphology usually is not—and Middle English inflectional morphology is overwhelmingly of West Germanic origin. The dismissal of lexical evidence is also misguided: the vast majority of basic vocabulary items come from Old English, not from Norse.

Journal of Phonetics, 2008

Montana Salish is an Interior Salishan language spoken on the Flathead reservation in Northwest M... more Montana Salish is an Interior Salishan language spoken on the Flathead reservation in Northwest Montana by an estimated population of about 40 speakers. This paper describes the basic phonetic characteristics of the language based on data from five speakers. Montana Salish contains a number of typologically unusual consonant types. including glottalized sonorants, prestopped laterals, and a series of pharyngeals distinguished by secondary articulations of glottalization and/or labialization. The language also allows long sequences of obstruent consonants. These and more familiar phonetic characteristics are described through analysis of acoustic, electroglottographic, and aerodynamic data, and compared to related characteristics in other languages of the world.

effect on the typological profile of the receiving language. Probably the most obvious examples, ... more effect on the typological profile of the receiving language. Probably the most obvious examples, and also the ones that are easiest to find, are changes in basic sentential word order. These are especially striking because it is word order features that have attracted the most attention in the typological literature, starting with the famous 1963 article by Greenberg

A recurring theme in theoretical discussions of language contact is the question of borrowability... more A recurring theme in theoretical discussions of language contact is the question of borrowability—specifically, whether there are any substantive constraints governing the kinds of lexicon and structure that can be borrowed. Nowadays historical linguists are less likely to propose absolute constraints than they used

Language Typology and Language Universals, 2001

Introduction. It is easy to show that contact-induced change can have a profound effect on the ty... more Introduction. It is easy to show that contact-induced change can have a profound effect on the typological profile of the receiving language. Probably the most obvious examples, and also the ones that are easiest to find, are changes in basic sentential word order. These are especially striking because it is word order features that have attracted the most attention in the typological literature, starting with the famous 1963 article by Greenberg that moved typology into the mainstream of linguistic research. But word order features-or, more generally, morpheme order features-are by no means the only parts of language structure that have been transformed under the influence of other languages. Contact-induced changes have also affected the typological character of morphological, phonological, lexical semantic, and discourse systems in a wide variety of languages. This article surveys contact-induced typological changes and shows where and how different degrees of change correlate with different social conditions. After some introductory comments on the contact conditions in which typological change is likely to happen (§2) and on the problem of determining whether a given change is typologically significant or not (§3), I will discuss and exemplify immediate typological effects (§4) and delayed typological effects (§5). Finally, I will consider the question of whether or not language mixing constitutes contact-induced typological change (§6). The article ends with a brief conclusion (§7). 2. When should we expect typological change as a result of contact? The first step in discussing contact-induced typological change is to sketch the circumstances under which it is likely to occur. The crucial point-hardly an astonishing one-is that intense contact is more likely than casual contact to result in typological restructuring of the receiving language. The question of what counts as intense contact (an admittedly vague term) depends on the perspective: the expected results differ according to whether the situation is one of borrowing, where fluent speakers of the receiving language adopt features from the source language, or imperfect learning, where native speakers of the source language have learned the receiving language imperfectly and incorporate their learners' errors into their version of it. The latter type of situation usually, though not always, involves language shift; for convenience, I will refer to these as shift situations. The expected linguistic results are as different as the processes: in borrowing situations, the first interference features to turn up in the receiving language are loanwords, followed (if contact becomes intense enough) by structural features, especially in the phonology and syntax. In shift situations, by contrast, the first interference comprises phonological and syntactic features, and sometimes there are very few loanwords at any stage. Intensity of contact in a borrowing situation depends largely, though not entirely, on the level of bilingualism (number of bilinguals, degree of fluency) among borrowing-language speakers: more bilinguals, more intensity, more interference. If the level of bilingualism among borrowing-language speakers is low, then interference features are likely to be confined to loanwords and minor structural features that do not disrupt the typological patterns

Proving the existence of ancient language contacts is easy; proving the existence of ancient cont... more Proving the existence of ancient language contacts is easy; proving the existence of ancient contact-induced language change is much more difficult, by comparison to analyses of modern contact situations. This paper surveys some ancient contacts and their effects on the languages. The main conclusion is that the historical methods used for analyzing better-documented contact situations can be applied to ancient contact situations as well. But the chances for success are likely to be more limited, because gaps in the available information may make it impossible to satisfy the prerequisites for proposing contact-induced changes.

Syntactic reconstruction has not figured prominently in historical linguistic investigations, as ... more Syntactic reconstruction has not figured prominently in historical linguistic investigations, as can be surmised from the fact that the index of the recent 881-page Handbook of Historical Linguistics (Joseph & Janda 2003) lists just seven pages, all in the same article, where it is discussed. As Fox observes, ‘Syntactic reconstruction is a controversial area...scholars working within the framework of the classical Comparative Method have been far less successful in applying their methods here than in the case of phonology of even morphology’ (1995:104; see also Jeffers 1976). And in discussing this topic elsewhere, Fox does not point to any methods other than the Comparative Method that have offered promising results (1995:104-109, 190-194, 250-253, 261-270). Efforts to reconstruct syntax can be traced at least as far back as 1893-1900, when Delbrück (as cited in Lehmann 1992:32) reconstructed OV word order for Proto-Indo-European. By far the most ambitious early effort at reconstru...

Speakers of Montana Salish and Nez Perce have long been in close cultural and social contact. In ... more Speakers of Montana Salish and Nez Perce have long been in close cultural and social contact. In this paper, we investigate the effects of these contacts on the vocabularies of the two languages, Whenever possible, we broaden our focus to encompass the Southern Interior Salish (SIS) and MolallaSahaptian (Mol-Sah) families generally, building on previous work by Haruo Aoki and Bruce Rigsby. Most of the shared lexical items fall into six broad categories-inanimate nature, flora, fauna, cultural items, ethnonyms, and onomatopoetic forms-with a residue of miscellaneous items. Both nominal and verbal elements are represented. Some sets are restricted to Montana Salish-Spokane-l<.alispel and Nez Perce; others are widespread in both families and likely very old. The great majority of the loans appear to predate the palatalization of velars in Montana Salish and Coeur d'Alene, which occurred approximately 150 years ago. Structural influences between SIS and Mol-Sah are also briefly e...

Languages in Contact, 2000

Linguistic areas, or Sprachbünde, have been the topic of a very large amount of research for more... more Linguistic areas, or Sprachbünde, have been the topic of a very large amount of research for more than a century. 1 But although there are numerous valuable studies of particular linguistic areas and of particular features within certain linguistic areas, there is still little consensus on the general nature of the phenomenon. This paper is a preliminary attempt to characterize the notion 'linguistic area'. Section §1 below begins with a definition of the term and a justification of the definition. I will also state my position, with reasons, on several controversial issues in this domain, and then articulate what seem to me to be the most important historical questions about linguistic areas: How do linguistic areas arise? And how do the areal structural features originate and diffuse through the area? The section concludes with an outline of the crucial requisites for determining that contact-induced change has occurred; this outline sets the stage for the attempt, in §2, to interpret the areal features of five representative Sprachbünde historically. Section 3 is a brief conclusion. Not surprisingly, given the immense complexity and diversity one finds in the contact situations that comprise linguistic areas, no simple answers to the 'how' questions are possible; but comparing different linguistic areas at least shows what some of the many possibilities are. The most important (though not very neat) conclusion, however, is that attempts to find very general social and/or linguistic principles of convergence in a linguistic area are doomed-not only because every Sprachbund differs from every other one, but also because the conditions of contact in large Sprachbünde will inevitably vary over time and space. In other words, Sprachbund is not a uniform phenomenon linguistically, socially, or historically.

Annual Review of Linguistics, 2021

My career falls into two distinct periods. The first two decades featured insecurity combined wit... more My career falls into two distinct periods. The first two decades featured insecurity combined with the luck of wandering into situations that ultimately helped me become a better linguist and a better teacher. I had the insecurity mostly under control by the watershed year of 1988, when I published a favorably reviewed coauthored book on language contact and also became editor of Language. Language contact has occupied most of my research time since then, but my first encounter with Séliš-Ql’ispé (a.k.a. Montana Salish), in 1981, led to a 40-year dedication to finding out more about the language and its history. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 8 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Studies in African Linguistics, 1983

This paper addresses the general question of genetic vs. nongenetic language development, in the ... more This paper addresses the general question of genetic vs. nongenetic language development, in the context of a structural and historical discussion of Ma'a (Mbugu), a language with Cushitic basic vocabulary that is spoken in Tanzania. The grammatical structure of Ma'a is compared to characteristic Cushitic and Bantu structures. The conclusion that emerges from this comparison is that Ma'a probably does not have enough Cushitic grammar to qualify as a Cushitic language in the full genetic sense; and if it does not, its origin must be nongenetic. The final section of the paper seeks to determine the particular route of nongenetic development that Ma'a has followed, using the direct evidence of published comments about its speakers' history and the indirect evidence of comparison with other languages whose origin is nongenetic or, like Ma'a, on the borderline between genetic and nongenetic.

Salish of two well-defined root classes, which we will call monovalent and bivalent roots.) We pr... more Salish of two well-defined root classes, which we will call monovalent and bivalent roots.) We present arguments for identifying these as valency classes, rather than appealing to the categories 'unergative' and 'unaccusative', as several other authors have done; we also argue that, at least for this language, it is necessary to distinguish valency from transitivity. We will describe and motivate the four diagnostics that we have used to classify simple roots, and we will discuss briefly the small group of 'ambi-valent' roots for which the diagnostics do not all cluster together. 2 Finally, we will append a list of the roots whose classification we have determined so far. Our primary source for this analysis is the monumental Dictionary of the Kalispe/ or Flathead Indian Language, compiled in the middle decades of the 19th century and printed in 1877-79 at St. Ignatius Mission in Montana. The existence of this dictionary is of course well known to Salishanists, but the mat('fial in it has (as far as we know) hardly been exploited at all in linguistic analyses of Salish an languag~s. We will begin our discussion, therefore, by introducing the dictionary to readers who m~y not be familiar with its history, its scope, and the reasons why it is of considerable potential value for Salishan studies. 288 2. TilE JESUITS' DICTIONARY. The dictionary comprises two volumes-'Kalispel-English' (644 pages) and 'English-Kalispel' {456 pages)-together with a 36-page Appendix to the first volume giving verb conjugations, remarks on reduplication patterns and their functions, and a short list of verbal suffixes 'of which no specific mention is made in the Grammar' (i.e. Mengarini's grammar; see below). The date and publisher of the dictionary are given on the title page of each volume ('St. Ignatius Print, Montana. 1877-8-9'), but the authorship cannot be determined from any information in the dictionary itself. The title page carries this information: A Dictionary of Ihe /(alispel or Flat-head Indian Language, compiled by the missionaries of the Society of Jesus'. On the back of the title page is the note 'Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1879, by Rev. J. Giorda, S.J., In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington '. Since Giorda's name is the only one that appears on the dictionary, he has usually been assumed to have been the author of the entire work. For example, Vogt (1940:8) gives the full title-page information quoted above, but then says, 'Its 289 author was the Rev. J. Giorda, S.J.', and Carlson (1972:vi) refers to 'an extensive dictionary by Giorda'. As the title page indicates, however, the dictionary was not a one-man project. Moreover, the main author seems to have been Gregory Mengarini (1811-1886), not Joseph Giorda {d. 1882).

This paper explores the relationship between bilingualism and contact-induced language change, fo... more This paper explores the relationship between bilingualism and contact-induced language change, focusing on the question of which contributions might be expected from children and which from adults. The issue is reflected in debates among historical linguists as to whether internally-motivated language change is initiated by children during first-language acquisition or by adults-or by both. In language contact studies, it is possible to identify changes, usually temporary ones, that are initiated by children, and it is also possible to identify changes that are initiated by adults. The conclusion, therefore, is that both adults and children are responsible for contact-induced changes, although perhaps not for the same kinds of changes: shift-induced interference, which is due to imperfect learning of a target language by members of a speech community, is likely to be exclusively an adult phenomenon, or at least not primarily initiated by young children during first-language acquisition. I will not address in detail the question of the role of adults vs. the role of children in the initiation and spread of linguistic changes more generally, but some implications of the results from contact-induced change will be discussed in the concluding section. After laying some preliminary groundwork (§1), I will outline briefly the debate about agents of change in historical linguistics and then consider innovations introduced by children and adults in contact situations in which both child learners and adults have full effective access to the source language(s) (§2). Section 3 is devoted to innovations in contact situations that involve imperfect learning by a group, typically because of lack of full access to a target

Contact Languages, 1997

... Page 499. 486 Sarah G. Thomason References Boretzky, Norbert. 1985." Sind Zigeunersprach... more ... Page 499. 486 Sarah G. Thomason References Boretzky, Norbert. 1985." Sind Zigeunersprachen Kreols?" Akten des 1. Essener Kollo-quiums uber" Kreolsprachen und Sprachkontakte", ed. by Norbert Boretzky, Werner Enninger, and Thomas Stolz, 43-70. ...

Contact Languages, 1997

Mednyj Aleut Sarah G. Thomason University of Pittsburgh 1. Introduction Mednyj (or Copper Island)... more Mednyj Aleut Sarah G. Thomason University of Pittsburgh 1. Introduction Mednyj (or Copper Island) Aleut was spoken on Mednyj (Copper) Island, one of the two Commander Islands, which belong to Russia. ... 452 Sarah G. Thomason elsewhere in the Aleutians (ibid., pp. 70-71). ...

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1999

(The reader is referred to the previous issue of Bilingualism for the full text of the article.) ... more (The reader is referred to the previous issue of Bilingualism for the full text of the article.) The aim of the present article is, in the first place, to test hypotheses derived from the model for contact-induced language change as formulated in Thomason and Kaufman (1988 et ...

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2011

Jürgen Meisel argues that “grammatical variation. . .can be described. . .in terms of parametric ... more Jürgen Meisel argues that “grammatical variation. . .can be described. . .in terms of parametric variation”, and – crucially for his arguments in this paper – that “parameter settings do not change across the lifespan”. To this extent he adopts the standard generative view, but he then departs from what he calls “the literature on historical linguistics” (by which he means the generative literature only) in developing the arguments leading to his major claims: that only “transmission failure” resulting from L2 acquisition can produce parametric morphosyntactic change; that any L2 learners, children or adults, may be the agents of change; that such changes “happen less frequently than is commonly assumed”; and that, “in larger and more complex societies, situations in which L2 learners exert a major influence on a language are most likely to emerge in periods of substantial demographic changes” (his example is a plague that kills most members of a speech community). Adult L2 learners...

Language Dynamics and Change, 2016

The Viking hypothesis is fatally flawed, in part because syntax is readily borrowed in intense co... more The Viking hypothesis is fatally flawed, in part because syntax is readily borrowed in intense contact situations, while inflectional morphology usually is not—and Middle English inflectional morphology is overwhelmingly of West Germanic origin. The dismissal of lexical evidence is also misguided: the vast majority of basic vocabulary items come from Old English, not from Norse.

Journal of Phonetics, 2008

Montana Salish is an Interior Salishan language spoken on the Flathead reservation in Northwest M... more Montana Salish is an Interior Salishan language spoken on the Flathead reservation in Northwest Montana by an estimated population of about 40 speakers. This paper describes the basic phonetic characteristics of the language based on data from five speakers. Montana Salish contains a number of typologically unusual consonant types. including glottalized sonorants, prestopped laterals, and a series of pharyngeals distinguished by secondary articulations of glottalization and/or labialization. The language also allows long sequences of obstruent consonants. These and more familiar phonetic characteristics are described through analysis of acoustic, electroglottographic, and aerodynamic data, and compared to related characteristics in other languages of the world.

effect on the typological profile of the receiving language. Probably the most obvious examples, ... more effect on the typological profile of the receiving language. Probably the most obvious examples, and also the ones that are easiest to find, are changes in basic sentential word order. These are especially striking because it is word order features that have attracted the most attention in the typological literature, starting with the famous 1963 article by Greenberg

A recurring theme in theoretical discussions of language contact is the question of borrowability... more A recurring theme in theoretical discussions of language contact is the question of borrowability—specifically, whether there are any substantive constraints governing the kinds of lexicon and structure that can be borrowed. Nowadays historical linguists are less likely to propose absolute constraints than they used

Language Typology and Language Universals, 2001

Introduction. It is easy to show that contact-induced change can have a profound effect on the ty... more Introduction. It is easy to show that contact-induced change can have a profound effect on the typological profile of the receiving language. Probably the most obvious examples, and also the ones that are easiest to find, are changes in basic sentential word order. These are especially striking because it is word order features that have attracted the most attention in the typological literature, starting with the famous 1963 article by Greenberg that moved typology into the mainstream of linguistic research. But word order features-or, more generally, morpheme order features-are by no means the only parts of language structure that have been transformed under the influence of other languages. Contact-induced changes have also affected the typological character of morphological, phonological, lexical semantic, and discourse systems in a wide variety of languages. This article surveys contact-induced typological changes and shows where and how different degrees of change correlate with different social conditions. After some introductory comments on the contact conditions in which typological change is likely to happen (§2) and on the problem of determining whether a given change is typologically significant or not (§3), I will discuss and exemplify immediate typological effects (§4) and delayed typological effects (§5). Finally, I will consider the question of whether or not language mixing constitutes contact-induced typological change (§6). The article ends with a brief conclusion (§7). 2. When should we expect typological change as a result of contact? The first step in discussing contact-induced typological change is to sketch the circumstances under which it is likely to occur. The crucial point-hardly an astonishing one-is that intense contact is more likely than casual contact to result in typological restructuring of the receiving language. The question of what counts as intense contact (an admittedly vague term) depends on the perspective: the expected results differ according to whether the situation is one of borrowing, where fluent speakers of the receiving language adopt features from the source language, or imperfect learning, where native speakers of the source language have learned the receiving language imperfectly and incorporate their learners' errors into their version of it. The latter type of situation usually, though not always, involves language shift; for convenience, I will refer to these as shift situations. The expected linguistic results are as different as the processes: in borrowing situations, the first interference features to turn up in the receiving language are loanwords, followed (if contact becomes intense enough) by structural features, especially in the phonology and syntax. In shift situations, by contrast, the first interference comprises phonological and syntactic features, and sometimes there are very few loanwords at any stage. Intensity of contact in a borrowing situation depends largely, though not entirely, on the level of bilingualism (number of bilinguals, degree of fluency) among borrowing-language speakers: more bilinguals, more intensity, more interference. If the level of bilingualism among borrowing-language speakers is low, then interference features are likely to be confined to loanwords and minor structural features that do not disrupt the typological patterns

Proving the existence of ancient language contacts is easy; proving the existence of ancient cont... more Proving the existence of ancient language contacts is easy; proving the existence of ancient contact-induced language change is much more difficult, by comparison to analyses of modern contact situations. This paper surveys some ancient contacts and their effects on the languages. The main conclusion is that the historical methods used for analyzing better-documented contact situations can be applied to ancient contact situations as well. But the chances for success are likely to be more limited, because gaps in the available information may make it impossible to satisfy the prerequisites for proposing contact-induced changes.

Syntactic reconstruction has not figured prominently in historical linguistic investigations, as ... more Syntactic reconstruction has not figured prominently in historical linguistic investigations, as can be surmised from the fact that the index of the recent 881-page Handbook of Historical Linguistics (Joseph & Janda 2003) lists just seven pages, all in the same article, where it is discussed. As Fox observes, ‘Syntactic reconstruction is a controversial area...scholars working within the framework of the classical Comparative Method have been far less successful in applying their methods here than in the case of phonology of even morphology’ (1995:104; see also Jeffers 1976). And in discussing this topic elsewhere, Fox does not point to any methods other than the Comparative Method that have offered promising results (1995:104-109, 190-194, 250-253, 261-270). Efforts to reconstruct syntax can be traced at least as far back as 1893-1900, when Delbrück (as cited in Lehmann 1992:32) reconstructed OV word order for Proto-Indo-European. By far the most ambitious early effort at reconstru...

Speakers of Montana Salish and Nez Perce have long been in close cultural and social contact. In ... more Speakers of Montana Salish and Nez Perce have long been in close cultural and social contact. In this paper, we investigate the effects of these contacts on the vocabularies of the two languages, Whenever possible, we broaden our focus to encompass the Southern Interior Salish (SIS) and MolallaSahaptian (Mol-Sah) families generally, building on previous work by Haruo Aoki and Bruce Rigsby. Most of the shared lexical items fall into six broad categories-inanimate nature, flora, fauna, cultural items, ethnonyms, and onomatopoetic forms-with a residue of miscellaneous items. Both nominal and verbal elements are represented. Some sets are restricted to Montana Salish-Spokane-l<.alispel and Nez Perce; others are widespread in both families and likely very old. The great majority of the loans appear to predate the palatalization of velars in Montana Salish and Coeur d'Alene, which occurred approximately 150 years ago. Structural influences between SIS and Mol-Sah are also briefly e...

Languages in Contact, 2000

Linguistic areas, or Sprachbünde, have been the topic of a very large amount of research for more... more Linguistic areas, or Sprachbünde, have been the topic of a very large amount of research for more than a century. 1 But although there are numerous valuable studies of particular linguistic areas and of particular features within certain linguistic areas, there is still little consensus on the general nature of the phenomenon. This paper is a preliminary attempt to characterize the notion 'linguistic area'. Section §1 below begins with a definition of the term and a justification of the definition. I will also state my position, with reasons, on several controversial issues in this domain, and then articulate what seem to me to be the most important historical questions about linguistic areas: How do linguistic areas arise? And how do the areal structural features originate and diffuse through the area? The section concludes with an outline of the crucial requisites for determining that contact-induced change has occurred; this outline sets the stage for the attempt, in §2, to interpret the areal features of five representative Sprachbünde historically. Section 3 is a brief conclusion. Not surprisingly, given the immense complexity and diversity one finds in the contact situations that comprise linguistic areas, no simple answers to the 'how' questions are possible; but comparing different linguistic areas at least shows what some of the many possibilities are. The most important (though not very neat) conclusion, however, is that attempts to find very general social and/or linguistic principles of convergence in a linguistic area are doomed-not only because every Sprachbund differs from every other one, but also because the conditions of contact in large Sprachbünde will inevitably vary over time and space. In other words, Sprachbund is not a uniform phenomenon linguistically, socially, or historically.

Annual Review of Linguistics, 2021

My career falls into two distinct periods. The first two decades featured insecurity combined wit... more My career falls into two distinct periods. The first two decades featured insecurity combined with the luck of wandering into situations that ultimately helped me become a better linguist and a better teacher. I had the insecurity mostly under control by the watershed year of 1988, when I published a favorably reviewed coauthored book on language contact and also became editor of Language. Language contact has occupied most of my research time since then, but my first encounter with Séliš-Ql’ispé (a.k.a. Montana Salish), in 1981, led to a 40-year dedication to finding out more about the language and its history. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 8 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Studies in African Linguistics, 1983

This paper addresses the general question of genetic vs. nongenetic language development, in the ... more This paper addresses the general question of genetic vs. nongenetic language development, in the context of a structural and historical discussion of Ma'a (Mbugu), a language with Cushitic basic vocabulary that is spoken in Tanzania. The grammatical structure of Ma'a is compared to characteristic Cushitic and Bantu structures. The conclusion that emerges from this comparison is that Ma'a probably does not have enough Cushitic grammar to qualify as a Cushitic language in the full genetic sense; and if it does not, its origin must be nongenetic. The final section of the paper seeks to determine the particular route of nongenetic development that Ma'a has followed, using the direct evidence of published comments about its speakers' history and the indirect evidence of comparison with other languages whose origin is nongenetic or, like Ma'a, on the borderline between genetic and nongenetic.