Course Title：语言接触与接触语言

Language contact and contact languages This class will examine the social and linguistic consequences of different languages coming in contact with one another. Besides creating personal and/or societal bilingualism, language shift, and language death, often entirely new contact languages develop. While some of these languages die out, others become spoken by large populations, have become national languages, and are taught at BFSU as major or elective languages. This class will focus on understanding the process of new contact language development, their intercultural (and often exploitative colonial) historical backgrounds, and the social role these languages play in the modern world. Beginning with the concept of languages of greater and lesser socio-political power in language contact situations, we will examine patterns of individual and community bilingualism in multilingual societies. We will then look at new language varieties arising from the sudden and often catastrophic colonial contacts between people speaking different languages that have resulted in the rise of mixed languages, pidgin languages, and creole languages. The examination of theoretical linguistic concepts will be integrated into an examination of a number of mixed, pidgin, and creole languages from different parts of the world. Each day we will examine particular aspects in the genesis, development, and lifecycle of contact language varieties, using case studies of three or more different contact languages. Typical linguistic characteristics of the various kinds of contact languages will be analysed, together with differences in the social acceptance or rejection of mixed languages, pidgin languages, and creole languages. The class will be conducted in English. Daily readings will be set, which students are expected to complete before each class. Assessment will be based on active attendance and participation, a final test, and a short report summarising readings that will be set individually.