Table Of ContentStability and Divergence in Language Contact
Studies in Language Variation
The series aims to include empirical studies of linguistic variation as well as its description,
explanation and interpretation in structural, social and cognitive terms. The series will
cover any relevant subdiscipline: sociolinguistics, contact linguistics, dialectology, historical
linguistics, anthropology/anthropological linguistics. The emphasis will be on linguistic
aspects and on the interaction between linguistic and extralinguistic aspects — not on
extralinguistic aspects (including language ideology, policy etc.) as such.
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Editors
Peter Auer Frans Hinskens Paul Kerswill
Universität Freiburg Meertens Instituut & University of York
Vrije Universiteit,
Amsterdam
Editorial Board
Jannis K. Androutsopoulos Peter Gilles K. K. Luke
University of Hamburg University of Luxembourg The University of Hong Kong
Arto Anttila Barbara Horvath Rajend Mesthrie
Stanford University University of Sydney University of Cape Town
Gaetano Berruto Brian Joseph Pieter Muysken
Università di Torino The Ohio State University Radboud University Nijmegen
Paul Boersma Johannes Kabatek Marc van Oostendorp
University of Amsterdam Eberhard Karls Universität Meertens Institute & Leiden
Tübingen University
Jenny Cheshire
University of London Juhani Klemola Sali Tagliamonte
University of Tampere University of Toronto
Gerard Docherty
Newcastle University Miklós Kontra Johan Taeldeman
University of Szeged University of Gent
Penny Eckert
Stanford University Bernard Laks Øystein Vangsnes
CNRS-Université Paris X University of Tromsø
William Foley
Nanterre
University of Sydney Juan Villena Ponsoda
Maria-Rosa Lloret Universidad de Málaga
Universitat de Barcelona
Volume 16
Stability and Divergence in Language Contact. Factors and Mechanisms
Edited by Kurt Braunmüller, Steffen Höder and Karoline Kühl
Stability and Divergence
in Language Contact
Factors and Mechanisms
Edited by
Kurt Braunmüller
University of Hamburg
Steffen Höder
University of Kiel
Karoline Kühl
University of Copenhagen
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stability and Divergence in Language Contact : Factors and Mechanisms / Edited by Kurt
Braunmüller, Steffen Höder and Karoline Kühl.
p. cm. (Studies in Language Variation, issn 1872-9592 ; v. 16)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Languages in contact. 2. Linguistic change. 3. Bilingualism. 4. Intercultural
communication. I. Braunmüller, Kurt, 1948- editor. II. Höder, Steffen, editor.
III. Kühl, Karoline editor.
P130.5.S69 2014
306.44--dc23 2014023536
isbn 978 90 272 3496 4 (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 6955 3 (Eb)
© 2014 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
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Table of contents
Introduction 1
Kurt Braunmüller
Part I. Theoretical aspects
Linguistic stability and divergence: An extended perspective
on language contact 13
Karoline Kühl and Kurt Braunmüller
Convergence vs. divergence from a diasystematic perspective 39
Steffen Höder
Part II. Empirical studies
Stability and convergence in case marking: Low and High German 63
Kristian Berg
Towards a typological classification of Judeo-Spanish:
Analyzing syntax and prosody of Bulgarian judezmo 77
Susann Fischer, Christoph Gabriel and Elena Kireva
Despite or because of intensive contact? Internal, external
and extralinguistic aspects of divergence in modern dialects
and ethnolects of Dutch 109
Frans Hinskens
Stability in Chinese and Malay heritage languages
as a source of divergence 141
Suzanne Aalberse and Francesca Moro
Does convergence generate stability? The case of the Cypriot Greek koiné 163
Stavroula Tsiplakou
Gender and noun inflection: The fate of ‘vulnerable’ categories
in Northern Norwegian 179
Hilde Sollid, Philipp Conzett and Åse Mette Johansen
vi Stability and Divergence in Language Contact
Dialect stability and divergence in southern Spain:
Social and personal motivations 207
Juan A. Villena-Ponsoda and Antonio M. Ávila-Muñoz
The Bergen dialect splits in two 239
Helge Sandøy, Ragnhild Lie Anderson and Maria-Rosa Doublet
Diachronic convergence and divergence in differential
object marking between Spanish and Portuguese 265
Hans-Jörg Döhla
Person index 291
Subject index 295
Introduction
Kurt Braunmüller
The purpose of this volume is to highlight certain types of language contact pro-
cesses that have often been overlooked or widely neglected, namely that languages
or dialects that are in contact do not converge, i.e. that they either remain stable
or diverge from each other. This focus is the opposite of the general focus on con-
vergence, which is often assumed to be the default development in multilingual
and contact settings.
The idea for this publication dates back to a symposium that took place in
Hamburg at Warburg House in November 2011. Most of the contributions in this
volume were presented for the first time at that symposium, but have since been
thoroughly revised, and in some cases completely rewritten, or at least expanded
considerably for this volume.1 It goes without saying that these contributions can-
not yet give ultimate answers concerning the roles of stability and divergence,
both as processes and as results, in language contact situations. Many of the issues
raised here must be considered to be quite new or, rather, have not been part of
the focus of the manifold discussions concerning language change, language con-
tact and (individual or societal) multilingualism. But they are first of all, in some
cases, even bigger steps forward towards a better and deeper understanding of the
processes and consequences of language contact.
The editors felt that it makes sense to divide the present volume into two
parts: one on theoretical issues; and the other on empirical answers to the factors
providing stability and/or convergence, as well as the conditions that are especially
favourable for linguistic divergence.
We are grateful to the series editors for having warmly welcomed this contri-
bution without hesitation, and we hope that this volume can serve as an impetus
and inspiration for further research in these fields.
In the following, detailed summaries of the subsequent contributions are
presented. We consider it important to describe the main advances of the papers
1. Four papers come from colleagues that joined this venturing project much later (Döhla;
Villena-Ponsoda & Ávila-Muñoz; Sandøy, Anderson & Doublet, and Tsiplakou).
2 Kurt Braunmüller
presented here rather extensively, in order to achieve a better survey of the
advances made from the very beginning. After reading these summaries, the
reader will be able to begin with the subjects in which he or she is most inter-
ested or is familiar with.
Part I: Theoretical aspects
Kühl and Braunmüller outline the conditions for linguistic stability and divergence
in language contact situations by reviewing the factors and mechanisms that are
relevant for both language change and stability. The basic assumption underlying
this approach is that multilingual speakers are the ultimate source of all outcomes
of contact between languages. Multilingualism, including the cognitive processes
of multilingual language processing, are crucial for the types of development that
may occur. Nevertheless, Kühl and Braunmüller mention language-internal (i.e.
linguistic characteristics), language-external (i.e. contact) and extra-linguistic (i.e.
political and economic factors, prestige and attitudes) factors and mechanisms as
dimensions that shape the contact setting and thereby set the stage for multilingual
speakers’ linguistic behaviour. Standardisation and stability go hand in hand, where
the standard language plays the role of a so-called roofing language that covers not
only regional or social varieties, but also styles and registers. Furthermore, Kühl
and Braunmüller elaborate on scenarios of linguistic stability and divergence, based
on examples taken from European languages (yet with special emphasis on the
Germanic languages), referring to factors and mechanisms that influence the contact
situation. Based on these scenarios, they finally propose a classification of types of
development with regard to stability and divergence: (A) contact-induced stability;
(B) stability despite contact; (C) contact-induced divergence; and (D) divergence
despite contact. Most of these types of development are covered by the empirical
studies presented in the second part of the volume.
Höder gives both a theoretical and data-based survey of some issues related
to convergence and divergence, with special emphasis on a diasystematic perspec-
tive. His data comes from present-day varieties of Low German, contrasted with
the standard German language spoken in the northernmost parts of Germany.
His main thesis is that the distinction between convergence and divergence is
neither polar nor clear-cut; both developments may be intertwined in very specific
ways. Moreover, prodiasystematic changes facilitate language-unspecific struc-
tures in a common system located in the brain of bi-/multilingual speakers. Höder
also proposes a list of factors that are relevant for diachronic developments with
respect to stability and change. Form and function, which are part of this list,
Introduction 3
are later considered in more detail when analysing some frequent (phonological
and lexical) developments in the alternating use of Standard and Low German.
Prodiasystematic changes result, among other things, in an overall reduction of
interlingual idiosyncrasies and give way to interlingual (simplifying) ‘short-cuts’
within the systems of bi-/multilingual speakers. Counter-diasystematic changes
lead, in contrast, to an increase in idiosyncrasies and a decrease in common struc-
tures within the brains of bi-/multilinguals. In the empirical part of his contribu-
tion, Höder shows how, for example, interlingually incongruent lexical concepts
may disappear, or how terms with no counterparts in the other language, Low
German, may become highlighted as hyperdialectisms in order to emphasise the
idiomatically correct use of the other variety mastered by the speaker in question.
Part II: Empirical studies
Stability and/or divergence vs. convergence
Berg discusses the intense relationship between Standard/High German, as spo-
ken in Northern Germany, and two Low German varieties (as spoken in Emstek
[Northern Lower Saxony] and Bad Laer [Westphalia]), as far as the use of the
definite article is concerned. The general and undisputed drift to be observed is
that Low German is losing most of its native speakers, converges more and more
with the standard (written) language and integrates many (morphological and
syntactic) features of the roofing language, High German. But there also seem to
be exceptions, as instances of stability. As is well-known, Low German no longer
makes any distinction between the dative and accusative cases (the genitive no
longer exists either). Moreover, in virtually all instances the case markers also
coincide with the nominative case, both in the singular and the plural. On the basis
of a recently collected corpus of spoken Low German (with 16 older proficient
speakers), Berg succeeds in showing that the traditional oblique [viz. formally the
accusative] forms still occur, also after prepositions that would be governed by the
dative in Standard German. But if they become cliticised, new forms emerge that
show traces of dative inflection, directly parallel to and code-copied from the roof-
ing standard language. In some dialects (in Emstek), dative case marking (dem vs.
den acc. masc. sing. ‘the’) is still alive. Berg’s data clearly shows, on the one hand,
also in comparison with data from an older corpus recorded in the 1950s, that the
traditional oblique case marking still exists in Low German varieties, keeping up at
least some overt diverging features between Low and High German. On the other
hand, he can also show that the easiest way to reduce the distances between the
