Globalisation, language contact and historical change: a case of Slavic languages and beyond

• In recent years, contact-induced language changes have been hotly discussed (e.g. Heine 2003; Heine and Kuteva 2005), and in this paper, a similar line of argument is presented concerning the Slavic languages, and a similar developmental path is applied to minority languages. Based on analogy, future state of minority languages is predicted. Some languages in the Indo-European family are known to have preserved archaic structures, e.g. Celtic, Baltic and Slavic. What is common among them is that the areas where these languages are spoken did not go through some cultural changes such as Renaissance or the age of enlightenment. These cultural movements allowed people in Europe to have more contact among people which forced the changes in the languages they speak. Similar changes can be found elsewhere in the world, such as in Japan, where the opening of the market in the 18th century accelerated changes in the language. Following this line of argument, what would be the fate of minority languages in the ever growing globalisation? It seems quite plausible to argue that some of these languages are bound to change due to the exposure to neighboring different languages an inevitable language contact. However, those isolated languages can maintain the current structure, as in the case of Celtic, Baltic and Slavic languages. Therefore, the language contact can have a significant impact on the future of minority languages.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature (hsv//eng)

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kon (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)