Language Contact

What happens when languages collide?

Students in Cynthia Hansen’s Language Contact special topics course examine the linguistic varieties and practices that emerge when linguistically diverse groups come in contact with one another. 

In the course, students explore the types of situations that give rise to language contact, and then look at the linguistic effects that result from such contact at both the micro (e.g. borrowing, code-switching) and the macro (e.g. language shift, language death) level.