Lutz Marten:  Language Contact - Centre and Periphery
Channel: Andrew Harvey - Linguist
Date: 2019-08-05

Note: This talk has not gone through a process of peer review, and findings should therefore be treated as preliminary and subject to change.

How to cite: Marten, Lutz. 2019. Language contact: centre and periphery. Talk given at Workshop on Bantu in contact with non-Bantu, ILCAA, TUFS. 28/07/2019.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3334511

Abstract: This talk explores the concepts of centripetal and centrifugal convergence in Bantu, whereby language contact in the centre of the Bantu-speaking area leads to increased similarity of the Bantu languages involved, but language contact at the periphery leads to decreased similarity with other Bantu languages (although to increased similarity with the non-Bantu languages involved). To test this hypothesis I will use both qualitative and quantitative evidence, the latter drawing mainly on the Bantu Microvariation Variation database (Marten et al. 2018). The results will raise questions about the nature of language change and language contact, about the classification of Bantu languages, and about the relation between lexicon and grammar.

For more, visit Lutz Marten's site at: https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff31388.php