They just fade away

Language death and the loss of phonological variation

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7901649
AutoresRobin Sabino (0000-0002-4027-2743, Auburn University, autor correspondente)
Ano1994
Volume23
Fascículo4
Páginas495-526
Data de publicação1994-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLanguage in Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047404500018170
OpenAlexW2124474248
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas31

Using data from four sets of alternating forms in a moribund Dutch-lexicon creole, this article addresses the characteristics of variation in moribund languages, and “the usefulness of variationist approaches in the description and analysis” of them (Drechsel 1990:552–53). The analysis shows how variable phonological rules continue to exist in a dying language, even after large numbers of words have been bled from the rules' inputs, thereby providing support for Dressler's hypothesis of lexical fading (1972). A three-stage scenario of rule loss is proposed to account for the fact that, in the Negerhollands case, there is substantially greater phonological variation at the level of the community than at the level of the individual. (Obsolescence, phonological variation, phonological change, creole languages, Virgin Islands, Negerhollands

Creole language · Lexicon · Linguistics · Obsolescence · Phonological rule · Phonology · Variable (mathematics) · Variation (astronomy) · Computer Science · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Mathematics · Philosophy · Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation