East-West contacts in Monsoon Asia

Abstract

Why do groups of speakers in certain times and places come up with new varieties of languages? What are the social settings that determine whether a mixed language, a pidgin or a Creole will develop, and how do we understand the ways in which different languages contribute to the grammar? Through the study of a number of East-East and East-West contact cases in pre- and colonial Monsoon Asia, in this seminar I explore the social and structural dynamics that underlie the fascinating phenomenon of language creation. I emphasize the importance and interplay of historical documentation, socio-cultural observation and linguistic analysis in the study of contact languages, and put forward an evolutionary framework for the study of language change. In this framework, language creation is presented as the outcome of the emergence of new cultural identities in multilingual ecologies. This is illustrated through cases studies of diaspora and hybrid ethnic groups in South and Southeast Asia. (Abstract by the Seminar Organiser)