'Reversed change' dialect borrowing

[Patrick McConvell]

I am looking at the effects of  ‘Reversed change’ dialect borrowing in some Australian Indigenous languages. This term refers to cases where conservative forms are borrowed into a dialect or language apparently ‘reversing’ a sound change. This has been described mainly for situations where the donor language is a ‘prestige’ or ‘standard’ dialect and the historical facts are relatively well known (eg in Europe). Neither of these circumstances obtain in Indigenous Australia, so I am looking for work on this which is more directly similar to the Australian situation. In that situation it is quite difficult in some cases to distinguish ‘reversed change’ borrowing from wave-like variation and change which has not  become categorical. So I am also looking for other studies which address this question and its implications for comparative/historical linguistics.

Patrick McConvell
Research Fellow, Language & Society
AIATSIS, Canberra
patrick.mcconvell at aiatsis.gov.au
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