25.1723, Review: General Linguistics; Sociolinguistics: Hickey (ed.) (2012)

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Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 16:27:14
From: Olivia Sammons [sammons at ualberta.ca]
Subject: The Handbook of Language Contact

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-356.html

EDITOR: Raymond  Hickey
TITLE: The Handbook of Language Contact
PUBLISHER: Wiley-Blackwell
YEAR: 2012

REVIEWER: Olivia Sammons, University of Alberta

SUMMARY

The Handbook of Language Contact provides an overview of central topics in
contact linguistics, and represents a substantial contribution to the growing
body of research in language contact studies. The 863-page volume consists of
40 chapters from 42 contributors, and is divided into four major sections. The
first three sections are more theoretical in orientation, while the fourth
presents case studies of language contact worldwide. Part I, preceded by a
table of contents, author biographies, preface, and introduction, includes
chapters situating language contact within the larger field of linguistics.
Part II includes chapters focusing on the relationship between contact and
language change, while Part III discusses interactions between language
contact and society. As mentioned, Part IV presents case studies of contact
phenomena, followed by author and subject indices. It should be noted that
this review is of the paperback edition of a volume previously published in
hardcover in 2010.

In his introduction, ‘Language Contact: Reconsideration and Reassessment’,
editor Raymond Hickey provides an overview of the development of language
contact studies over time, highlighting important milestones and identifying
major streams of research.

In Chapter 1, ‘Contact Explanations in Linguistics’, Sarah Thomason discusses
the role of language contact in language change, arguing that both internal
and external motivations are possible. After a brief introduction, she defines
key terms and introduces common questions within contact studies. She also
discusses criteria used to determine changes prompted by contact, surveys
various explanations for both internally and externally motivated change, and
discusses social and linguistic predictors of both.

Chapter 2 examines ‘Genetic Classification and Language Contact’. Michael
Noonan begins by providing background on the genetic classification of
languages, identifying three main approaches used in the past (generational
transmission, essentialist, and hybrid approaches). He goes on to describe
various models of language families and their degree of compatibility with a
number of approaches to genetic classification. He also discusses ways in
which outcomes of language contact may be taken into account within the three
models of classification. Specifically, he examines the effects of borrowing,
substratic influence, and koineization on genetic classification, and how
creoles and mixed languages might fit into these approaches. He ends with a
brief discussion on speciation and language contact.

In Chapter 3, ‘Contact, Convergence, and Typology’, Yaron Matras describes the
effects of language contact in the areas of convergence (pattern replication),
borrowing (matter replication), and typological change. Topics covered include
contact-induced grammaticalization, factors in constructing a model of
language convergence, ways in which convergence can effect change in the
typological profile of languages in contact, and borrowing.

In Chapter 4, ‘Contact and Grammaticalization’, Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva
suggest that language contact and grammaticalization can work together to
effect language change, despite previous claims to the contrary. They provide
a number of examples in which grammaticalization has taken place as a result
of contact, while also detailing the complexities of such processes. They also
discuss grammaticalization areas, how contact-induced grammaticalization can
bring about a change in the typological profile of a language, and potential
constraints on contact-induced grammaticalization.

Chapter 5 is entitled ‘Language Contact and Grammatical Theory’. In the past,
grammatical theory has often overlooked contact varieties. However, here Karen
P. Corrigan uses a generative framework to argue that these languages are
worthy of study and integration into current models of linguistic theory. She
presents two case studies in which a generative model is applied to account
for contact-induced morphosyntactic change. The first study discusses the
pro-drop/null subject parameter in Early Modern Irish English, and the second
involves wh-movement and preposition stranding in two types of Prince Edward
Island French.

In Chapter 6, ‘Computational Models and Language Contact’, April McMahon
discusses how quantitative and computational methods can be applied to develop
language classification models reflecting the effects of language contact.
This is a promising line of research, since previous models have often failed
to account for contact effects in the reconstruction of protolanguages.
McMahon summarizes a number of attempts at language classification and
identifies directions for future research and areas for further refinement of
these models.

In Chapter 7, Raymond Hickey addresses ‘Contact and Language Shift’, with a
particular focus on the shift from Irish to English in Ireland from the
seventeenth century onward. He discusses historical circumstances leading to
the decline of the Irish language, highlighting the difficulty of identifying
the source of contact phenomena when they are represented in more than one
language in a given contact situation. He also describes cases of
contact-induced shift in Irish English, and discusses ways in which English
has influenced the Irish language as it is spoken today.

Chapter 8 discusses ‘Contact and Borrowing’. In this chapter, Donald Winford
emphasizes the idea that borrowing should be viewed as a process rather than a
product or result. He discusses the classification of lexical borrowing, ways
in which borrowed items are integrated into the recipient language, and social
and linguistic constraints on this process. He also reevaluates contact
phenomena such as code-switching, relexification, and the creation of mixed
languages, interpreting them as borrowing outcomes.

Chapter 9 discusses ‘Contact and Code-Switching’, a common phenomenon in
language contact situations. Penelope Gardner-Chloros discusses connections
between code-switching, language shift, and language change. In particular,
she discusses criteria used to distinguish borrowing from code-switching, and
examines a number of code-switching strategies and their functions.

In Chapter 10, David Britain examines ‘Contact and Dialectology’. Until
recently, much research in this field has focused primarily on the speech of
non-mobile individuals, leaving the effects of mobility and dialect contact
largely unexplored. Britain promotes a view of linguistic accommodation
through everyday, routine interactions as a type of dialect contact which can
ultimately lead to changes in speech. He discusses diffusion, the role of
mobility in dialect contact, and the formation of dialect boundaries. He also
provides examples of situations where contact has not led to convergence
between dialects, as expected, but in which speakers maintain their own
dialect features as markers of local identity. Finally, he presents a case
study of The Fens, an area of eastern England in which a number of contact
outcomes (e.g., leveling, reallocation, hybridity) are exemplified.

In Chapter 11, ‘Contact and New Varieties’, Paul Kerswill discusses
new-dialect formation as a result of contact. He describes a model of stages
of new-dialect formation in light of two case studies (South African Bhojpuri
and New Zealand English), arguing that social factors must be considered when
constructing such models. He also describes new-dialect formation in so-called
'new towns’, proposes “principles of koineization”, and discusses the
connection between new-dialect formation and migration.

In Chapter 12, ‘Contact and Change: Pidgins and Creoles’, John Holm describes
the development of new pidgin and creole varieties as a result of language
contact. He provides examples of both pidgins and creoles and describes their
basic features, highlighting key differences between the two. He also
discusses the development of semi-creoles through partial restructuring, and
situates creole studies within the larger field of contact linguistics.

Chapter 13, ‘Scenarios for Language Contact’, presents a scenario approach to
explanations of contact-induced language change. Pieter Muysken begins by
describing the role of the historical-comparative method in the development of
language contact studies. He then presents differences between
historical-linguistic and contact-based explanations of contact-induced
change, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between levels of
aggregation and time depth in identifying possible constraints on language
contact scenarios. He also surveys and classifies various language contact
situations based on a set of core characteristics, underscoring the idea that
“multilingual speakers do not operate in a sociolinguistic vacuum” (278).

In Chapter 14, ‘Ethnic Identity and Linguistic Contact’, Carmen Fought
examines language contact across ethnic boundaries. Drawing on sociolinguistic
literature, she discusses the linguistic effects of interethnic contact,
showing that varying degrees of convergence are possible. She also discusses
the role of identity in determining influence between majority and minority
ethnic varieties in contact, the influence of minority ethnic varieties on
each other, and the role of sociocultural factors in shaping linguistic
outcomes.

In Chapter 15, ‘Contact and Sociolinguistic Typology’, Peter Trudgill provides
examples of languages which have undergone additive changes as a result of
contact, becoming more morphologically and phonologically complex. Conversely,
he discusses instances in which contact has led to simplification, outlining
three major types of contact-induced simplification. He maintains that both
complexification and simplification are possible outcomes of contact, and
recommends consideration of the societal factors linked to each.

Chapter 16 is entitled ‘Contact and Language Death’. Suzanne Romaine begins by
discussing possible causes of language death, chief among which are intense
contact situations involving asymmetrical bilingualism. She then describes
conditions and consequences of both sudden and gradual language death, and
difficulties in drawing a clear distinction between the two. She goes on to
describe processes of attrition often found in languages in decline,
highlighting features which are especially susceptible to change. Also
discussed are cases in which linguistic features are retained rather than
lost, or even transferred to the more dominant language, reinforcing the
notion that outcomes of language contact are often unpredictable.

In Chapter 17, Claire Bowern addresses the topic of ‘Fieldwork in Contact
Situations’. She begins by defining language contact and outlining various
types of contact scenarios in which fieldworkers may find themselves. This is
followed by a description of phenomena that can be studied in such scenarios,
as well as linguistic and paralinguistic effects of language contact on the
field situation. She ends with a discussion of useful field techniques,
including ethnographic methods, direct methods of questioning, and metadata
and annotation.

In Chapter 18, ‘Macrofamilies, Macroareas, and Contact’, Johanna Nichols
distinguishes between the roles of areality and descent in shaping proposed
macrofamilies. She surveys and examines evidence for these groupings
throughout the world, including Africa, Eurasia, New Guinea, Australia, North
America, and South America.

In Chapter 19, ‘Contact and Prehistory: The Indo-European Northwest’ Theo
Vennemann discusses contact influences on northwestern Indo-European during
prehistoric times. In particular, he examines possible substrate influences
from Basque and related languages in the areas of vigesimality, use of two
copulas, and initial-syllable accent. He also stresses the importance of
investigating possible substrate influences and incorporating these findings
into historical explanations of Indo-European.

In Chapter 20, ‘Contact and the History of Germanic Languages’, Paul Roberge
surveys various contact hypotheses for Germanic. He outlines potential sources
of regional linguistic correspondences in prehistoric Indo-European and
discusses possible contact influences on Germanic after the dissolution of
Proto-Germanic into northern, eastern, and western groups. He also examines
linguistic effects of the migration of Germanic-speaking peoples, including
language shift, death, and spread. Finally, he discusses the development of
hybridized forms of German used for communication between ethnic groups.

In Chapter 21, ‘Contact and the Early History of English’, Markku Filppula
describes the effects of language contact on the development of English during
the medieval period. He begins by outlining major contact influences on
medieval English, including British Celtic, Scandinavian languages, French,
and varieties of Latin. He then describes three syntactic features for which
external linguistic contact likely influenced the development of early
English: the progressive, the it-cleft construction, and certain relative
clause structures. For each feature, he surveys major works and summarizes
views in the literature regarding possible contact influences.

In Chapter 22, ‘Contact and the Development of American English’, Joseph C.
Salmons and Thomas C. Purnell emphasize the importance of recognizing
interaction between both internal and external factors in effecting language
change. They identify three areas of language contact theory which can be used
to explain selected developments in American English (i.e., imposition,
koineization, and timing) and present three American English varieties whose
development has been influenced by bilingualism. The chapter ends with a case
study illustrating the influence that immigrant languages have had on the
emergence of regional varieties of English spoken in the Upper Midwest.

Chapter 23 discusses ‘Contact Englishes and Creoles in the Caribbean’, an area
with an exceptionally complex history. Edgar W. Schneider begins by providing
a historical overview of settlement in the area and identifying social and
historical factors contributing to the current linguistic situation. He then
discusses conditions for creolization and provides a summary of major
questions and theories addressed in creole studies. An overview of features
characteristic of most creoles is also presented, followed by an argument for
a “cline of creoleness”. Schneider concludes by stressing the need for
additional research to be carried out on lesser-studied contact varieties of
the Caribbean.

Chapter 24 is on ‘Contact and Asian Varieties of English’, with a particular
focus on Singlish, a restructured variety of English spoken in Singapore.
Umberto Ansaldo describes the dynamics of language contact between English and
other linguistic varieties in Southeast Asia from an evolutionary perspective,
followed by an overview of selected grammatical features of Singlish that have
been influenced by language contact. In each of these cases, these features
can be seen as the result of substrate influence rather than simplification.
Ansaldo concludes by stressing the importance of studying Asian English
varieties (AEVs) within their individual ecological context rather than making
generalizations across multiple varieties.

In Chapter 25, ‘Contact and African Englishes’, Rajend Mesthrie discusses the
effects of language contact on English spoken in Africa. He presents possible
explanations for several phonological and syntactic features, including vowel
systems, resumptive pronouns, left dislocation, lack of distinction between
stative and habitual ‘be + -ing’, and conflation of pronoun gender. In
addition to substrate influence, the source of these features may be found in
L2 processing universals and superstrate influence. Finally, Mesthrie
introduces anti-deletion as a means of understanding the effects of contact on
sub-Saharan English, a notion which could possibly be extended to characterize
other New Englishes as well.

Chapter 26 is dedicated to ‘Contact and the Celtic Languages’. Joseph F. Eska
addresses early potential contact influences on Celtic languages, both in
continental Europe and the British Isles, followed by an examination of the
possible role of an Afro-Asiatic substratum as a source of many of their less
common features. He presents several lines of evidence against this
possibility before concluding that it is often difficult to tease apart
internal and external factors in language contact situations, and that the
source of these features in Insular Celtic is likely some combination of both.

In Chapter 27, John M. Lipski treats ‘Spanish and Portuguese in Contact’. The
chapter is divided into two major sections, the first describing
contact-induced effects on Spanish and the second focusing on Portuguese.
Lipski begins by providing a brief introduction to current Spanish language
contact scenarios. He then details four examples of contact-induced effects on
several varieties of Spanish. In the Portuguese portion of the chapter, Lipski
provides a brief description of contact scenarios, followed by a description
of the interaction between Spanish and Portuguese in two contact situations on
the Brazilian border, one involving Uruguayan Portuguese and another involving
Spanish spoken in two Bolivian-Brazilian border towns.

Chapter 28 is on ‘Contact and the Development of the Slavic Languages’. After
a brief introduction, Lenore A. Grenoble describes prehistoric contact
influences on Slavic languages, with a particular focus on lexical borrowings
from Iranian and Germanic. She then presents evidence for contact between
Finno-Ugric and Russian, followed by a description of major influences on
Slavic in early history. She goes on to describe the effects of contact
between Slavic and languages of western Europe in more detail, the influence
of Slavic languages on each other, and a number of possible mixed language
varieties that have arisen as a result of the latter.

In Chapter 29, Johanna Laakso addresses ‘Contact and the Finno-Ugric
Languages’. She begins by describing the six main branches of the Finno-Ugric
family, followed by an overview of some of the more common types of contact
scenarios for these languages. The following discussion centers around issues
regarding the impact of language contact on Finno-Ugric that have been of some
debate. Concerning internal versus external explanations for a number of
Finnish etymologies, Laakso proposes multiple causation, while also noting the
difficulty of conducting such research within a language contact framework.

Chapter 30 examines ‘Language Contact in the Balkans’. Brian D. Joseph lists
common features of languages in this region, together with the languages in
which each of these features is found. He discusses several difficulties
associated with determining specific causes of contact-induced convergence,
arguing that the examination of degree, duration, and direction of
multilingualism is key to developing a more accurate understanding of contact
effects. He illustrates this point by providing examples of common
discourse-related borrowings shared by many Balkan languages. He also proposes
an alternative means of characterizing a Sprachbund within the Balkan context,
and stresses the importance of focusing on local dialects when studying the
effects of language contact within larger geographic areas.

Chapter 31, by Kees Versteegh, addresses ‘Contact and the Development of
Arabic’. Versteegh discusses substratal influence on the development of Arabic
through contact with indigenous populations, cases in which Arabic has been
influenced by superimposed languages, and influences on Arabic in areas where
it is a minority language. He also briefly discusses the effect of Arabic on
superimposed languages through contact, the influence that Arabic has had on
minority languages in contact situations, and the influence that Arabic has
exerted on other languages as a superimposed language.

Chapter 32 describes ‘Turkic Language Contacts’, a particularly rich area for
contact studies due to the high mobility of Turkic-speaking groups in the
past. Lars Johanson discusses the dynamics of Turkic language contact, as well
as social and structural factors that have led to contact-induced changes. He
then outlines major contact areas for Turkic languages, providing examples of
contact-induced changes for each. Johanson concludes with a brief discussion
of contact-induced changes in the areas of morphology and syntax, which
sometimes result in significant restructuring.

Chapter 33 focuses on ‘Contact and North American Languages’, particularly in
regard to the widespread transfer of morphological features among genetically
unrelated languages. Marianne Mithun stresses the importance of structural
comparison in related languages across geographical regions as a means of
distinguishing contact-induced changes from other phenomena. She also
illustrates how aspects of core argument structure can change and how abstract
grammatical features can be transferred among unrelated languages through
contact.

In Chapter 34, ‘Language Contact in Africa: A Selected Review’, G. Tucker
Childs describes causes and effects of language contact in Africa. He
discusses contact between Atlantic and Mande linguistic groups which has
resulted both in structural changes and severe endangerment of the Atlantic
languages. He also discusses the development of restructured varieties in
Africa that have arisen through contact, with a particular focus on pidgins
and creoles spoken in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and South Africa. He then turns
to the creation of new, urban varieties in Africa as a result of contact, and
stresses the need for more sociohistorical documentation in understanding the
dynamics of language contact on the continent.

In Chapter 35, ‘Contact and Siberian Languages’, Brigitte Pakendorf discusses
a number of contact phenomena among languages in Siberia. These include
lexical and structural effects of Russian on indigenous languages of Siberia,
and the development of new varieties. She also uses several examples from
Evenki, a Tungusic language, to illustrate how indigenous languages in the
region can influence one another through contact.

Chapter 36 concerns ‘Language Contact in South Asia’. Harold F. Schiffman
presents an overview of shared features among unrelated South Asian languages
as evidence for contact influence, followed by a brief outline of key studies
in the field. He also discusses major issues regarding pidgins and creoles in
South Asian contact studies, such as the role of language universals, the
possibility of relexification among contact varieties, and an overall lack of
attention devoted to contact varieties with non-European superstrates.
Schiffman also touches on other areas of pidgin/creole research, plus a number
of issues related to grammaticalization in South Asian languages.

In Chapter 37, Stephen Matthews addresses ‘Language Contact and Chinese’. He
describes historical influences on the development of Chinese, typological
aspects of Chinese that have been influenced through contact, and influences
that Mandarin has had on other Chinese dialects. Other topics covered include
the role of Chinese as a substrate in the formation of new contact varieties,
the influence of Chinese on other East Asian languages, code-mixing among
Cantonese-English bilinguals, and English borrowings from Chinese.

Chapter 38 discusses ‘Contact and Indigenous Languages in Australia’. Patrick
McConvell presents a number of studies discussing the viability of the
comparative method as a means of accurately reconstructing these languages,
given the extent of lexical diffusion that exists. He also discusses the
origins and development of pidgins and creoles in Australia, including
indigenous-based pidgins, early English-based pidgins, Roper River Creole
(Kriol), Torres Strait Creole, and Aboriginal Englishes. He also describes
other contact phenomena, such as lexical borrowing from English by indigenous
languages, code-switching, language shift, the emergence of new varieties
through language mixing, koineization, and language maintenance.

Chapter 39 describes ‘Language Contact in the New Guinea Region’. William A.
Foley begins by identifying primary areas of language contact in the region
due to multilingualism. He then discusses the borrowing of basic vocabulary
and bound morphemes, both a testament to the intensity of contact and evidence
that these items can be borrowed under certain circumstances. Foley also
provides lexical, phonological, and grammatical examples of metatypy,
illustrates contact influences between Papuan and Austronesian languages, and
discusses pidginization as an additional outcome of language contact in the
region.

In Chapter 40, Jeff Siegel discusses ‘Contact Languages of the Pacific’, with
an emphasis on new languages and dialects. The first section covers
pidginization, describing the progression from pre-pidgins to stable pidgins,
as well as other pidgins of the region. Siegel then describes the development
of Hawai’i Creole and other English-based creoles, in addition to creoles
based on European lexifiers other than English, such as Rabaul Creole German
and Patois de St-Louis. This is followed by a discussion of the creation of
new dialects as a result of language contact, in which Siegel provides
examples of both koines and indigenized varieties, and establishes the former
as contact between dialects and the latter as contact between languages.

EVALUATION

This volume represents a welcome addition to the literature on language
contact, assembling contributions from international experts to offer an
extensive resource which encompasses a broad range of language contact
research. In contrast to other volumes often used as introductions to language
contact studies, the present work is distinctive in being organized in
handbook format, rather than as a monograph (e.g., Thomason 2001) or
introductory textbook (e.g., Matras 2009, Winford 2003). More generally, the
publication of such a substantial resource is indicative of a shift in
linguistics towards recognition of language contact as an area of research in
its own right, albeit one with strong connections to other topics of
mainstream linguistic research, as this volume highlights.

As a full-length handbook, the volume is well suited to use by scholars aiming
to find relatively concise introductions to current research in language
contact as a point of departure into the larger literature. As such, it may be
particularly useful in upper-level sociolinguistics courses and language
contact seminars. The inclusion of references at the end of each chapter,
rather than in collected form at the end of the volume, is a welcome feature,
allowing individual chapters to be drawn on selectively in a course setting as
free-standing papers. On the other hand, this format necessarily imposes
limits on the length of each chapter (averaging roughly 15-20 pages), which
may not have allowed contributors to provide extensive background to their
topics or highlight connections with related research areas. In some cases,
this contributed to specialist terminology and representational conventions
not being introduced before their first occurrence, and linguistic data being
presented without detailed explanation of their relation to the point at hand.
Additionally, several chapters assume at least a basic familiarity with
concepts from historical linguistics. As a consequence, some chapters may be
less accessible for beginning undergraduates or readers without previous
background in these areas.

This volume sets out to provide systematic and focused representation of all
areas of language contact, providing seventeen chapters on general contact
phenomena and twenty-three chapters on specific case studies intended to
demonstrate the range and significance of contact situations across the
world’s languages. The case studies do indeed illustrate contact phenomena
attested in many geographical regions (e.g., Siberia, the Balkans) and
language groups (e.g., Finno-Ugric, Turkic, Celtic). However, a number of
these chapters focus exclusively on English, representing five of the
twenty-three case studies, with a further five chapters on other Indo-European
languages. The prominent representation of these languages among the case
studies no doubt reflects the significant body of research that exists on
these topics. One consequence of this selection of case studies, however, is
the relative underrepresentation of contact phenomena in other language
groups. For example, despite having long been recognized as prominent examples
of linguistic areas, contact among the indigenous languages of Central and
South America receives only indirect treatment. Similarly, several continents
are addressed only in a single chapter, leaving comparatively little space for
discussion of the considerable range of contact phenomena in these regions.
Aiming for typological balance in the representation of language contact
phenomena among case studies is admittedly a tall order, but one which
furthers the goal of this volume to provide comprehensive coverage of language
contact situations in all their diversity.

Another consequence of this selection of case studies is that contact
phenomena in languages unrepresented in the sample do not receive systematic
attention. In this respect, although several chapters make passing reference
to the issue, it is worth noting that no chapter is devoted to mixed languages
and the larger mixed language debate (see, e.g., Matras & Bakker 2003). The
handbook thus differs from other volumes on language contact, in which the
topic of mixed languages is typically given dedicated treatment (e.g., Matras
2009, Thomason 1997, Thomason 2001, Thomason & Kaufman 1988).

These points aside, the present volume has many notable merits, among them the
impressive range of perspectives and topics included. The handbook balances
its coverage of theoretical issues with chapters devoted to emergent areas of
research, such as the development of alternative models of language
classification using quantitative and computational methods (Ch. 6), and
discussion of the realities of fieldwork in contact situations (Ch. 17).
Despite the diversity of contributions, the grouping of chapters into larger
sections with a shared theme provides a sense of commonality, and references
from one chapter to another add additional coherence. All of these features
contribute to the overall accessibility of the volume, both as an introduction
to language contact and as a reference work. In sum, this volume makes a
strong contribution to the language contact literature, and should serve as an
excellent resource for years to come.

REFERENCES

Matras, Yaron. 2009. Language contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Matras, Yaron & Peter Bakker. 2003. The mixed language debate: Theoretical and
empirical advances. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Thomason, Sarah G. (ed.). 1997. Contact languages: A wider perspective.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Thomason, Sarah G. 2001. Language contact: An Introduction. Washington, D.C.:
Georgetown University Press.

Thomason, Sarah G. & Terrence Kaufman. 1988. Language contact, creolization,
and genetic linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Winford, Donald. 2003. An introduction to contact linguistics. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Olivia N. Sammons is a doctoral student in linguistics at the University of
Alberta. Her research interests include language documentation and
revitalization, language contact, Algonquian languages (Cree, Michif, Sauk),
Canadian French, and sociolinguistics. Her current project, ‘Documenting
Michif Variation’ (ELDP, 2011-2014), seeks to develop permanent records of
Michif as it is currently spoken in western Canada. For more information, see
http://michifproject.wordpress.com.








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LINGUIST List: Vol-25-1723	
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