This article draws attention to three general problems in existing theories and models of contact-induced language change: the problem of autonomous types of change, that of autonomous contact languages, and that of the metaphors used in contact linguistic terminology. Parting from a discussion of these problems and two case studies of contact varieties that heavily challenge existing models of contact-induced change (Chamorro and Zamboangueño-Chabacano), I provide a new and comprehensive model based on the conception of contact-induced change as a continuous space, in which interrelated and interconnected parameters dominate over autonomous types. This model is embedded in an ecological conception of language and language contact, as expressed in Ludwig, Mühlhäusler and Pagel (in press). The relevance of the early years of contact, as seen from the perspective of the presented model, is addressed in the last section and offers one possible prospect to future discussion and research.

A perspective is offered on the social and historical developments surrounding the formation of Korlai Creole Portuguese (kcp), a creole language spoken in the village of Korlai, located around 150 kms south of Mumbai. I argue that lower-caste Hindus who were enslaved by the Portuguese in the Chaul-Korlai area were instrumental in the creation of kcp. I claim that kcp formed by 1530 and that it has been maintained up to the present day due in large part to the isolation of its speakers because of their religion, their caste and their occupation.

Pijal Media Lengua (pml) is a mixed language described as having Quichua morphosyntactic and phonological systems where nearly every content word (89%), including pronouns and determiners, is replaced by its Spanish-derived counterpart through the process of relexification. pml speakers however, often regard their language as intonationally distinct from both Quichua and Spanish. This paper offers a basic description of the pitch accent and boundary tone configurations found in pml using the autosegmental framework (Pierrehumbert, 1980) in a ToBI transcription system (Silverman, 1984). This paper also explorers the current literature on mixed language phonetics and attempts to promote acoustic analyses of intonation as a useful investigative tool for analyzing the origins of prosodic material. The results suggest that pml predominantly makes use of Quichua-like intonation patterns along with innovative and/or preserved structures.

"Book Review: Sprachwissenschaft und kolonialzeitlicher Sprachkontakt: sprachliche Begegnungen und Auseinandersetzungen, edited by Engelberg, Stefan and Doris Stolberg" published on 14 May 2014 by Brill.

Studies on language contact are sufficiently developed to make it possible to ponder about its entailments. This implies that the researcher sets himself aside in order to grasp the dynamics of the various approaches. This paper first (i) goes back on the notion of “viewpoint”, (ii) presents the notion of “persistence of view point”, and (iii) proposes a simplification of the epistemic inputs that structure a “domain α”, that of a project’s conditions of existence of an epistemic construct, to a “domain β”, which is dependent on the ‘viewpoint’ involved in the process of the epistemic construct. Second, the paper investigates the four spaces that are sensitive to contact : (i) the structural space, (ii) the social space, (iii) the “rationalization” space, and (iv) the psycho-physiological space. The third part deals with the logical inferences of language contact, and more specifically of its margins, i.e. language mixing, using as a basis of discussion the little read book by Schuchardt Slawo-deutsches und Slawo-italienisches (1883). The book, which shows the importance and the ordinariness of language mixing [Mischsprache], induces to question the obliteration of this issue in academic research, while studies on language contact are booming. The answer involves a reflection on the possibilities to keep in our research the compatibility between classical and new viewpoints.

Mapudungun, often also called Mapuche, is a language isolate spoken in southern Chile and parts of Argentina. It presents structural, phonological and phonotactic similarities to the central Andean Quechuan and Aymaran language families. Many lexical items of Mapudungun have obviously been borrowed from Quechuan and Aymaran during or after the Inca presence in northern Mapuche territory. However, recent language contact may not be the only source of lexical parallels. The aim of the present article is to uncover evidence for alternative scenarios that could account for these parallels. As such, four exemplary Mapudungun roots clearly related to Quechuan and/or Aymaran roots are discussed in detail. First, the possibility that the respective lexical parallels are recent borrowings should be excluded. Second, it must be decided whether there is any evidence for the proposal that the respective Quechuan/Aymaran roots have been transferred into Mapudungun vocabulary via surrounding languages. The two-step approach developed here may undergo further refinement in future investigations of language contact in the Americas and elsewhere.

Note éditorialeCette septième livraison, Journal of Langage Contact ( JLC) poursuit la politique de publication de numéros thématiques initiée avec le précédent volume.C'est ainsi que le numéro 7.1 qui ouvre ce volume est focalisé sur les français hors de France (Amériques et Afrique) et dirigé par Françoise Gadet et Ralph Ludwig.Notre politique de publication de numéros thématiques se poursuivra régulièrement au fil des volumes suivants, sans remplacer pour autant la parution des numéros non thématiques qui continueront, eux aussi, à paraître très régulièrement.En ce qui concerne l'articulation entre ces deux types de publication, sans souscrire à une régularité absolue nous privilégierons l'alternance.Pour chaque volume, l'ordre de parution « JLC X.1 numéro thématique » et « JLC X.2 numéro non thématique » sera recherché.Ainsi, le deuxième numéro de ce volume (7.2) est non thématique.Parallèlement, avec la publication de comptes rendus critiques et de recension d'ouvrages nous continuons de développer la partie « Reviews » qui, selon les cas et les opportunités, peut être insérée ou non en deuxième partie d'un numéro thématique.