Language Contact

This course explores what happens when languages come into contact and how such encounters reshape the way people speak. It examines the linguistic and social forces that drive contact-induced change, from everyday bilingual practices to large-scale shifts in communities. Topics include bilingualism, code-switching, lexical borrowing, substrate and superstrate influence, and the emergence of pidgins and creoles. Drawing on data from diverse contemporary contexts, the course equips you to analyse and critically evaluate language contact phenomena at lexical, structural, and discourse levels, and to understand how language both refl ects and constructs social realities.