Chapter 13
Oral Portuguese in Maputo from a diachronic perspective
Diffusion of linguistic innovations in a language shift scenario
Torun Reite | Department of Romance Studies and Classics, Stockholm University
Anna Jon-And | Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution, Stockholm University | School of Languages and Media Studies, Dalarna University
This paper analyzes the diffusion of contact-induced linguistic innovations in Portuguese spoken in Maputo, Mozambique, in two datasets from 1993/4 and 2007, focusing on quantitative accounts of linguistic innovations at lexical, lexico-syntactic, syntactic and morphosyntactic levels. Overall, innovative features that registered in the two datasets are qualitatively the same. Results confirm an increase in the frequency of innovative features related to second language acquisition and language contact at all linguist levels, with particularly high diffusion rates of morphological simplifications. This increase may be related to bilingualism and changes in use of, access to, and input of Portuguese. Furthermore, the qualitative stability of features may be a sign of an emerging usage norm.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Material and method
- Previous research
- Results
- Summary and discussion
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Notes
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References