Sociolinguistics - Language Contact (Kontak Bahasa) written by Irfan Suryana

Language contact is the use of more than one language in the same place at the same time. Language contact is the social and linguistic phenomenon by which speakers of different languages (or different dialects of the same language) interact with one another, leading to a transfer of linguistic features. It occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. The study is called contact linguistics. Most people are multilingual. It can occur at language boarders. It occurs in a variety of phenomena, including language convergence, borrowing, and relexification. The products are pidgins, creoles, code-switching, and mixed languages. The pioneers are Uriel Weinreich (Languages in Contact, 1953) and Einar Haugen (The Norwegian Language in America, 1953). Examples of Language Contact are scientists in whole world come to Antarctic to discover something, European people come to America in order to spread religion and trade there, and Maori speakers come to New Zealand, then European people colonize their territory. Based on the examples, Language Contact can happen between two groups which have different first language but they try to communicate each other.

According to Thomason, there are five factors that cause Language Contact. First is two groups enter and meet in unoccupied area. Second, a group comes to a certain group in large numbers. Third, people exchange their laborers. Fourth, Long-time neighbors develop connection. Fifth, language imposed through education. The outcomes of Language Contact are lingua franca, pidgin, creole, bilingualism, diglossia, code switching, code mixing, interference, integration, convergence, and so on.

-Based on many sources-

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