Accentual Change and Language Contact: A Comparative Survey and a Case Study of Northern Europe

Spoken language is subject to constant change and the influence of other speakers. This book takes in a survey of literature available on the topic of accent attrition and merging, and goes on to show that accent shift happens across the world and in all social settings, finally taking in an analysis of prehistoric European proto-language with the focus on a proposed shared Celtic-Germanic accent system. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Introduction......Page 16 Comparative Data on Accentual Change and Language Contact......Page 32 Language Contact and Areal Phenomena in Prehistoric Northwestern Europe......Page 92 Areal Aspects of Early Northwestern European Accentuation......Page 144 Summary, Conclusions, and Some Implications......Page 194 Bibliography......Page 202 Index......Page 232 Demonstrates that accentual phenomena are particularly vulnerable to language-contact change. The book shows how the tendency for accentual change can be found around the world and across a broad assortment of settings, with specific reference to prehistoric Northwestern Europe. 'This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003'--T.p. verso.