Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 December 2024
This chapter considers what effects language death (otherwise, language shift) might have upon language change, both in the language which is losing speakers and in those which are gaining them. Theory is tested against experience. The largely psycholinguistic concept of language attrition is introduced as a means of demonstrating how individual speakers might ‘lose’ their language over time. Potential differences in terms of survival and effect between immigrant and autochthonous languages are discussed. Effects of dominant language on dominated, and vice versa, are also analysed. The case study, on Shetland Norn, illustrates a number of the issues considered.
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