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A peak at death: Assessing continuity and change in an underdocumented language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Robin Sabino
Robin Sabino
Affiliation:
Auburn University
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Abstract

Neither historical nor linguistic records reveal exactly when the shift from Negerhollands to English and English Creole began in the Danish West Indies. In order to assess phonological continuity and change in the last stage of this moribund creole, the following discussion (1) contrasts earlier and current views of Negerhollands and sketches language contact in the Danish West Indies; (2) examines the language history and the vowel systems of the last speaker; and (3) assesses variation in a Negerhollands corpus produced by 10 elderly bilinguals. The article demonstrates how using a variety of approaches can enhance the investigation of an underdocumented language.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 41 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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