Dialect Contact In Vietnam From Accommodation Theory Perspective: Evidence From Some Dialect Communities
Author: Trinh Cam Lan (Faculty of Linguistics University of Social sciences and Humanities, Vietnam)
Speaker: Trinh Cam Lan
Topic: Language Contact and Change
The (SCOPUS / ISI) SOAS GLOCAL CALA 2020 General Session
Abstract
Dialect contact represents a universal sociolinguistic phenomenon, and a linguistic process influenced by social-historical factors, thus evidencing historical influence. Considering the multidimensional impacts of these social-historical processes, dialect contact effects many patterns of language change, and diachronically, changing language practice progresses to unify the dialects.
This paper, drawing from communication accommodation theory (Howard Giles), will examine the patterns of language change in dialect contact in various parts of Vietnam. The paper considers the effects of social-historical dimensions on these language processes, and seeks to inform directions of the future of Vietnamese dialects. Employing fieldwork, the study collects corpus data from several migrant communities, to observe accommodation processes of these communities in new settlements. The study thus documents the disputing and mixing of language variants through processes of migration. The investigation employs quantitative correlation models between linguistic and social variables in cases of dialect contact.
Some of the language change models located and emerging in these communities, such as dialect mixing and dialect leveling strongly evidence of the accommodation process in dialect contact in the region, and may inform work in other regions. The paper thus contributes to the field of Asian texts globally in that it suggests processes that are currently occurring concurrent with global language flows.
Keywords: Dialect contact, Vietnamese dialects