Languages, DNA, relationship and contacts
 
Svetlana Burlak (Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), svetlana.burlak@bk.ru)
 
Journal of Language Relationship, № 9, 2013 - p.55-67
 
Abstract: In this paper, language contacts are classified according to their results that can be observed by means of historical and comparative linguistics. Various types of bilingual contacts and of language shift are discriminated; they differ in the way they affect vocabulary, grammar and phonetics. These differences are connected with the demographic situation; thus, looking at a language that underwent contact influence, one can say what type of contact could have produced such results. Such information about prehistoric communities can help to reconcile linguistic evidence with archaeological and genetic data in order to produce a more detailed picture of the history of peoples and their languages.
 
Keywords: language relationship, language contacts, language shift
 
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