American Norwegian Sound Systems and Language Contact

Objective

This project examines language contact and language maintenance among American Norwegian-English bilinguals. By drawing on both quantitative and qualitative methods, I focus on bilingual vowel patterns and the extent to which Norwegian and English influence each others' phonological systems in ways that differ from both monolingual English and European Norwegian. The results from this action contributes to work on the nature of bilingual grammars and the extent to which language structures in one language remain intact under intense contact with another. Its broad aims are to advance our understanding of the human capacity for language. In this regard, American Norwegian is an optimal language example because nearly all of its speakers are elderly individuals who shifted to English as children. Their speech patterns offer crucial evidence for human language processes by demonstrating how an individual's linguistic faculty can and does change over the lifespan.

Field of science

• /humanities/languages and literature/linguistics/phonetics
• /humanities/languages and literature/languages - general

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility

Topic(s)

• MSCA-IF-2018 - Individual Fellowships

Call for proposal

H2020-MSCA-IF-2018
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Coordinator