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American Norwegian Sound Systems and Language Contact

Project description

A close look at bilingual processes

The EU-funded AmNorSSC project will take a close look at bilingual grammars and investigate the extent to which language structures in one language remain intact under intense contact with another. The project will focus on American Norwegian-English bilinguals. This group was selected because nearly all of its speakers are elderly who shifted to English as children. For this reason, their speech patterns can be used to determine the language processes and how these change over the lifespan. The project will draw on quantitative and qualitative methods to advance our understanding of the human capacity for language. It will focus on bilingual vowel patterns and the extent to which Norwegian and English influence each other’s phonological systems.

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.

Coordinator

UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Net EU contribution
€ 214 158,72
Address
PROBLEMVEIEN 5-7
0313 Oslo
Norway

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Region
Norge Oslo og Viken Oslo
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 214 158,72