Transfer of Linguistic Intonation in Contact Situations

Project Information

T-LICS

Grant agreement ID: 840842

DOI

10.3030/840842

Project closed

EC signature date 20 March 2019

Start date 1 October 2019

End date 30 September 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 172 932,48

EU contribution

€ 172 932,48

Coordinated by

UNIVERSIDAD DEL PAIS VASCO/ EUSKAL HERRIKO UNIBERTSITATEA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - T-LICS (Transfer of Linguistic Intonation in Contact Situations)

Reporting period: 2019-10-01 to 2021-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Languages often come into contact, as witnessed by the wide spread of bilingualism across the world. Whenever language contact takes place, there emerges the possibility of features from one language being transferred to the other one. This transfer is often illustrated by loanwords, but it can involve any aspect of a language, like syntactic or phonological patterns; a visible, though often ignored, aspect of language transfer involves changes in linguistic intonation. This melodic aspect of language is employed by speakers to convey sentence-level meanings, such as differences between an affirmative statement and a question.
The project, hence, devotes its empirical core to a notable case of intonation contact, where a previously-homogeneous sub-dialect of Basque is coming into increasing contact with two Romance languages: French and Spanish. I conduct fieldwork and analyse how the intonation system of younger (vs older) speakers is diverging at each side of the political border. These kinds of ongoing linguistic change are a direct reflection of changes in society, ways of life, and ways of interaction. Hence, an apparently minor aspect of our daily lives, the kind of tune we use to ask a yes/no question, is a perfect illustration of current social transformations.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The central part of the project has focused on documenting the linguistic intonation of a variety of Basque in contact with two Romance languages (French and Spanish), as spoken by speakers from a variety of backgrounds. Beyond the purely linguistic/phonological contribution, significant attention has been given to methodology. Indeed, the main results of the action have been (1) an innovative methodology to elicit naturalistic conversations with both declarative and interrogative sentences, and (2) a robust pipeline which efficiently processes raw field-data and converts it into a searchable database usable for intonation-research purposes. These results have been disseminated in two conferences, a Summer school, and a written article.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

This project raises awareness on the ubiquity and flexibility of language contact, particularly with regard to the often-neglected aspect of intonation. Physical mobility and media communication advances in the 20th century have profoundly changed social interactions, and that can be observed in linguistic dynamics as well. The T-LICS project showcases these kinds of changes within a particular language-contact situation within a European context.

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