The book investigates the diachronic dimension of contact-induced language change based on empirical data from Pennsylvania German (PG), a variety of German in long-term contact with English. Written data published in local print media from Pennsylvania (USA) between 1868 and 1992 are analyzed with respect to semantic changes in the argument structure of verbs, the use of impersonal constructions, word order changes in subordinate clauses and in prepositional phrase constructions. The research objective is to trace language change based on diachronic empirical data, and to assess whether existing models of language contact make provisions to cover the long-term developments found in PG. The focus of the study is thus twofold: first, it provides a detailed analysis of selected semantic and syntactic changes in Pennsylvania German, and second, it links the empirical findings to theoretical approaches to language contact. Previous investigations of PG have drawn a more or less static, rather than dynamic, picture of this contact variety. The present study explores how the dynamics of language contact can bring about language mixing, borrowing, and, eventually, language change, taking into account psycholinguistic processes in (the head of) the bilingual speaker.

Der vorliegende Band reflektiert die verschiedenen koloniallinguistischen Arbeitsgebiete: die Untersuchung von Sprachkontakten im Kolonialismus, die Analyse kolonialer Diskurse und der Einstellungen zu Sprachen und Gesellschaften, die Rekonstruktion der Auswirkungen kolonialer Sprach- und Sprachenpolitik sowie die Historiographie kolonialzeitlicher sprachwissenschaftlicher Forschung. Ein Schwerpunkt dieses Bandes liegt dabei auf der Erforschung der Kontakte zwischen Sprachen im Zusammenhang mit kolonialen Herrschaftsstrukturen. Zu den fokussierten Sprachen gehoren unter anderem Swahili, Chamorro, TokPisin, die Sprachen Nordamerikas, Mikronesiens und des nordostlichen Neuguineas sowie Kontaktvarietaten des Deutschen in Neuguinea und Namibia. The relationship between language and colonialism is increasingly focussed in linguistic research in the German-speaking academic landscape. The present volume reflects different areas of research in colonial linguistics: the investigation of language contact in colonialism, the analysis of colonial discourse(s) and colonial attitudes towards languages and societies, the reconstruction of consequences and effects of colonial language policies and language politics, and the historiography of contemporary linguistic research. This volume centers in particular on the exploration of contacts between languages within colonial power structures. Among the languages in focus are Swahili, Chamorro, Tok Pisin, languages of North America, Micronesia and northeastern New Guinea, as well as contact varieties of German in New Guinea and Namibia."