CONTACT VARIETY

views updated

CONTACT VARIETY. In SOCIOLINGUISTICS, a variety of a language, as for example English, that results from contact with other languages usually in multilingual and multicultural contexts such as Africa and India. With the passage of time, the pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and discourse of such a variety become stable, but in forms that are not necessarily amenable to the standards and assumptions about usage in traditional English-speaking countries.

More From encyclopedia.com