Sociolinguistic Patterns and multi-Lingual INTERactions on the PAHOTURI river

forthcoming

It is widely assumed that languages in contact will tend to converge, either lexically, structurally or both. Multilingual speech practices drive the convergence: multilinguals economize cognitive resources by importing lexical items and grammatical structures from one language to another, gradually causing the languages they speak to become more alike. However, recent research suggests that the relationship between convergence and language contact is contingent on social context. Social environments that encourage the use of dialect or language to signal group identity and language ideologies that promote the selection of specific lexical items and linguistic structures as markers for social differentiation can drive divergence between languages in contact. Divergence under contact remains controversial as it implies that the deliberate cultivation of linguistic differences by multilingual speakers can cause dialects or languages to diverge, contradicting a common assumption that language change proceeds unconsciously. In general, actual multilingual competencies and speech practices remain underdescribed in such societies. What is required is a more detailed documentation and analysis of multilingual interactions so that the processes that underlie contact-induced divergence can be observed in practice. This project seeks to fill this gap in our understanding by documenting and analyzing in detail language use in three multilingual villages of the Pahoturi ethnolinguistic group of Papua New Guinea, where contact-induced divergence has been used to explain linguistic diversity. It seeks to document and investigate the relationship between sociocultural variables, language acquisition trajectories, language ideology and multilingual speech practices. The general prediction is that multilingual speakers are more likely to be innovative in their speech practices in particular languages as they consciously attempt to differentiate themselves from their neighbors.