Language contact and evidence of divergence and convergence in the morphology of Usaghade
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2785-0943/16309Keywords:
noun classification/agreement, language contact, Lower Cross, Londo, contact-induced changeAbstract
Usaghade, a Lower Cross (LC) language is, unlike other LC languages, in regular contact with several Bantu languages, particularly Londo, and has a functioning system of noun classification/agreement, whereas other LC languages have only remnants of a former system. A comparison of noun classification in Lower Cross and Usaghade and between Usaghade and Londo suggests that Londo may have played a role in shaping the noun classification system of Usaghade by providing, along with other neighboring languages, an ecology in which Usaghade speakers were able to maintain their own existing system rather than converge with Londo. Usaghade temporal marking and its apparent system of verb classification, also different from other LC languages and hardly attributable to contact-induced convergence, might be a result of contact-induced divergence. The situation of Usaghade supports the view that bound morphology is resistant to borrowing and suggests three possible outcomes of contact: convergence, divergence, and stability.
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