Variable data and linguistic convergence: Texts and contexts in Chipewyan

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the contemporary speech community of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, there is evidence that the four languages, Chipewyan, Cree, French, and English, have converged to a considerable extent. Although at first this convergence appears to have developed since Fang-Kuei Li's 1928 work on Chipewyan in the same community, an examination of other sources which have been considered unreliable shows this convergence to have been stable for as long as 100 years. The view of Chipewyan as a discrete, historical variety, unaffected by convergence, is then shown to have been a joint product of the interaction between the linguist, Li, and his informant, François Mandeville. (Linguistic convergence, linguistic change, fieldwork, ethnography of speaking, history of linguistics; Chipewyan (Athapaskan) of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, Canada.)

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