On historical language contact in English and its types: state of the art and new directions

Abstract

Abstract This article presents the state of the art of current research on the different types of language contact in early English. The article’s main aim is to show what kinds of phenomena have been investigated until now as possible areas of transfer/borrowing from other languages. We examine the main contact scenarios in Old and Middle English, which involve Latin, Celtic, French and Old Norse. We locate unanswered questions and underexamined hypotheses of historical language contact. We argue that the articles of the Special Collection on Language Contact in the History of English open new directions in the way we can investigate the role of early language contact in the development of English. New methodologies of research, the role of bilingualism in language change but also of the written types of contact, and the various domains of change in grammar, lexicon, and pragmatics offer insights into old and new hypotheses on scenarios of language contact.

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