Dialect Contact and Accommodation in a Standard Context

Abstract

Many of the linguistic processes that may take place in dialect contact situations between two mutually intelligible varieties of the same language have to do with the transference of features from one variety to the other. The dialects that are socially in contact may become linguistically changed in the competences of individual speakers as a result of psychological contact. Giles’ Accommodation Theory is a fruitful basis for understanding the linguistic convergence/divergence that takes place when speakers of different dialects interact: linguistic accommodation between speakers of different dialect backgrounds can help the role of face-to-face interaction in the diffusion of change. The aim of this paper is to analyse and trace the route and rate of accommodation followed by Murcian Spanish speakers when in contact situation with Standard Castilian speakers in the context of Standard Castilian speaking areas. This route and rate will allow us to predict the modification in the competence of individual Murcian speakers with the transference of linguistic features from the standard to the non-standard variety as well as to find out the social and psychological factors behind the process of accommodation