Two modes of contact-induced change in minority languages: Phonology and syntax vs. inflectional morphology

Language-contact may affect both surface-form related aspects of grammar and its underlying structure. This contribution examines in which way the centuries-long language contact with Italian dialects has affected the German minority languages in the Northeast of Italy. Results from case studies on phonology and syntax already published by the author’s research group are compared with results of a fresh survey of pronominal paradigms in Cimbrian and Mòcheno, hence inflectional morphology. It turns out that both above-mentioned types of contact-induced change occur but that their chronological sequence – surface forms are affected first, underlying structure at most later, or underlying structure first and surface forms only later or not at all – depends on the sub-domain of grammar. In syntax and phonetics/phonology contact-induced change seems to affect surface forms first. Studies on sibilants demonstrate that phonetic features of sibilants in the German minority languages are influenced by the dominant Italian dialects while their phonology (inventory and distribution of sibilants; phonological rules) is independent of the phonology of Italian. Studies on DPs with possessive pronouns show that in Cimbrian the possessive pronoun is preceded by a definite article just like in Italian (dialects and standard language) on the surface while the underlying syntactic structure of the DP in Cimbrian remains different from the one in Italian. In inflectional morphology the situation is reversed: word forms and suffixes of personal pronouns keep their German shape while the paradigm distinctions (which constitute the “underlying structure” in inflectional morphology) are influenced by the Italian contact dialects. Hence, in syntax and phonology language contact affects surface forms first while in inflectional morphology the opposite is true: the dominant language’s structure (paradigm distinctions) is replicated by the minority language (to some extent) while surface forms seem to be unaffected by language change. Thus, contact-induced change does not proceed in parallel in all sub-domains of grammar, instead, two different modes are at work.