caa a22 4500 386349703 CHVBK 20180307111825.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e198906 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0047404500013488 doi S0047404500013488 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0047404500013488 Cook Eung-Do Department of Linguistics, The University of Calgary Is phonology going haywire in dying languages? Phonological variations in Chipewyan and Sarcee [Elektronische Daten] [Eung-Do Cook] The two most conspicuous phenomena reported on dying languages are (a) structural (and stylistic) simplifications and (b) dramatic increases of variability due to incongruent and idiosyncratic "change.” The phonological data from two Athapaskan languages, as well as other published data (Dorian 1973, 1978; Hill 1978; Schmidt 1985a), demonstrate that underlying the apparent degeneration of the system there is an orderly progression which is viewed as a retarded process of language acquisition. Different semispeakers reach different levels of maturity due to different degrees of retardation, consequently increasing variability and complexity for the total system, whereas each idiolect undergoes systematic developmental stages albeit retarded, decreasing eventually structural (and stylistic) profusion. Therefore, a dying language mirrors the successive stages of ontogenesis. (Historical linguistics, language acquisition, language death, language contact, bilingualism, sociolinguistics) Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989 Language in Society Cambridge University Press 18/2(1989-06), 235-255 0047-4045 18:2<235 1989 18 LSY https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500013488 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500013488 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Cook Eung-Do Department of Linguistics, The University of Calgary NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Language in Society Cambridge University Press 18/2(1989-06), 235-255 0047-4045 18:2<235 1989 18 LSY CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge