(University of Helsinki)
Accelerated language change under shifting ecologies of contact:
lexical evidence from Dongxiang
68th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Bangkok 2026
Dongxiang (ISO 639-3: sce), a Southern Mongolic language spoken within the Amdo Sprachbund, has been in sustained use for at least six centuries under long-term conditions of multilingual contact. Converging evidence points to a shift from this prolonged phase of relative stability to a more recent phase characterized by accelerated change (Field 1997; Lefort 2012; Min Chunfang 2018). The result is an apparent paradox: the pace and scope of change have intensified, even as contact conditions remain broadly constant.
The present paper addresses this development through lexical evidence, tracing patterns of semantic expansion and domain-specific distribution. Drawing on a comparative analysis of lexicographic data from sources compiled at different periods, it examines how the shift from an earlier phase of relative stability to a more recent phase of change is reflected in the organization of the lexical system. This evidence is considered alongside previous findings on the Dongxiang copular system (Orlando 2024), which suggest that access to contact is unevenly mediated by contextual factors.
This tension is approached by shifting the focus from contact intensity to the configuration of extralinguistic factors—here termed ecology of contact—including social, institutional, and economic conditions that shape linguistic outcomes. The paper argues that the current situation is best understood not as an increase in contact per se, but as the result of changing conditions that have reconfigured the distribution and function of linguistic resources.