Hull (1988) uses recent developments in the theory of biological evolution, in particular rigorous application of the population theory of species, a consistently phylogenetic approach to evolutionary taxonomy and a proposed resolution of the dispute over which levels natural selection operates, to propose a general analysis of selection processes which he then applies to conceptual change in science. Hull's model of selection is applied to language change. It is argued that the utterance plays the central role in linguistic selection, and causal mechanisms by which linguistic selection – language change – occurs are proposed. The final sections consider the possibility that selection occurs also at higher levels of linguistic organization, and suggest how language contact may be accounted for in terms of phylogenetic reticulation.

This paper first briefly outlines the general political, economic, cultural and linguistic situation in the era of the Hanseatic League. Then the dichotomy ‘language contact’ vs ‘dialect contact’ is discussed in detail. The main focus lies, however, on a thorough investigation of various forms of bilingualism and especially on the concept of semi-communication. It is shown that this concept (roughly, the way Scandinavians today communicate with each other by means of their vernaculars) has played an important role in most linguistic contacts in the area of the Hansa. Several pragmatic and semiotic conditions as well as communicational maxims are presented, together with some interlinguistic rules of thumb. The paper concludes with a summary of the main characteristics of the various language contacts to be observed during the age of the Hansa and of the typological consequences for the modern Scandinavian languages.

In his (1972) book, The Sociology of Language, Joshua Fishman presents his often-cited typology of language contact situations in the form of a four-cell table: + or − diglossia and + or − bilingualism. Although criticism has been made of this typology and particularly of the predictions based on it, in this paper we operationalize Fishman's concepts of diglossia and bilingualism as presented in this book. We then examine results from a comparative study of language contact among four immigrant minorities in the Nordic region – North Americans, Finns, Turks and Vietnamese. Each of these groups was studied in at least two locations in the region, making a total of nine informant groups. By comparing the results for the generations, it is possible to see if there is evidence to support Fishman's predictions in the cases studied. The relatively stable levels of bilingualism found among the Americans and the Turks are not predicted by Fishman's typology, at least as we have operationalized it. The “stability” would seem to result more from the way these minorities have been received by the host societies than from the pattern of language use within the groups.

This article explores briefly some phenomena of potential indigenization of the Portuguese spoken in Mozambique. Data for the study has been taken from work that is currently underway in Maputo, Mozambique, that was originally initiated to investigate contact varieties of Portuguese and to probe their educational implications. Speech samples comprise formal interviews and non-formal encounters from a socio-demographically representative sample of informants. The article first provides an inventory of some non-standard European Portuguese variants that are found in this data, and subsequently focusses upon a discussion of what contribution different linguistic processes make to indigenization, specifically the role played by processes of second language acquisition in a context of massive and diffuse language contact and change. Special attention is also paid to the social contexts in which different manifestations of language contact are found, and the importance of linguistic ideology for the form that language contact takes in particular cases is explored. The article concludes with the suggestion that the salient characteristics of types of non-native speech community such as Maputo require a reconceptualization of models and methods of contact linguistics and second language acquisition, and that this in turn carries implications for the terms of reference and analysis to which indigenization need be related.