Balcontacten

Balcontacten are a type of linguistic contact phenomenon observed in contact languages, particularly in pidgins and creoles, which are simplified languages that develop as a result of language contact between two or more groups of people who do not share a common language.

The term "balcontacten" is used to describe the process by which phonological and morphological properties of the contact language (the emerging pidgin or creole) converge and diverge simultaneously with those of the languages involved in the contact. This results in a linguistic system that is distinct from both the source languages.

During the development of a pidgin or creole, the balcontacten process often involves the contact language acquiring features from one or more of the languages in contact, such as a creole acquiring a grammatical structure from a lexifier language while retaining phonological features from the substrate language. The resulting language may exhibit mixed grammatical and phonological characteristics, leading to complex morphosyntactic structures.

As a result of balcontacten, creoles and pidgins may develop distinct features that are not found in either of the source languages, and these features may become characteristic of the language as it continues to evolve and develop. The study of balcontacten provides insights into language contact phenomena and how new languages emerge in situations of language contact. However, it is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that has been the subject of ongoing debate and research among linguists.