Tengslamál

Tengslamál is a field of linguistics that studies languages in connection with social networks and institutions. It treats language as a dynamic system that changes through contact, diffusion, and social interaction rather than as closed, isolated codes. The name blends tengsl, meaning connections, with mál, language, reflecting its emphasis on relational structure.

The scope includes language contact phenomena (loanwords, calques, code-switching), diffusion of grammatical features, and the formation of multilingual repertoires. It also incorporates network theory to model how individuals and communities influence language transmission, with attention to social ties, mobility, and digital communication.

Methods combine sociolinguistic fieldwork, corpus analysis, and computational network models. Researchers construct social networks from interviews or digital traces, track linguistic change over time, and simulate diffusion processes to test hypotheses about language maintenance or shift.

Origins: the concept arose from interdisciplinary work in sociolinguistics and network science in the early 2010s, drawing on studies of language contact and diffusion. While not tied to a single language, tengslamál is applied across communities experiencing rapid multilingual contact.

Applications include informing language education, policy design for multilingual settings, and the development of language technologies that account for variation across networks.