Editing Language convergence (section)

{{Short description|Type of linguistic change}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}

'''Language convergence''' is a type of linguistic change in which languages come to resemble one another structurally as a result of prolonged language contact and mutual interference, regardless of whether those languages belong to the same [[language family]], i.e. stem from a common genealogical [[proto-language]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=An Introduction to Historical Linguistics|last=Crowley|first=Terry|last2=Bowern|first2=Claire|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|isbn=0195365542|location=New York|pages=269–272}}</ref> In contrast to other contact-induced language changes like [[Creole language|creolization]] or the formation of [[Mixed language|mixed languages]], convergence refers to a mutual process that results in changes in all the languages involved.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Language Contact: An Introduction|last=Thomason|first=Sarah|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2001|isbn=0748607196|location=Edinburgh|pages=89–90, 152}}</ref> The term refers to changes in systematic linguistic patterns of the languages in contact ([[phonology]], [[prosody (linguistics)|prosody]], [[syntax]], [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]]) rather than alterations of individual lexical items.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The Handbook of Language Contact|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=2010|isbn=1444318160|editor-last=Hickey|editor-first=Raymond|location=Malden, MA|pages=19, 68–9, 76, 285–87}}</ref>