Contact between languages often leads to linguistic changes. Although the social factors and the typological characteristics of the languages influence the change process, the interaction between these factors is not well-known. This is partially due to the fact that the long-term and short-term effects of language contact are rarely brought…

Defining a lingua franca as a "common language which is habitually used as a medium of communication between groups of people whose mother tongues are different, "this book begins by comparing various Africa lingua francas and discussing questions of general relevance to their study, and then presents statements of varying length about…

Attempts to show that the comparison of language structures may be relevant to diachronic linguistics, and in particular to areal linguistics. The article is based on an ongoing comparative study aimed at devising a typology of African languages. (Author/RM)