This book is a comprehensive introduction to the study of language contact and its outcomes, as well as the social and linguistic factors involved. An Introduction to Contact Linguistics examines a wide range of language contact phenomena from both general linguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives. It provides an account of current approaches to all of the major types of contact-induced change. Each chapter describes both the linguistic and social aspects of the contact situation and how they affect the outcome. There is also discussion of the general processes and principles that are at work in cases of contact. The book treats all of these diverse contact phenomena in a unified empirical and theoretical framework within which both the outcomes and the processes and principles at work in each case can be identified and compared