A Japanese Contact Variety in the North: Evidence from Sakhalin Island in Russia

Abstract

A number of sociolinguistic studies have been conducted to render detailed descriptions of dialect contact phenomenon. One of the major notions in dialect contact studies, according to Trudgill (1986), is dialect transplantation. A dialect transplantation situation occurs when a language variety is "transplanted" into another area with a certain number of the language speakers and with a certain period of their residence. This paper studies one of the former colonies of Japan, Sakhalin, and discusses the status of the Japanese language over the course of the history of Sakhalin.