Which scenario would most likely result in significant language change?
A) A community of deaf adults, who are native signers of American Sign Language, teaching American Sign Language to hearing children.
B) A community of hearing adults, who are native signers of American Sign Language, teaching American Sign Language to deaf children.
C) A community of native German-speaking adult immigrants to the United States speaking to their children in English from birth.
D) A community of native French speakers teaching English-speaking immigrant children to speak French in the first grade.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

When a community of native speakers of a language immigrate to a new country and begin speaking a different language to their children from birth, significant language change can result. In this scenario, the German-speaking immigrants are likely to experience language shift, where their language use gradually changes to English over time, resulting in a new dialect or even a creole. The other scenarios involve language transmission from one generation to the next without significant language change.

Which Scenario Would Most Likely Result in Significant Language Change