Testing contact-induced change in the Spanish of Mallorca

This chapter explores the possibilities provided by historical research to the study of language contact, using as case studies three features characteristic of the variety of Spanish spoken in Mallorca that at first sight may seem to be the result of contact-induced changes. The historical analysis shows that change is not the only outcome of language contact: When we look at the trajectory of the relevant variants over time we find alternate outcomes, including the retention of a pre-contact feature or the inhibition or slowing down of a change.