This book is about the borrowing of inflectional morphemes in language contact settings. This
phenomenon has at all times seemed to be the most poorly documented aspect of linguistic
borrowing. Contact-induced morphological change is not rare in word formation but exceptional
in inflection. This study presents a deductive catalogue of factors conditioning the
probability of transfer of inflectional morphology from one language to another and adduces
empirical data drawn from Australian languages Anatolian Greek the Balkans Maltese Welsh
and Arabic. By reference to the most advanced theories of morphology a thorough analysis of
the case studies is provided as well as a definition of inflectional borrowing according to
which inflectional borrowing must be distinguished from mere quotation of foreign forms and is
acknowledged only when inflectional morphemes are attached to native words of the receiving
language.
