Comments on How do linguists identify the origins of verbal habits that originate from other languages?
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How do linguists identify the origins of verbal habits that originate from other languages?
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When an observed verbal habit has more than one potential source, and that source is likely to be a different language or dialect, how do linguists determine the most likely origin?
For example, if some speakers of Language A add an extra vowel to certain words, in a way that seems to resemble both Language B and Language C, how would a linguist determine if one, both, or neither languages were likely responsible for introducing the change?
I'm assuming that Language A has many speakers of both Languages B & C
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