Dialect mixing and dialect levelling in Kordofanian Baggara Arabic (Western Sudan)

International audienceThe purpose of this article is to describe two different patterns of contact-induced change in a bedouin dialect spoken in western Sudan. More to the point, the study describes the social grounds and structural outcomes of dialect mixing and dialect levelling in the Baggara dialect of Kordofan. In my perspective, the notion of "dialect mixing" refers to the concurrence of structural traits of different dialects in contact and to the affirmation of newmixed features among speakers of a given dialect. On the other hand, the process of "dialect levelling" describes a synchronic change in which themost striking traits of socially marginal dialects are variably eliminated be-cause of the influence of a local prestigious norm