Language Attrition as a Problem for LADO

Abstract

There is a host of criticism of the practice of language analysis for the determination of origin (LADO) from the point of view of various branches of linguistics (forensic linguistics, contact linguistics, sociolinguistics etc.). The present contribution offers an additional perspective from the area of multilingual development. I argue that, in the process of becoming multilingual, a speaker's first – or native – language invariably undergoes a certain amount of change and adaptation. Known as language attrition, this developmental process can lead to speakers acquiring a foreign accent. Findings from language attrition pose an obvious problem to the LADO practice, in particular in cases where the interview and subsequent analysis does not take place until years after a speaker has arrived in the host country.