Unravelling the potential emergence of a fused lect

Abstract This study investigates the potential emergence of a fused lect in the Northern Kasaragod Variety of Malayalam (NKV-M), a speech variety shaped by prolonged contact with Malayalam, Kannada and Tulu. We examine verb-internal language mixing patterns using the exoskeletal framework with late insertion (originally proposed in Borer 2003 ), integrating sociolinguistic and formal approaches. Our findings reveal that the underlying syntactic skeleton of NKV-M is primarily derived from Malayalam. However, it incorporates agreement features into the T-projection, resulting in a fused T-Agr projection within the Tense Phrase. This fusion, which is absent in Standard Malayalam, reflects contact-induced retention of South Dravidian features. Morphological levelling among younger speakers and increasing conventionalisation of mixed forms indicate a trajectory towards a fused lect as defined by Auer ( 1999 , 2014 ). This study demonstrates that NKV-M exhibits systematic, rule-governed variation rather than spontaneous code-mixing, and we argue that the exoskeletal model effectively captures this mixing pattern.