First language attrition

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Speakers who live in an L2 environment for an extended period of time often experience change in the way in which they use their L1, a process referred to as L1 attrition. This article provides an overview of language attrition phenomena at various linguistic levels. However, attrition cannot be trivially or linearly related to factors such as the frequency of use of the L1. It is argued here that attrition phenomena are not the outcome of a change to the underlying linguistic system nor of access problems due to an increase in activation thresholds, but of cross‐linguistic influence in online speech production. <jats:italic>WIREs Cogn Sci</jats:italic> 2013, 4:117–123. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1218</jats:p><jats:p>This article is categorized under: <jats:list list-type="explicit-label"> <jats:list-item><jats:p>Linguistics &gt; Language in Mind and Brain</jats:p></jats:list-item> </jats:list></jats:p>