LgV37 Languages in Contact BASIC CONCEPTS Verbal communication as a linguistic exchange of thoughts represents the vehicle of interpersonal understanding and a basic opponent of the personality of humans. Manifestation of the mutual contact of cultures and of their subsequent conflict and interaction can in the sphere of language be realized as a change in one/both/all of the participating contact languages and iit is called LINGUISTIC INTERFERENCE BASIC CONCEPTS LANGUAGE? DIALECT? • IF WE ARE SPEAKING AND WE CAN UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER ->WE MUST BE SPEAKING DIALECTS OF THE SAME LANGUAGE • IF WE CANNOT UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER -> DIFFERENT LANGUAGES MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY BASIC CONCEPTS LANGUAGE? DIALECT? • IF WE ARE SPEAKING AND WE CAN UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER ->WE MUST BE SPEAKING DIALECTS OF THE SAME LANGUAGE • IF WE CANNOT UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER -> DIFFERENT LANGUAGES • MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY • LOGICAL, RIGHT? WELL, IT DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT BASIC CONCEPTS LANGUAGE? DIALECT? • ARABIC • MISCONSTRUCTED AS A SINGLE LANGUAGE BASIC CONCEPTS LANGUAGE? DIALECT? • ARABIC • MISCONSTRUCTED AS A SINGLE LANGUAGE • ACTUALLY IS A DIALECT CONTINUUM -> MANY DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF A LANGUAGE ARE SIMILAR WHEN THEY ARE CLOSE GEOGRAPHICALLY, BUT VERY DIFFERENT WHEN FAR APART BASIC CONCEPTS LANGUAGE? DIALECT? • ARABIC • MISCONSTRUCTED AS A SINGLE LANGUAGE • ACTUALLY IS A DIALECT CONTINUUM -> MANY DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF A LANGUAGE ARE SIMILAR WHEN THEY ARE CLOSE GEOGRAPHICALLY, BUT VERY DIFFERENT WHEN FAR APART • LEBANESE CAN UNDERSTAND EGYPTIAN. EGY > TUNISIAN > MOROCCAN • LEBANESE CANNOT UNDERSTAND MOROCCAN SO THEY R NOT THE SAME LANGUAGE! BASIC CONCEPTS LANGUAGE? DIALECT? • ARABIC • STILL IT IS CONSIDERED ONE LANGUAGE. • MAYBE BECAUSE OF CULTURAL, POLITICAL, HISTORICAL OR RELIGIOUS REASONS. • TO ARABS IT MIGHT MAKE MORE SENSE TO UNITE UNDER A LANGUAGE BASIC CONCEPTS LANGUAGE? DIALECT? • chinese • same thing. chinese, to chinese people will be considerfd WRmm^sTEMAGE WITH many dialects UNmEDbyct^eTameed BASIC CONCEPTS LANGUAGE? DIALECT? • CHINESE • SAME THING. CHINESE, TO CHINESE PEOPLE, WILL BE CONSIDERED A SINGLE LANGUAGE WITH MANY DIALECTS UNITED BY THE SAME WRITING SYSTEM. • THIS TAKES THE ASSUMPTION THAT ALL THE CHINESE DIALECTS HAVE THE EXACT SAME WORDS AND LEXICON • BUT IT IS NOT TRUE. BASIC CONCEPTS LANGUAGE? DIALECT? • HINDI AND URDU • SOMETIMES CALLED HINDUSTANI BECAUSE THEY ARE REMARKABLY SIMILAR • HINDI IS SPOKEN IN INDIA > DEVANGARI SCRIPT • URDO IS SPOKEN IN PAKISTAN > PERSO-ARABIC SCRIPT • POLITICAL TENSIONS BETWEEN BOTH COUNTRIES > DIFFERENT LANGUAGES BASIC CONCEPTS LANGUAGE? DIALECT? • SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES (SWE, NOR, DEN) • MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY • DIFFERENT LANGUAGES • CZECH AND SLOVAK • MUTUAL INTELLIBILITY • DIFFERENT LANGUAGES BASIC CONCEPTS LINGUISTICS • LINGUISTICS IS NOT AN OBJECTIVE SCIENCE • STUDY OF HUMAN LANGUAGE > HUMAN CULTURE DO I HAVE THE RIGHT TO GO TO SCANDINAVIA AND TELL THEM THAY THEY DO NOT SPEAK NORWEGIAN, SWEDISH OR DANISH AND TELL THEM THEY SPEAK MODERN NORGE? NO Languages in Contact aka Contact Linguistics • What does it do? • Investigates the causes, nature and consequences of mutual contact between two or more distributed forms (dialects) of the same language, in extra cases between two subsystems of the same language system and thus considers language in its development. What is a language in contact? • Two or more languages will be said to be IN CONTACT if used by the same persons • Practice of using two languages > Bilingualism > Interference phenomena • What is Interference Phenomena? What is it? • What is Interference Phenomena? • The rearrange of patterns that result from the introduction of foreign elements into the more highly structured domains of language, such as the bulk of the phonemic system, a large part of morphology and syntax and some areas of the vocabulary (colours, weather...) What is it? • What is Interference Phenomena? • The rearrange of patterns that result from the introduction of foreign elements into the more highly structured domains of language, such as the bulk of the phonemic system, a large part of morphology and syntax and some areas of the vocabulary (colours, weather...) • Contact situations may lead to the creation of a new language • Most languages, if not all of them, have been influenced at one time or another by contact with others. • But how do we get this influence? But how do we get this influence? • Lexical influence: Book learning by teachers, writers, lexicographers. Literature, religious texts, dictionaries and so on. • Phonological and syntactical influence: Prolonged social interaction between members of different speech communities may result in varying degrees of mixture and structural change in one or the other languages involved. EXAMPLES Contact induced changed that have affected English • Ex. 1: Pidgin English used as lingua franca month ethnic groups of different linguistic background (English, Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese and Portuguese among others) samtaim gud rod get, samtaim, olsem ben get, enguru get, no? enikain seim. Olsem hyuman laif, olsem. Gud rodu get, enguru get, mauntin get, no? awl, enikain, Stawmu get, nais dey get - olsem. Enibadi, mi olsem, smawl taim. (Bickerton 1981:13) EXAMPLES Contact induced changed that have affected English • Ex. 1: Pidgin English used as lingua franca month ethnic groups of different linguistic background (English, Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese and Portuguese among others) samtaim gud rod get, samtaim, olsem ben get, enguru get, no? enikain seim. Sometimes good road get, sometimes like bend get, no? everything same. Olsem hyuman laif, olsem. Gud rodu get, enguru get, mauntin get, no? awl, enikain, Like human life, all-same. Good road get, angle get, mountain get, no? all, any kind Stawmu get, nais dey get - olsem. Enibadi, mi olsem, smawl taim. Storm get, nice day get - all-same. Anybody, me too, small time. "Sometimes there's a good road, sometimes there's, like, bends, corners, right? Everything's like that. Human life's just like that. There's good roads, there's sharp corners, there's mountains, right? All sorts of things, there's storms, nice days - it's like that for everybody, it was for me too, when I was young." EXAMPLES Contact induced changed that have affected English • This sample is taken from Sranan Tongo (Suriname Tongue), a Creole language spoken in Suriname (duh), which emerged as a medium of interethnic communication among African slaves brought to the coastal plantations of this country EXAMPLES Contact induced changed that have affected English • This sample is taken from Sranan Tongo (Suriname Tongue), a Creole language spoken in Suriname (duh), which emerged as a medium of interethnic communication among African slaves brought to the coastal plantations of this country •Ma di mi ben e gro kon, mi no ben mag taigi wan bigi suma wan wortu. Uh? Efu mi seni a pikin a no go, en mama yere, a e fon en. Taki sanede meki te owma seni yu, yu no go? Direct a e priti en skin gi en. Winford 2000a: 429 EXAMPLES Contact induced changed that have affected English • This sample is taken from Sranan Tongo (Suriname Tongue), a Creole language spoken in Suriname (duh), which emerged as a medium of interethnic communication among African slaves brought to the coastal plantations of this country •Ma di mi ben e gro kon, mi no ben mag taigi wan bigi suma but when I PAST IMP grow come, I NEG PAST may tell one big person wan wortu. Uh? Efu mi seni a pikin a no go, en mama yere, one word. Uh if I send the child s/he NEG go, his mother hear, a e fon en. Taki sanede meki te owma seni yu, yu no go? she IMP beat him. say why make when granny send you, you NEG go? Direct a e priti en skin gi en. Immediately she IMP split 3p skin for 3p. EXAMPLES Contact induced changed that have affected English This sample is taken from Sranan Tongo (Suriname Tongue) Suriname (dun), which emerged as a medium of interethnic slaves brought to the coastal plantations of this country • Ma di mi bene gro kon, mi no ben mag taigi wan bigi suma but when I PAST IMP grow come, I NEG PAST may tell one big person wan wortu. Uh? Efu mi seni a pikin a no go, en mama yere, one word. Uh if I send the child s/he NEG go, his mother hear, a e fon en. Taki sanede meki te owma seni yu, yu no go? she IMP beat him. say why make when granny send you, you NEG go? Direct a e priti en skin gi en. Immediately she IMP split 3p skin for 3p. , a Creole language spoken in communication among African "But when I was growing up, I wasn't allowed to say a word to an adult. Uh? If I sent a child [on an errand], and s/he didn't go, and his/ her mother heard this, she would spank the child. [She'd] say why didn't you go when granny sent you? Right then she'd cut his/ her skin for him/her." EXAMPLES Contact induced changed that have affected English • This sample comes from Singapore colloquial English, one of the so-called New English's which arose in former British colonies, in many cases becoming the everyday vernacular of the community. • These "indigenised" varieties are the result of "imperfect" second language learning and are characterised by varying degrees of influence from the first languages of the groups who created them. For instance, features such as the use of sentence-final lah and existential get parallel similar features in Cantonese, one of the native languages involved in the contact. • In this text, a taxi driver talks about his job. Singaporean English Passenger depen lah - good one also got, bad one also got. Some ah taxi driver they wan to go to this tourist area like hotel ah. They par there, y'know. Then if the touris want to go an buy things, buy anything ah, they brough the passengers go and buy thing already. Then the shop ah give commission to the taxi driver lah. Singaporean English Passenger depen lah - good one also go, bad one also go. Some ah taxi driver they wan to go to this tourist area With passengers, it depends, you know. There are good ones and bad ones. Some taxi drivers like to go to tourist areas like hotel ah. They par there, y'know. Then if the touris want to go an buy things, buy anything ah, they brough the such as hotels, yeah. They park there, you know. Then if the tourists want to go and buy things, they take them passengers go and buy thing already. Then the shop ah give commission to the taxi driver lah. to the shops and straightaway they are buying things. Then the shops give a commission to the taxi drivers, yeah." Yanito - Gibraltar English • The following text is a transcription of an response to the question "how will Brexit affect us?" By British media to some Gibraltarians. • There are two speakers. Yanito - Gibraltar English • The following text is a transcription of an response to the question "how will Brexit affect us?" by British media to some Gibraltarians. There are two speakers. • -SPEAKER 1: Es a bad thing cause in the future like nosotros we are not allow to go to Spain cause Brexit and like Spain will have more control over us cause the frontera. • -SPEAKER 2: For Gibraltar I dont see no problem eh the problem we have is the Spanish government you know? Trying to get the soberanity sober and we dont want to be Spanish. I think we will have problem with Spanish government porque they will try pero they wont get it my friend. We remain British eh, and corta ya! Yanito - Gibraltar English • The following text is a transcription of an response to the question "how will Brexit affect us?" by British media to some Gibraltarians. There are two speakers. • -SPEAKER 1: Es a bad thing cause in the future like nosotros we are not allow to • It's a bad thing because in the future we will not be allowed to • go to Spain cause Brexit and like Spain will have more control over us cause the frontera. • Go to Spain because of Brexit and Spain will have more control over us because of the border. • -SPEAKER 2: For Gibraltar I dont see no problem eh the problem we have is the Spanish • I dont see a problem for Gibraltar, the problem we have is the Spanish • government you know? Trying to get the soberanity and we dont want to be Spanish. I think we will • Government. The will try to gain the sovereignty and we don't want to be Spanish. I think we will • have problem with Spanish government porque they will try pero they wont get it my friend. We remain British eh, and corta ya! • Have problems with the Spanish government because they will try (to get Gibraltar back) but they wont get it. We will remain British. And stop recording now! EXERCISE • DISCUSS THE WAYS IN WHICH EACH EXTRACT DIFFERS FROM STANDARD ENGLISH AND LIST THE FEATURES THAT CHARACTERIZE EACH. IN WHAT SENSE WOULD YOU SAY THESE ARE VARIETIES OR DIALECTS OF ENGLISH? Language maintenance Borrowing situations • It is the preservation by a speech community of its native language from generation to generation. Preservation implies that the language changes only by small degrees in the short run owing to internal developments and/or limited contact with other languages. Hence the various subsystems of the language (morphology, phonology, syntax, semantics and core lexicon) remain intact. Language maintenance Borrowing situations • Language maintenance can take place in code-switching situations: • Alternate use of two languages or dialects within the same stretch of speech, often within the same sentence. • Puerto Ricans in NYC switch between Spanish and English with great facility: • Hey Lolita, but the Skylab no se cayo pa que se acabe el mundo. It falls into pieces. Si se cae completo, yeah. The Skylab es una cosa que esta rodeando el moon taking pictures of it. Tiene tubos en el medio. Its like a rocket. Language maintenance Borrowing situations • Hey Lolita, but the Skylab no se cayö pa que se acabe el mundo. It falls into pieces. Si se cae completo, yeah. The Skylab es una cosa que estä rodeando el moon taking pictures of it. Tiene tubos en el medio. Its like a rocket. • There is a switch from clause to clause, but also mixes items from the two languages within the same clause. This is an example of inter- and intra-sentential switching. Language maintenance Borrowing situations • In many bi- or multilingual communities, the choice of one code or another is dependent on the situation or domain of use, so that the codes tend to be used in mutually exclusive functions. Such situations are referred to as cases of dislogssia, or polyglossia. • Spanish/Guarani bilingualism in Paraguay would be an example of diglossia • Situations is Malaysia and Singapore, where speakers alternate between English, Malay and other ethnic languages like Mandarin depending on the interlocutor and the situation, would exemplify polyglossia. • This is a matter of social and linguistic code switching. Language Shift • In other situations, contact between different linguistic groups can lead to language shift, the partial or total abandonment of a groups native language in favor of another. This is what we call "language shift". • CASE 1: The shifts results in successful acquisition of the target language with little or no influence from the native language. For instance, third generation of immigrant groups in the US succeed in achieving native proficiency in American English. Resulting in Bilingualism. • CASE 2: Shifts lead to L1 influence on a recipient language involving languages that become targets after being introduced into the communities by invaders or colonisers. The indigenous community adopts the foreign language as a replacement for its native language or as a second language in addition to the later. Language Shift • Implies the gradual or complete abandonment of a previous native language in favor of the target language. Such situations provide interesting insight info the phenomenon of language death, the slow attrition and decay of the language previously used by the shifting group. • All the shifts, nevertheless, infer in what we call "substratum" or "L1 influence. Borrowing begins with vocabulary and the incorporation of structural features into a maintained language comes only after substantial importantion of loanwords. Substratum influence begins with sounds and syntactic patterns and sometimes morphology. It is characterised by more structural than lexical influence from the L1 on the target language. Language Creation New contact languages • In addition to maintenance and shift situations, there are other kinds of contact setting which have yielded special outcomes: pidgins, Creoles and bilingual mixed languages. • 1. BILINGUAL MIXED LANGUAGES: arose in settings involving long term contact between two ethnic groups leading to bilingualism and increasing mixture of the languages. In these cases, that mixture became conventionalised as a community norm, resulting in the creation of hybrid languages whose components could clearly be traced to one or the other source language. Language Creation New contact languages • In addition to maintenance and shift situations, there are other kinds of contact setting which have yielded special outcomes: pidgins, Creoles and bilingual mixed languages. • 1. BILINGUAL MIXED LANGUAGES: arose in settings involving long term contact between two ethnic groups leading to bilingualism and increasing mixture of the languages. In these cases, that mixture became conventionalised as a community norm, resulting in the creation of hybrid languages whose components could clearly be traced to one or the other source language. • Remember one of the examples we have talked about? Language Creation New contact languages • ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF BILINGUAL MIXED LANGUAGE • Media Lengua of Ecuador: incorporates Spanish lexicon into a virtually unchanged Quechua grammar. Media Lengua-ga. asi Ingichu-munda Castallanu-da. abla-xva. kiri-xu-sha Media Lengua-TOP thus Quechua-from Spanish-ACC talk-NOM want-PROG-SUB no a£>/a-naku-ndu-mi asi, chaupi-ga Castellanu laya, / chaupi-ga Not talk-pl-SUB-AFF thus, half TOP Spanish like, and half-TOP Ingichi laya abla-ri-na. ga-n. Quechua like talk-REFL-NOM-be-3 Language Creation New contact languages • ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF BILINGUAL MIXED LANGUAGE • Media Lengua of Ecuador: incorporates Spanish lexicon into a virtually unchanged Quechua grammar. Media Lengua-ga asi Ingichu-munda Castallanu-da abla-na kiri-xu-sha Media Lengua-TOP thus Quechua-from Spanish-ACC talk-NOM want-PROG-SUB no abla-naku-ndu-mi asi, chaupi-ga Castellanu laya, / chaupi-ga Not talk-pl-SUB-AFF thus, half TOP Spanish like, and half-TOP Ingichi laya abla-n-na ga-n. Quechua like talk-REFL-NOM-be-3 "MEDIA LENGUA IS THUS IF YOU WANT TO TALK SPANISH FROM QUECHUA, BUT YOU CANT THEN YOU TALK HALF LIKE SPANISH, HALF LIKE QUECHUA PIDGINS • Pidgins are highly reduced languages with minimal vocabulary and grammar whose functions are restricted primarily to barter and exchange. • Example: Pidgin English used for trading between English speakers and Pacific Islanders in the 19th century. Remember the first example? • Other examples are Russenorks, used in trade between Russians and Norwegians, employing vocabulary from both languages. • The primary source language in these cases tends to be the language of the group that has control of the trade or its location. CREOLES • European colonial expansion during 15th to 19th centuries is the reason to the creation of new communities peopled primarily by groups from distant regions of the world. • These Creole languages are used by the Creole people. Locally born descendants of slaves and colonisers in the colonies. • Famous example is Haitian Creole, with French lexicon. CONCLUSION Finally... • LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE • BORROWING SITUATIONS: DEGREE OF CONTACT LINGUISTIC RESULTS CASUAL LEXICAL BORROWING ONLY MODERATE LEXICAL AND SLIGHT STRUCTURAL BORROWINGS INTENSE MODERATE STRUCTURAL BORROWING CONCLUSION Finally... • SITUATIONS OF CONVERGENCE TYPE OF CONTACT LINGUISTIC RESULTS CONTIGUOUS GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION MODERATE STRUCTURAL DIFFUSION INTRA-COMM UNITY MULTILINGUALISM HEAVY STRUCTURAL DIFFUSION INTENSE PRESSURE ON A MINORITY GROUP HEAVY STRUCTURAL DIFFUSION INTENSE INTERCOMMUNITY CONTACT HEAVY LEXICAL AND STRUCTURAL DIFFUSION CONCLUSION Finally... • LANGUAGE SHIFT TYPE OF SHIFT LINGUISTIC RESULT RAPID AND COMPLETE LITTLE OR NO SUBSTRATUM RAPID SHIFT BY LARGER MINORITY SLIGHT TO MODERATE SUBSTRATUM SHIFT BY INDIGENOUS SPEAKERS MODERATE TO HEAVY SUBSTRATUM CONCLUSION Finally... • LANGUAGE CREATION (NEW CONTACT LANGUAGUES) TYPE CHARACTERISTICS BILINGUAL MIXED LANGUAGES Cases of maintainance, involving incorporation of large portions of external vocabulary PIDGINS Highly reduces lingua franca that involve mutual accommodation and simplification CREOLES Cases of both maintenance and shift. With grammars shaped by varying degrees of substrate ESO ESTODO AMIGOS AMIGAS AMIGUES