Language Maintenance and Shift

An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Janet Holmes, 2012) - 4th edition

Week 2- Unit 3Lecturer and slide provider: Maryam Farnia (PhD)Payame Noor Universitymfarniair@gmail.com

Language Maintenance

“The study of how languages survive, or the continuing use of (minority) language in the face of a more regionally, socially or politically dominant language.” (Van Herk, 2012)

Language Shift

“The change from the habitual use of one language to that of another” (Weinreich, 1953, p.63)

“When a community does not maintain its language, but gradually adopts another one, we talk about language shift.” (Hoffman, 1991)

“The gradual replacement of one language by another as the primary language of communication and socialization within a speech community” (Van Herk, 2012)

Language Shift - cont.

What are some factors which accelerate a language shift?

“Social bilingualism, migration, industrilization, the school’s and government’s use of language, urbanization, the prestige level of language, etc. (Cavallaaro, 2005)

Language shift in different communities

Migrant minorities Non-migrant minorities Migrant majorities

Language death and language loss

• Language death: a complete language shift in which the original language is no longer used by anyone, anywhere, e.g. some Australian aboriginal languages.

Language death and language loss

When all the people who speak a language die, the language dies with them:

• In 1992, death of Tefvik Esenc, death of Caucasian language Ubykh

• In 1974, death of Ned Maddrell, death of Manx• In 1777, death of Dolly Pentreath, death of Cornish

In Tasmania, 3000-4000 people exterminated within 75 years.

As the domains in which speakers use the language shrink, the speakers of the dying language become gradually less proficient in it.

Factors contributing to language shift

Economic, social and political factors Demographic factors

“Demographic factors are those relating to personal characteristics such as age, gender, social class, level of education, family, or race/ethnicity”.

Attitude and values

How can a minority language be shifted?

To consider language an important symbol of a minority group’s identity

To live close to each other and see each other frequently

To increase the degree and frequency of contact with the homeland

To encourage members of a minority community to take active steps to protect their language

To use the language in different settings To have the support of institution

Ethnolinguistic vitality

The maintenance of a language can be measured by the following factors:

1. The status of the language as indicated by attitudes towards it.

2. The size of the group who uses the language and their distribution

3. The extent to which the language enjoys institutional support

Linguistic landscape

“Linguistic landscape refers to the visibility and salience of languages on public and commercial signs in a given territory or region. It is proposed that the linguistic landscape may serve important informational and symbolic functions as a marker of the relative power and status of the linguistic communities inhabiting the territory.” (Landris and Bourhis, 1997)

Language revival

Some communities take action to revitalize the languages in danger of disappearance , e.g. Maori in New Zealand

The attitude of the people who use the language is very important, e.g. Hebrew in Israel

Immersion: bilingual schooling

Dimension for analyzing language maintenance and shift

Dimension for analyzing language maintenance and shift

Linguistic Varieties and Multilingual Nations

An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Janet Holmes, 2013) - 4th edition

Week 2- Unit 4Lecturer and slide provider: Maryam Farnia (PhD)

Vernacular

A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is a second language or foreign language to the population, such as a national language, standard language, or lingua franca.

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Vernacular languages

A language which has not been standardized and does not have official status, e.g. Buang in PNG

The many different ethnic or tribal languages used by different groups

Three components of the term vernacular:1) It is an uncodified or unstandard variety.2) The way it is acquired- in the home , as a first

variety.3) It is used for relatively circumscribed

functions.

Vernacular languages- Cont. It might refer to any language which is not the

official language of a country, e.g. Spanish in USA; Greek in Australia and New Zealand

It refers to most colloquial variety in a person’s linguistic repertoire.

It is used to indicate that a language is used for everyday interaction, without implying that it is appropriate only in informal domains, e.g. Hebrew in Israel (as a process of vernacularisation)

Standard languages

A standard variety is generally one which is written, and which has undergone some degree of regularization or codification (for example, in a grammar and a dictionary); it is recognized as a prestigious variety or code by a community, and it is used for H functions alongside a diversity of L varieties.

World Englishes

Lingua franca

Lingua franca (or working language, bridge language, vehicular language) is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue.

Lingua Franca

A lingua franca is a language used for communication between people whose first languages differ.

In some countries, the most widely used lingua franca is an official language or the national language.

In multilingual communities, lingua francas are so useful they may eventually displace the vernacular.

Lingua francas often develop initially as trade languages.

The most interesting lingua francas are pidgin and creaole languages.

Lingua Franca

It is a language used for communication between people whose first languages differ, e.g. Tukano in Colombian Indians

Vaupes has two lingua franca: Tukano and that of Portuguese, Spanish and Brazilians. A MAN PLAYS PAN PIPES AS MEMBERS OF COLOMBIAN

INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES PARTICIPATE IN A PEACEFUL MARCH IN MEDELLIN(THE TELEGRAPH)

In some countries , the most useful and widely used lingua franca is an official language or the national language

HULI WIGMEN FROM PAPAU NEW GUINEABY GIL NAMUR 

.

A MORAN IN TANZANIA

Lingua Franca- Cont.

In a multilingual community, it might displace the vernacular, e.g. the marriage in the Congo-Zaire, Tanzania, PNG

But it never happens to Tukano in Vaupe!!!!!!

Lingua franca often develop initially as a trade languages, e.g. Hausa in West Africa Swahili in East Africa

Pidgin

The original word pidgin It is a language with no native speaker

and is developed as a means of communication between people who do not have a common language.

It is exclusively referential. It is not used as a means of group

identification or to express social distance.

The linguistic structure of a pidgin

The vocabulary is provided by the prestigious language and the grammar is under the influence of the vernacular language, e.g. in Tokpisin in PNG, 77% English, 11% Tolai.

Lexifier (Superstrate): a variety that has influenced the structure or use of another, less dominant variety, i.e. the one which supplies the vocabulary.

Substrate: a variety that has influenced the structure or use of another, more dominant variety, i.e. the one which supplied the grammar.

Pidgins usually have simplified structure and a small vocabulary, e.g. no affixes, being referentially redundant, no tense, no gender marker

Attitude

Pidgin languages do not have high status or prestige.

They are referred to as Broken English, Kitchen Kaffir (i.e. Frangalo)

Sharing vocabulary from European language

Pidgins often have short life because they develop for a restricted function and disappears when the function disappears.

Creole

Creole language, or simply a Creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages

A Creole comes into being when children are born into a pidgin-speaking environment and acquire the pidgin as a first language. What we know about the history and origins of existing creoles suggests that this may happen at any stage in the development of a pidgin.“ (Sebba , 1997)

Creoles have expanded in structure and vocabulary to stand for more meanings and functions.

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Structural features

The linguistic complexity is often not appreciated by outsiders.

The substrate is a source of structural complexity of a Creole.

Creolization: a process by which a pidgin becomes a Creole.

Linguistics find the study of Creole and Pidgin fascinating because of the observing the process of language change.

Functions

Once expanded, Pidgin can be used as a lingua franca among people who share a tribal language.

When developed, Creole can be applied in different functions of any language- politics, education, administration, etc.

Attitudes

Though some outsiders have negative attitudes about Creole and Pidgins, this is not always the case for those who speak the language, e.g. Tok Pisin in PNG, Haiti Creole in Haiti

Conclusion

Pidgin language is the language of a mixture of two or more languages that form can not be categorized into one of the original language. Pidgin languages are temporary because there is no native speaker. Used in markets, trading centers and others which are visited by native language

Creole language is a pidgin language which is accepted as the original language that already has-native speakers and it can be said is the mother tongue or first language to a group

Origins and endings

Decreolization: a reduction in the number of Creole features in the speech of an individual or community.

Acrolect: it refers to less-Creole like, or more standard or prestigious variety.

Basilect: it refers to more-Creole like variety

Mesolect: it refers to the intermediate variety between basilect and acrolect.

References

Harada, S. (2009). The Roles of Singapore Standard English and Singlish. Availble at

http://www.bunkyo.ac.jp/faculty/lib/slib/kiyo/Inf/if40/if4006.pdf

Landris, R. and Bourhis, R. Y. (1997).Linguistic landscape and Ethnolinguistic vitality. Journal of Language and Social Psychology . 16(1),23-49.

Sebba, Mark. (1997) Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles. Palgrave Macmillan.

Van Herk, (2012). What is sociolinguistics? Willey Publication.

Image # Bukavohttp://www.znanje.org/i/i19/99iv09/99iv0925/Image12.jpg Image # Polynesiahttp://www.beautifulpacific.com/polynesia-islands.php Image# Kachru’s circle

http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/pics/three_circles.gif