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Languages in contact

Languages in contact. LING 400 Winter 2010. Overview. Language contact situations Coexisting languages Diglossia Superstratum/substratum Development of new language. Please turn off your cell phone. For further learning: LING 430 (Pidgin and Creole Languages).

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Languages in contact

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  1. Languages in contact LING 400 Winter 2010

  2. Overview • Language contact situations • Coexisting languages • Diglossia • Superstratum/substratum • Development of new language Please turn off your cell phone. For further learning: LING 430 (Pidgin and Creole Languages)

  3. Tree model of language change • A good model of innovative changes • But inadequate: ‘isoglosses can cut across well-established linguistic boundaries’

  4. Wave model of language change • Wave model ‘linguistic innovations spread, like waves created by a stone thrown into a pond, from their point of origination to the periphery, slowly lowing their momentum and intersecting with the waves created by other innovations’ • Useful for modelling influences of one language on any adjacent

  5. Coexisting languages • Groups of equal power • Canada: French and English • Northeast England (8-11th cent. AD): Old English and Danish • Limited or extensive bilingualism

  6. Bilingualism • Over half(?) of the world’s population bilingual • Common in • India • Papua New Guinea

  7. One pentilingual • Mohamed Guerssel (Morocco) • Berber (language of home) • French (local common language) • W. Moroccan colloquial Arabic (friends) • Modern Standard Arabic (school) • English (later school)

  8. Diglossia • In bilingual societies, coexisting languages with specialized functions • Colloquial Arabic • language of home • used among friends • Modern Standard Arabic • learned at school • experience of a speaker from United Arab Emirates • grew up speaking Gulf Arabic • started learning MSA age 10 • all middle, high school classes taught in MSA • used in broadcasting, giving a lecture • needed to succeed in government • generally regarded as superior to colloquial • taught at UW

  9. Colloquial Arabic Malta Cyprus Israel Syria Iraq Afghanistan Morocco Algeria Tunisia Libya Egypt Yemen Saudia Arabic UAE • 6-7 major colloquial languages • Varieties at geographical extremes mutually unintelligible

  10. Unequal languages in contact • Superstratum language • language of politically, culturally and/or economically dominant group • Substratum language • language of less dominant group • English has been both

  11. Superstratum  substratum • Sami (Lapp) speakers learn Finnish (but typically not vice versa)

  12. 5th century Germanic invaders, invited to help defend Celtic Britain from Pict/Scot invasions, also drove Celts to fringes of Britain • many borrowings from English into Celtic languages, few borrowings from Celtic into English: crag (cf. Welsh craig ‘rock’), dun (cf. Irish and Gael. donn ‘brown’) • In modern UK, Welsh speakers learn English (but typically not vice versa)

  13. 8th-11th c. Danish invasions of England • Resulted in extensive bilingualism, borrowing into English • fellow, egg, window, skirt, sky, get, take, both, they, them, their • Danes also invaded Normandy [Norman < North man] https://depts.washington.edu/llc/olr/linguistics/clips/DanishInvasions_ref.mov

  14. Danish-origin place names in England • Following Danish defeat in 878, Danish settlement/rule (‘Danelaw’) confined to NE England

  15. Norman invasion • 1002 Aethelred took refuge in Normandy from Vikings; married Norman woman • 1042 Aethelred’s son Edward became king of England • 1066 • Edward died without offspring • dispute over succession: Harold Godwinsson of Essex vs. William, Duke of Normandy • Norman victory at battle of Hastings detail from the Bayeux tapestry

  16. After the Battle of Hastings • 1066-1070 ‘campaign of pillage and destruction’ in England • Why didn’t French replace English after Battle of Hastings? https://depts.washington.edu/llc/olr/linguistics/clips/Norman_ref.mov

  17. Post-1066 contact situation • Never large numbers of bilinguals (20%?) • lower nobility (Norman/English marriages) • government officials, merchants • French-speaking minority (2-10%) • ruling class, upper clergy • William tried to learn English but gave up • soldiers, other merchants, artisans • English, language of subject people • (former) upper classes, lower clergy • peasants (80%) • Extensive lexical borrowing into English (apx. 10,000 words) • beef, baron, government, religion, fashion, etc. • < passive, not active knowledge of French

  18. Extensive connection with Normandy and France (King of England = Duke of Normandy) until 1204 (dispute over marriage) • Fewer and fewer bilinguals • French shifted from local to foreign prestige language • 1284: Fellows of Merton College, Oxford, spoke English (not Latin or French) • 1295: Edward I tried to gain popular support by claiming that the king of France intended to obliterate English

  19. Development of a new language • May be developed by speakers who otherwise share no common language • A hybrid language (‘jargon’, ‘pidgin’, ‘expanded pidgin’) • Functions as lingua franca

  20. Lingua franca • Speakers of languages A, B use C for communication • Latin in medieval Europe • English (air traffic controllers) • https://depts.washington.edu/llc/olr/linguistics/clips/AirTrafficControl_ref.mov • French in Morocco • Modern Standard Arabic throughout Arabic-speaking world

  21. Characteristics of pidgins • No native speakers • Lexicon • derived from one or more languages • Grammar • variable across speakers • relatively simple sound inventory • little affixation or irregularity • coordinate rather than subordinate clauses

  22. Some pidgins • 1737: ‘That mixed Language called Lingua Franca, so necessary in Eastern Countries [of Europe]: It is made up of Italian, Turkish, Persian, and Arabian.’[OED] • Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) • Krio (Sierra Leone) • Chinook Jargon (NW North America)

  23. Chinook Jargon • Oregon-Alaska, east to Montana • 100,000 speakers (5% population), late 19th century • decline in number of speakers since 1920s • Origins (controversial) • a precontact language used as lingua franca

  24. Chinook Jargon • Main Native American source languages Nootka Chinookan

  25. Chinook Jargon • Evolved with white trading and settlement • Used by 19th c. traders, natives and missionaries • Even formal situations: written invitations, opera (1), newspaper

  26. Chinook Jargon • Lexicon • dictionaries: 800-2000 words • cf. English: 750,000 words • Phonology: /r/ > /l/ • rum > lum • rope > lop • grease > clease

  27. Borrowings from Chinook Jargon • Into English • chum (salmon) (< Nootka ‘spotted’) • tumwata ‘waterfall’ (Tumwater) • tillicum ‘friend’ (Tillicum Village) • chuck ‘water’ (< Nootka ‘water’) • salt chuck ‘salt water’ • skookum chuck ‘rough water’ • tyee ‘chief’ (various proper names)

  28. Borrowings from Chinook Jargon • Into Sahaptin • [kuʃúu] ‘pig’ (< CJ < Fr) • [láam] ‘alcoholic beverage’ (< CJ < Eng?) • [músmustsɨn] ‘cow’ • [ts’í] ‘sweet’

  29. Summary • Possible results of language contact • Bilingualism • Development of new language • Lingua franca • Language shift (later)

  30. Question • Are you bilingual? • Which languages learned when? • When/where used? • Or do you know someone who is bilingual? • What is their language history and current use?

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