Sociolinguistics - Lecture 4

Pidgin

a language that’s created when groups who lack a common language are in ongoing contact

• limited vocabulary

• simplified structures

• no native speakers who learn it as a first language

• born out of a need for a shared code for limited purposes

Creole

a language created when groups who lack a common language are in extensive contact

• full vocabulary

• complex grammar

• native speakers

• when a population keeps communicating using a pidgin, there’s intermarriage, and pidgin speakers’ children grow up with the langauge

Nicaragua Sign Language (NSL)

a language that emerged from the process of creolization

• students started off creating signs because they needed to (pidgin stage)

• younger generations picked up on this and filled in the gaps

  • took in the statistics and identified the patterns of use

  • over time established the conventions and norms of use

• next generation of kids grew up using this full-fledged linguistic system

• language became L1 for subsequent generation

• language is creative

Language Creation - Power Imbalance

language birth (pidgins → creoles) goes hand-in-hand with power imbalances

• creoles tend to be the result of social and linguistic violence

• one language will be more socially dominant/powerful (i.e. colonial language)

• have the superstrate and the substrate

• creoles often coexist with their lexifier language

  • a kind of stratification happens

Superstrate

the language in a creole with more social power — is also the lexifier so contributes the vocabulary

Substrate

the language with less social power — contributes to various aspects of the phonology and morphosyntax (the grammar)

not always predictable, multiple languages can be the substrate → consider frequency of use, relative prestige, ease of articulation

Pidgin - Characteristics

Vocabulary: smaller inventory (~few hundreds)

Morphosyntax: mostly relies on word order to organize information; minimal inflection; little subordination

Phonology: simpler

Creole - Characteristics

Vocabulary: more comprehensive lexicon

Morphosyntax: wider range of structures (inflection, derivation), more subordination

Phonology: more complex (mix from superstrate and substrate)

Creole - of the Pacific

Creole - Hatian

Creole Continuum

over time, as creoles coexist with their lexifier language, there is no clean ‘switch’ between the creole and the standard language

• describing as a stratification is misleading/inaccurate

• situations where the standard language and creole are mutually exclusive are difficult

• it’s a gradient spectrum

spectrum:

• basilect

• mesolect

• acrolect

Basilect

• ‘low speech’

• most ‘nonstandard’

• most deeply creole

Mesolect

• ‘middle speech’

• intermediate

• in between

• gradient forms with many successive levels

• deeply creole

Acrolect

• ‘high speech’

• most ‘standard’

• most standard (lexifier) language

Decreolization

• may be pressures to shift to the standard (lexifier) language

  • standard often taught in school

  • may be social pressures

• in these cases, creole can converge more and more with the lexifier language

  • basilectal use may shift towards more acrolectal

  • predicted outcome is the creole turning into another dialect of the lexifier language

• processes has been criticized — what exactly decreolizes?

Creole - Ideologies

• creoles often stigmatized and perceived as nonstandard

• there are positive social evaluations, but these can read as condescending

• creoles are as elaborate as any other language

Lingua Franca

• a compromise language

• language is used because it’s the only language that all participants reliably use

• pre-existing language with L1 speakers

examples:

• English (air travel, international commerse)

• Mandarin (China, Taiwan)

Mixed Languages

• not a new language but a hybrid/amalgam

• not born from pidgins but emerge in bilingual communities

  • elements of the two languages are mixed

  • people can use both then build a new system

  • minimal grammatical innovation but stable conventions

• reflects stable bi/multilingualism

  • can index identity

  • can also attract sigma/mockery (viewed as impure or broken)

examples:

• Michif (Cree/French)

• Lánnang-uè (Hokkien/Tagalog/English)

• Media Lengua (Spanish/Quechua)

Mixed Languages - Lánnang-uè

Language Loss

like structural factors there are also attitudinal factors

• monolingual bias

• contempt for ‘subordinate’ languages

if language shift is not reversed, end point is total loss and without any successful intervention languages become moribund and eventually extinct

Language Loss - Other Loss

what else is lost?

• linguistic diversity

• geographic, historical, botanical knowledge

• culture

• identity

Language Loss - Triggers

language shift:

• at the social level 

• influenced by low status, unfavourable demograpics, lack of institutional support

human disasters:

• caused by natural forces

• can be human-caused (ex. genocide)

Language Loss - Types

• sudden language loss

• radical language loss

• gradual language loss

• bottom-to-top language loss

Sudden Language Loss

• most abrupt

• can be a natural disaster or sudden change in sociocultural situation

example: Tamboran lost because of a volcanic eruption, killed everyone suddenly

Radical Language Loss

• not all users loss but very few remain

• typically after a tragedy/traumatic event

• abandon the language to avoid further persecution

example: massacre of the Indian population in El Salvador led to ‘loss’ of Nawat

Gradual Language Loss

• steady decrease over several generations, reduction in context of use (less functions)

• evident in situations where language shift is not addressed and mitigated

example: Javanese in Indonesia

Bottom-to-Top Language Loss

• prestige language disappears from informal/casual use (bottom part)

• language retained as a formal/ritualistic/liturgical language (top part)

example: church Latin

Attrition

in terms of language this means a loss in structural complexity

• most apparent in morphology (agreement, plural marking)

• in phonology, language loses phonological contrasts 

• diminished range of styles (ex. retain knowledge of linguistic norms only in either only private or only public functions)

• has lots of borrowing

speakers

• lose capability in and knowledge of the language

• next generations become receptive

Attrition - Scottish Gaelic

Language Documentation

• working and collaborating with native speakers of the language

• preserving descriptions and accounts in extensive scholarly work

key: to record and preserve a language for linguistic, cultural, and historical purposes

Language Revitalization

• working and collaborating with communities on practical strategies to ensure intergenerational transmission

• making sure kids are connected to the cultural heritage

key: to bring a language back to active use

Promoting Revitalization

• must challenge and counter misconceptions about minority languages and multilingualism

• consider not just the language but its users and their ecologies