Sociolinguistics - Lecture 3

Language Contact - Causes

mobility: language traveling with speakers

media: language travel without speakers being physically present

Language Contact - Outcomes

• language functions

• language maintenance

• language shift

• language endangerment

• language creation

• code switching

• dialect creation

Language Contact - The Philippines: History

pre-colonial: organized community, high respect for others, equal rights

Spanish: social stratification, Spanish is the language of power, conversion to Christianity

American: continued social stratification, Americans as saviours, English is the medium of instruction 

Language Contact - The Philippines: Linguistic Consequences

• 33% of Tagalog vocabulary have Spanish origins and there are many English loanwords with varying degrees of adaptation (more adaption for Spanish)

• Tagalog intellectualization is unsuccessful as a consequence

• English is an official language alongside Filipino (based on Tagalog)

• English is a lingua franca

• the linguistic practice of codeswitching between Filipino and English → Taglish

• English is a prestige language and became a marker of education

• English contributed to language shift, particularly among Indigenous languages

• English adaptation more successful than Spanish

Social Stratification

the ranking of people a socioeconomic hierarchy based on factors, in this context based on language

Language Functions

• implicated in discussions around language contact, maintenance, and shift

• characterizes the sociolinguistic profile of a nation or society

• patterning of language use in a nation is a highly sociopolitical affair

• macro-level issue

Private Functions

• family, friends, local community

• languages confined to private functions tend to be regarded as not prestigious

• a language can have a lot of local power, but not have a ‘public’ function

Public Functions

• education, media, government, law, religion, business, commerce

• languages in these functions have prestige status

• languages not used in these functions indicate and reinforce their low status

• minority language can be seen as having relatively high vitality (“healthy”) if it is used in public functions

a language can be used in both a private and public function

Official Language

gets designated through legislation or de facto use for government business

• India: Hindi, English

• Kenya: Swahili, English

• Ireland: Irish, English

• New Zealand: not English officially, but de facto working language of government

National Language

designated to provide a sense of national identity and attachment, can be tied to history and culture, language can be national and official

• Nigeria: Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba (national not official) 

• Paraguay: Guaraní (national and official)

• Ireland: Irish (national and official)

Language Function - Malawi

became independent in 1964, 3 major languages: Chitumbuka, Chichewa, Chiyao

• Chichewa chosen as de facto national language

  • does not have strong public function

  • used in primary school, but not above

  • religion is only public function where it’s (and the other 3) gained traction

• English is official language

  • dominates other public functions

Stable vs Dynamic Multilingualism

language maintenance: when 2+ languages have widespread adoption and use through the community → stable multilingualism at social level

language shift: the distribution of languages changes in its dominant language from one to another over time → dynamic multilingualism at social level

Language Stratification

a hierarchical organization of languages within a society built around prestige, access, and power dynamics → introduces inequalities and power structures

Language Shift Trigger - Migration

• community and their languages might be subject to stigma or xenophonia 

  • pressures new immigrants to shift to dominant language

• in minority communities, language shift results in subtractive bilingualism

  • at individual level

  • parents don’t teach their kids their heritage language

• not a necessary outcome

  • Spanish gaining presence in USA

  • Mandarin and Cantonese being passed down in Canada

Language Shift Trigger - Colonization

• large historical migrations where colonial settlers outnumber the indigenous population

• indigenous peoples shift to the colonizers’ language

  • often heavy sociopolitical pressure to shift

• indigenous languages can get eradicated

• language shift is not a necessary outcome

  • Paraguay — Guaraní is official language alongside Spanish with many speakers

  • Bolivia — Quechua is official language alongside Spanish with many speakers

Language Shift Structural Factor - Status

low status → greater likelihood of language shift

• common for immigrants to be situated in low-status positions in their new society (deprofessionalization)

• lower status of a language often reflection of the relatively lower status of the language users

  • many internalize these negative attitudes, results in shift

Language Shift Structural Factor - Demographics

unfavourable demographics → greater likelihood of language shift

• population size, composition, location of minority groups

• residential patterns reflect composition and location

Demographics - Residential Patterns

enclave: language can be sustained in public functions 

dispersed: fewer opportunities to use language outside of the home

Language Shift Structural Factor - Institutional Support

less institutional support → greater likelihood of language shift

• in education setting majority language is the medium of instruction

• even if minority language is taught, may not be very effective

• minority language may be mocked, neglected, or prohibited

Language Maintenance

desire to maintain a language is influenced by social, psychological, and sociological factors

Reversing Language Shift - Framework

seeks to identify the relevant factors affecting language shift and schematize the process of language maintenance

• Joshua Fishman → advocate of minority language maintenance

Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS)

characterizing the different stages of language shift

• the key to language maintenance is intergenerational transmission

• starts local, community-level (grassroots)

• institutional-level support eventually needed

• 8 stages based on intergenerational transmission and vitality

  • progression is sequential — a language must build strength from the bottom-up

Extended Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS)

expanded version of GIDS used by Ethnologue

• 10 levels rather than 8

• can make EGIDS graphs

Reversing Language Shift - Criticisms

• framework has not been successful so far (few minority languages have reached stages 2 and 1)

• treats languages as separate entities that can be easily mapped on to functions

• neglects that social standing of a language relfects the conditions in which users live

• doesn’t strongly consider the practical and economic reasons of language shift 

• tends to consider families as autonomous units

meant to be a set of guidelines as much as it’s a descriptive model

Language Human Rights

• frames language maintenance as a human rights issue

  • languages become minority because of social inequities

  • minority languages occupy a very low position and have limited public functions, if at all

  • minority populations and their languages are perceived as a threat to cultural assimilation and a monolingualist state

• minority languages and their users are socially disadvantaged and oppressed

  • have to engage in policy work that ensure minoritize linguistic communities have equal rights

  • have to lobby for increased use of minority languages beyond the local community

more of a top-down approach

Language Maintenance - te Reo Māori

• because of colonization language shifted from English to Māori

• revitalization efforts in the form of language nests kohanga reo

• bilingual and immersion classes

• Māori legislated as an official language

• still needs more institutional support, Māori TV not super popular

• only 4% of NZers speak Māori

• but language loss has been avoided