LING-115 Midterm Review

Idiolect

unique, personalized way that each individual uses language

Socio political factors

political events and situations in society lead to the formal recognition of certain varieties as languages, and others as dialects

Socio-political Factors- Hindi and Urdu

the same common way of speaking in northern India until the 20th century, when the anticipation of independence led to the creation of political parties along religious lines, and the terms Hindi and Urdu then became associated with the Hindu and Muslim parties.  This led to the consistent use of these terms to refer to the ways that Hindus and Muslims spoke, and even though Hindi and Urdu are mutually intelligible, they have become recognized as different languages in the Indian constitution

Socio-political Factors: Serbian and Croatian

these ways of speaking were considered varieties of a single language until the late twentieth century, called Serbo-Croatian by the leader of Yugoslavia, General Tito, but when Yugoslavia broke up into different, independent countries, Serbian and Croatian nationalists claimed that Serbian and Croatian were separate languages, and they are now officially recognized as separate languages, as is Bosnian, which is also mutually intelligible with Serbian and Croatian.

Socio-political Factors: Chinese

• Mutually unintelligible varieties of speech, classed as dialects (fangyan) of a single language in order to discourage separatism, calls for independence

Ryuukyuan Islands (independent country until they became part of Japan)

Ryuukyuan is mutually unintelligible with Japanese, but for reasons relating to the desire to project an image of a fully mono-ethnic, mono-lingual nation, Ryuukyuan was classified as a form of Japanese.

Dialect continuum

•  dialects may seem to blend into each other, and it is hard to identify where one dialect ends and another begins (EX: Czech, Slovak, Polish, Ukranian, Belarusian, Russian)

Isoglosses

• Boundary lines marking the distribution of dialect variables. Dialect boundaries are most clear/strong when there is some major geographical feature which separates neighboring populations

Dialect Properties (theres 4)

1. A variety which is NOT recognized as a distinct language, but is related to some officially-recognized language- dialects are both similar to and different from some language

2. Variation in accent (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar)

3. Dialects are commonly associated with a single geographical area/region

4. linguists generally assume that the dialects of a language are all mutually intelligible

3 Kinds of Non-regional Dialects

1. Religious Dialects: people with different religions speak same language in different ways

   • 20thC Baghdad: Muslim, Christian, Jewish dialects of Iraqi Arabic

2. Social Dialects: people in different social groups speak same language in different ways

   • India: Hindu cast groups

3. Ethnic Dialects: early Italian American immigrants, African American Vernacular English

Register

• the style of speech used in a specific activity/job is called a ‘register’

  • Livestock, commodities auctioneers, sports commentators, elevator operator

Style (4 influencing factors)

• The participants: who is speaking, who are they talking to?

• The setting: where is the conversation taking place?

• The topic: what is being talked about?

• The function of speech: why are people communicating

Referential Communication

• Language is regularly used to convey information others

  • News programs, documentaries, scientific discussion, weather reports

Affective Purpose

• initiate, maintain, strengthen social relations

  • Greetings, small talk to convey little to no info 

    • Sound odd when ‘translated into other language settings

    • British people talk about the weather a lot, no real info just affective

    • Chinese people ask if you’ve eaten yet, aren’t really concerned about it

Official Languages

all countries need to specify which language(s) can/must be used in government,education, law, courts, and other “domains of life” (either all of a country, sub part — state, province, region). established for pragmatic reasons- to help people in daily activities, not intended to be symbolic

National Language

many countries try to unify their population and generate loyalty to the state by stimulating a national identity

• Symbols of the nation, a national anthem, flag, ceremonies

• Especially important in countries with different ethnicities and ethnic groups/lang (unites them). symbols of a nation’s special identity, and are promoted to unify populations with a common, national spirits

• in some countries, the OL can also fulfill the NL role

Language Planning (Step 1): Status Planning

giving special roles to certain language/varieties, e.g selecting new NLs and OLs

Language Planning (Step 2): Corpus Planning

further developing the languages selected in Step 1

1. Develop vocab for use in all areas of life– create new words for science, medicine, law, etc

2. Create dictionaries + determine which words are to be used as teh standard forms of the language

3. Decide which pronunciations are standard

4. Describe the grammatical rules of the lang

5. Decide how people should write the language, including choice of script (graphization)

Language Planning (Step 3): Promotion of new NLs/Ols

1. Spread knowledge of new NLs/OLs through: 

   1. Mass education, adult education

   2. Mass media – use in tv, radio, newspapers, novels

   3. Positive incentives: bonuses, promotions, access to better employment, make these dependent on showing an ability in the new OLs/NLs

   4. some coutnries use negative deterrents to stop peopel from speaking other langs (neg propaganda, fines)

Language Planning (Step 4): Winning Acceptance of the new NL/OL

1. Encourage people to use the new NL/OL

2. Emphasise the practical value of it

3. Emphasize that the NL/OL is a prestigious language to be proud of – speaking it gives you higher personal status/respect

4. GOAL: make people become naturally enthusi

Paraguay: NL/OL

NL: Guarani, OL: Spanish (more developed than Guarani)

Tanzania: NL/OL

NL: Swahili, OL= Swahili & English

Singapore: NL/OL

NL= Malay (want to trade iwth the Malayan world), OL= Malay, Mandarin, Chinese, Tamil, English

Pakistan/Bangladesh Case Study: Political unrest/divison

When Pakistan became independent, it consisted in two parts: West and East Pakistan. Political leaders in West Pakistan declared NL as Urdu and OL as Urdu & English. This decision upset speakers of other languages in West Pakistan, as they felt disadvantaged by the promotion of Urdu, and there were riots in West Pakistan. People in East Pakistan were upset when their request for Bengali to be the NL and/or an OL was rejected.  This led to a language movement and then an independence movement, military conflict with West Pakistan and eventually the declaration of independence from West Pakistan, giving rise to a new country Bangladesh.  This illustrates how language issues can create major political unrest and divisions in a country, even causing a country to split into two different states

Sri Lanka Case Study: unfair advantages

Two language groups, Sinhala speakers and Tamils. The latter got better jobs due to their better knowledge of English, so after independence, Sinhala politicians claimed they would make Sinhala the only official language of Sri Lanka if elected, and they did this, causing major discontent among the Tamils, demonstrations, riots, many deaths, and eventually decades of armed revolt and civil war,

Indonesia: Successful OL Policy

Full independence from Netherlands and selected Malay as OL because it was already used in schools/popular novels. Ethnically neutral: communication between members of a different language group (L2 Lingua franca). Also had positive prestigue value (used during independence movement)

• Indonesian was standardized and its vocab was developed significantly 

  • Used in formal domains, inter-group communication (when you meet someone from outside your area/lang group), other languages were not repressed and still used informally

Singapore: success with multi-lingual OL Policy

Very mixed pop: Chinese, Malay, South Asia, Eurasian —> government promotes multi-cultural/lingual society. OLs: Mandarin/Malay/Tamil/English (international value). NL: malay

Bilingual education for all: had to specify L1 and L2.

Assessment: Singapore’s policy of multilingualism has helped create social stability in a mixed pop.

Successfully maintains linguistic pluralism

NLs 4 functions

1. Unifying: unify the nation and offer advantages to speakers that other langs don’t

2. Separatist: should distinguish its speakers from those of other nations

3. Prestige: should be seen as a “real language” with high status

4. Frame-of-reference: should provide a model of correctness = be well standardized

Language-internal Sourcing of new words

1. create ‘new’ words by re-using old words or sub-parts of words already in a language, in three ways

   1. Re-activate an old word no longer used + give it a new meaning

2. Promote the use of words from regional dialects

3. Compounds: make new combinations of existing words with new meanings

COUNTRIES FOCUSED ON DEVELOPING/MAINTAINING/PROTECTING NL

Language external sourcing of new words

borrow a word and its meaning from another language. Can involve adaptions of its pronunciation

COUNTRIES MORE OPEN TO ACCEPTING OUTSIDE INFLUENCES/INSPIRATION BECAUSE THEY HAVE A STRONG, CONFIDENT NL

Language Purification

Happens during periods of nationalism when countries want to emphasize National Identity

• purging words of foreign origin to make NL “pure’ again

• borrowed words are replaced with internally-sourced words

EX: foreign family names can be changed —> fascist Italy

Linguistic Protectionism

policy that new words should only be created from internal resourced

• old borrowed words are not eliminated

EX: French Academy aimed to block new English loans being used in place of existing French words. Fines for gov’t workers using English loans

Language Purification: North Korea

N. Korea: thousands of words changed in 1960s, N. Korean sounds almost unintelligible to S. Koreans in 1970s in first North/South meetings after the war

Graphization/Orthography: Azerbajian

• 1928 Turkey switches from Arabic script to Roman alphabet to write Turkish

• Soviet gov’t worries that common use of Roman alphabet will help create a new pan-Turkic movement

  • 1930s all languages spoken in Soviet Union ordered to use Cyrilic alphabet

• Independence of Azerbaijan: got to choose what language to use

  • Cyrillic script: negative associations with Russian domination

  • Arabic script: projection of a pan-Islamic identity

  • Roman alphabet: neutral associations, links with modernity

    • Received the popular vote

Linguistic Assimilation/Suppression: Taiwan

• Ruled by Japan 1895-1945, pressure to speak Japanese

• Goal: stimulate a new Japanese National identity  and loyalty

• Under Japanese rule: Japanese rule and harsh conditions → a new all-Taiwanese, anti-Japanese identity

  • Learning Japanese helped all Chinese/Taiwanese groups communicate with each other and form a unified opposition

Assimilation/Dissimilation to promote National Identity: Japan/Ainu

Experienced active dissimilation, ainu were forbidden to learn/speak Japanese and wear Japanese clothing.

18thC change: Ainu further north adopted Russian clothing/names/religion —> Japan reacts by encouraging them to speak Japanese and take on Japanese culture (active assimilation)

Late 18thC: threat recedes and Japan stops assimilation policy (Ainu ordered to stop assimilating, new dissimilation policy)

19th-20thC: Japanese nationalism emphasis on uniform nation. Effects —> Ainu has almost disappeared, little chance of revival

Active Assimilation

told to follow cultural traditions of another nation

Active dissimilation

told to stop following cultural traditions of another nation

Boarder-change minorities

the boarders of two states changes as a result of international conflict

Suppression of minority languages: Native Americans

The US governmental initiative during the 19th and early 20th centuries to replace knowledge of Native American languages with English through the forced placement of young Native Americans in boarding schools where only English was allowed to be spoken, with punishments meted out for any use of Native American languages.

Three generation pattern of language shift

Gen 1: flunet in HL, learn survival skills in LML

Gen 2: Bilingual in HL and LML, speaks both well

Gen 3: Fluent in LML, poor skills in HL

Generation 4 Effect

Increasing prosperity/economic stability —> desire to reconnect with heritage background

Generation 4 Effect: Ecuador (Quechua)

Quechua was heavily stigmatized/associated with a lower social status, causing many Saraguros to shift towards Spanish. However, in the community of Lagunas, increased economic stability, education, and fluency in Spanish reduced the need to assimilate. RESULT: Quechua has been revalued as a positive symbol of ethnic identity. Now it is associated with pride, cultural heritage, progressive social views among younger gens.

Capacity-Opportunity-Desire (COD)

Framework for assessing prospects for HL maintenance to be successful

Capacity: abilities that individuals develop in the HL

Opportunity: the chances that speakers have to use the HL outside the homein daily life

Desire: eagerness that individuals have to use the HL (positive attitudes)

Mirpur Pahari —> Successful COD Example

community in the UK, originally from Pakistan.

Capacity: Children developed strong language skills at home (through their mothers)

Opportunity: community use and connections to Pakistan provide frequent opportunities to use the language

Desire: positive attitudes toward the language create a strong desire to maintain it as a symbol of community solidarity

COD: Hindi in the United States (not successful)

Hindi language maintenance is weak despite a large pop of speakers and there is a significant language shift to English among 2nd/3rd Gen. 2nd gen may understand some Hindi but they have limited speaking abilities, using mostly English in daily life. 3rd Gen, Hindi proficiency decliens further —> long-term maintenance of the language is unlikely.

Moribund (Languge Endangerment)

If a language is not being transmitted well to younger gens, creating new speakers, it is “moribund.” EX: In North America, 80% of the Native American languages there are now moribund,

Number of Languages in the world

6,000

Endangered languages

Less than 20,000 speakers

How many of the world’s langauges are endangered

2/3 of the world’s languages

Important statistic

96% of the world’s langauges are spoken by just 4% of the world’s pop

Causes for language Endangerment

Economic factors, social factors, growth of larger languages, globalization, urbanization, invasion/colonizatoin

Physical causes for language endangerment

disease, crop-failure and famine, earthquakes, tsunamis

Concerns about loss of world languages

1. loss of expression of cultural identity

2. language death leads to massive loss of global cultural diversity

3. loss of knowledge about the physical world (orally past down medicines, plant-life

Language documentation

establish good descriptions and records of ELs before they disappear

• Linguists trained in skills at analyzing unfamiliar languages create dictionaries and grammatical descriptions of ELS

Reviving ‘extinct’ languages: Hebrew

Hebrew was not spoken regularly for almost 2,000 years, but was revived very successfully in the 20th century.

• Had to create large numbers of new words to modernize the language

  • Introduced into schools and parents (learning Hebrew) tried to talk to their children in the language

• A new literature was created, and newspapers in Hebrew

• Now Hebrew used in all domains of everyday life

Reviving ‘extinct’ languages: Cornish

spoken in the UK, they had no living speakers until recently (were extinct) but have now been been revived. Cornish, a Celtic language from southwest England, became extinct in 1891 after its last native speaker died and remained dormant for several decades. A revival movement began in the 1950s, followed by the creation of the Cornish Language Board in 1967 to promote the language through educational materials. Revitalization efforts expanded over time, and Cornish is now taught in schools, universities, and adult classes. As a result, a community of fluent speakers has re-emerged, making Cornish a notable example of successful language revival.

Reviving ‘extinct’ languages: Miami

spoken in the US. Miami (Myaamia), a Native American language spoken by tribal members in Indiana, Kansas, and Oklahoma, became moribund by the late 1980s with no remaining native speakers. Revitalization began with a 1994 dissertation that compiled historical records of the language, creating a foundation for its reconstruction. Using these materials, the Miami tribe developed teaching resources and educational programs to reintroduce the language to both children and adults. Efforts were further strengthened in 2001 through collaboration with Miami University to support and expand revitalization initiatives.

Language Revitalization

teaching-spreading new knowledge of ELs among HL communities

1. The EL is taught as a subject in school

2. Bilingual education

3. Summer language camps

4. Pre-school “language nests”: elders of the community come to talk to pre-schoolers

5. Master apprentice language-learning program

Language Revitilization: Maori

• Spoken by everyone in New Zealand before the arrival of the British in the 19thC

• In 1867 the British enforced English-only in schools. Using Maori → punishments

• Post WWII urbanization → pressure on Maori - English needed to get jobs

• Maori was expected to die out, 1980s there was a revitalization

• Innovation in New Zealand: language nests - pre school centers where elders spoke Maori with children

• 800 language nest centers by 1990, so successful → Maori teaching spread to high schools

  • Created a new gen of speakers, 1987 gov’t declares Maori an OL of NZ

  • Provides financial support for Mori tv and radio programming

• RECENT NEWS: Lorde released an EP on her album Solar Power and sung in Maori

Language Revitalization: Hawaiian

Hawaiian was widely spoken until the end of the 19th century, when the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown by the US, invited by the wealthy Anglo-American community in Hawaii who owned most of the plantations there. Hawaii subsequently became a part of the USA and Hawaiian language was forbidden from schools, and pressure was applied on Hawaiians to stop using their language even in the home, and switch to English.  However, the population didn’t learn English well, because the English teachers were not well-trained, and what emerged was a mixture of English with Hawaiian and Chinese and Japanese: Hawaiian Creole English, referred to colloquially as ‘pidgin’. This became widespread and replaced the speaking of Hawaiian until the 1970s, when new interest in Hawaiian culture led to a major revival of the language. It was declared an official language of the state and re-introduced into schools.  Hawaiian is the most successful case of the revitalization of a native American language anywhere in the USA.  Currently it is even possible to do PhD studies in Hawaiian, and some Hawaiian is taught in all schools.

Diglossia

 Switching between two different varieties of the same language in diff. areas of life

Diglossia: 4 different properties

1. Two distinct varieties of the same language are used by speakers in a pop

2. H and L varieties have different functions – used in diff. areas of life

   1. In situations where H is appropriate, L would not be used. When L is appropriate, speakers do not use H

   2. H and L are in “complementary distribution” 

3. H and L are learned at different times and in different environments

   1. L is learned at home, first. Later, H is learned in school

4. The H variety is never used in informal conversation

Diglossia 2 additional properties

1. The H variety (not L) may often be standardized

2. L is not normally used for writing – only cartoons, advertisements on billboards – and now by younger people on X, instagram, and in text messages

Extended Diglossia

• two distinct languages patterning in the typical H and L ways

Triglossia

•  a situation where there are three varieties/languages in H/L relations to each other

Triglossia: Tanzania

H varieties: English and Swahili

Differences between Classical Arabic and written Arabic

Classic: Classical Qur’anic Arabic is the H form—highly prestigious and widely perceived throughout the Arabic-speaking world as being logical and clear in its design, beautiful in its mode of expression, and generally superior to all colloquial forms of Arabic. Such strong feelings about Classical Arabic are reported to be held among those with education and the non-educated/illiterate alike.

Written: Almost all forms of writing are carried out in MSA, including informal notes to family members and friends. The only exceptions to this are certain folkloric plays and poetry which may be written down in colloquial forms of Arabic. Otherwise, all books, newspapers, magazines, and letters are composed with MSA, not with colloquial Arabic.

Diaglossia Case Study: Greece

• Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire for 400 years → major langs= Turkish, Persian, Arabic

• When Greece became independent, it wanted to establish a form of greek as a new NL

  • Proposals: 

1. Make colloquial Athens’ Greek the model for the new NL

2. Make a new ‘pure’ form of Greek and purge foreign/borrowed words

3. Make Ancient Greek the new NL

• Diglossia emerged: Khatarevous - H functions, Dhimotiki - L functions 

  • End to diglossia → Dhimotiki became accepted in H-like domains, developed into Modern Standard Greek, took 150 years

Code -switching

Switching between two (or more) different languages in a single conversation

Four levels of code-switching

• Level 1: “Sentence-boundary CS”- each sentence is entirely in one language, but speakers alternate between languages in different sentences

• Level 2: “Extra Sentential CS” - ‘tag-inseration’, short phrases or single words ‘tags’ in L1 are inserted at the beginning or end of a sentence in L2

• Level 3: “Clause-boundary CS” - switches between L1 and L2 are made at clause boundaries

• Level 4: “Intra-sentential CS”- switches are made within clauses, often multiple times. AKA code-mixing

Code-mixing

Level 4 of code-switching, switches are made within clauses, often multiple times.

Causes of CS

1. Imbalance in the knowledge of L1 and L2

2. Stylistic Reasons for CS

3. Identity-related reasons

   1. CS is often done to stress solidarity-closeness with others, and membership of the same group

Accommodation

• making aspects of our behavior more like that of other people we are interacting with. Our behavior converges on patterns used by others

Divergence

• the opposite of linguistic accommodation and convergence

CS: Paraguay

n Paraguay, Guarani was once stigmatized as a language of the poor, while Spanish was seen as the prestigious language. However, attitudes changed after Reinaldo Larrosa demonstrated Guarani’s complexity and its importance to national identity, leading to its acceptance across society and recognition as a national language. Paraguay now exhibits diglossia, where Spanish is used in formal, high-status contexts and Guarani in informal, everyday communication. Language choice depends on factors such as formality, social status, location, and intimacy, with Guarani often expressing solidarity and Spanish signaling power.