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Chapter 12: Language Contact

Language Contact

  • Language contact- when two or more distinct languages come into contact with each other either directly through social interaction of the speakers or indirectly through education or literature

    • Borrowing- the transfer of lexical items or structural properties from one language to another

      • Loans- individual words adopted into one language from another

      • Core vocabulary- words for basic items that most societies have words for (usually not borrowed)

      • Calques- phrases acquired through a word-for-word translation into native morphemes

    • Language convergence- languages in contact become more alike

    • Language death- a language has no more speakers left

  • Intensity of contact- determined by the duration of the linguistic contact as well as the level of interaction among speakers

  • Adstratal- speakers who are equally prestigious

    • Superstratum language- the language of the dominant or more prestige group

    • Substratum language- the language of the less dominant or less prestige group

Borrowings into English

  • 38.3% of the 1,000 most frequently used words in English are lexical borrowings from a variety of other languages

    • Scandanavian

    • French

    • Latin

    • Greek

    • Native American languages

    • Spanish

Pidgin Languages

  • Pidgin languages- develop in trading centers or in areas under industrialization

    • Prepidgin jargon- the initial stage of pidgin formation in which there is little or no consistent grammar and rampant variation among speakers

    • Crystallizing- establishing grammatical conventions

    • Prototypical pidgins- pidgins that emerged rather abruptly in situations where the contact is limited to certain social settings

    • Expanded pidgins- not limited to certain social settings

  • Characteristics of pidgins

    • Consonant clusters ore often reduced

    • Absence of affixes

    • Use of reduplication

    • Comparatively small vocabularies

  • Lexifier- the language that provides most of the vocabulary of a pidgin

Creole Languages

  • Creole languages- develop from a pidgin language or prepidgin jargon when it is adopted as the first, or native, language of a group of speakers

  • Nativization- the process in which an initially non-native language to a group of speakers is adopted as first languages by children in some speech community

Societal Multilingualism

  • Societal multilingualism- when whole communities speak multiple languages in everyday life

    • Common among immigrant communities

  • Code switching- the use of two or more languages or dialects within a single utterance or conversation

  • Diglossia- the situation where different languages or dialects are used for different functions

Language Endangerment and Language Death

  • Causes of language endangerment:

    • Problems of access to mainstream economic opportunities

    • Potential for ridicule, overt discrimination, and prejudice

    • Lack of instruction in their native language

    • Limited “scope” for using the language

  • Positive aspects of maintaining one’s native language

    • The potential to maintain one’s culture and prevent a sense of rootlessness

    • Enhances pride and self-esteem

    • A well-developed self-identity and group membership that allows access to a different culture

    • Cognitive advantages through bilingualism

  • Language endangerment is a locally determined phenomenon

Case Studies in Language Contact

  • Possessive pronouns and Adjectives

    • Kupwar Kannada follows a Kupwar Marathi pattern. Kannada spoken outside Kupwar has a distinction that is not present in the Marathi pattern

  • Verb formations

    • There are distinct occurences beterrn Kupwar Urdu and Kupwar Kannada

Chapter 12: Language Contact

Language Contact

  • Language contact- when two or more distinct languages come into contact with each other either directly through social interaction of the speakers or indirectly through education or literature

    • Borrowing- the transfer of lexical items or structural properties from one language to another

      • Loans- individual words adopted into one language from another

      • Core vocabulary- words for basic items that most societies have words for (usually not borrowed)

      • Calques- phrases acquired through a word-for-word translation into native morphemes

    • Language convergence- languages in contact become more alike

    • Language death- a language has no more speakers left

  • Intensity of contact- determined by the duration of the linguistic contact as well as the level of interaction among speakers

  • Adstratal- speakers who are equally prestigious

    • Superstratum language- the language of the dominant or more prestige group

    • Substratum language- the language of the less dominant or less prestige group

Borrowings into English

  • 38.3% of the 1,000 most frequently used words in English are lexical borrowings from a variety of other languages

    • Scandanavian

    • French

    • Latin

    • Greek

    • Native American languages

    • Spanish

Pidgin Languages

  • Pidgin languages- develop in trading centers or in areas under industrialization

    • Prepidgin jargon- the initial stage of pidgin formation in which there is little or no consistent grammar and rampant variation among speakers

    • Crystallizing- establishing grammatical conventions

    • Prototypical pidgins- pidgins that emerged rather abruptly in situations where the contact is limited to certain social settings

    • Expanded pidgins- not limited to certain social settings

  • Characteristics of pidgins

    • Consonant clusters ore often reduced

    • Absence of affixes

    • Use of reduplication

    • Comparatively small vocabularies

  • Lexifier- the language that provides most of the vocabulary of a pidgin

Creole Languages

  • Creole languages- develop from a pidgin language or prepidgin jargon when it is adopted as the first, or native, language of a group of speakers

  • Nativization- the process in which an initially non-native language to a group of speakers is adopted as first languages by children in some speech community

Societal Multilingualism

  • Societal multilingualism- when whole communities speak multiple languages in everyday life

    • Common among immigrant communities

  • Code switching- the use of two or more languages or dialects within a single utterance or conversation

  • Diglossia- the situation where different languages or dialects are used for different functions

Language Endangerment and Language Death

  • Causes of language endangerment:

    • Problems of access to mainstream economic opportunities

    • Potential for ridicule, overt discrimination, and prejudice

    • Lack of instruction in their native language

    • Limited “scope” for using the language

  • Positive aspects of maintaining one’s native language

    • The potential to maintain one’s culture and prevent a sense of rootlessness

    • Enhances pride and self-esteem

    • A well-developed self-identity and group membership that allows access to a different culture

    • Cognitive advantages through bilingualism

  • Language endangerment is a locally determined phenomenon

Case Studies in Language Contact

  • Possessive pronouns and Adjectives

    • Kupwar Kannada follows a Kupwar Marathi pattern. Kannada spoken outside Kupwar has a distinction that is not present in the Marathi pattern

  • Verb formations

    • There are distinct occurences beterrn Kupwar Urdu and Kupwar Kannada

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