Language Files Chapter 12 Language Contact

language shift

two languages of unequal prestige are involved in extensive long-term contact. This involves the shift from the use of the less prestigious language to the more prestigious language in the contact situation. Typically, this involves the abandonment of use of the original language that the shifting group used.

intensity of contact

• Lexical borrowing requires only low intensity contact among speakers. • By contrast, structural borrowing requires more intense contact, as knowledge of the system is usually needed for the borrowing to happen (i.e., some speakers are bilingual).

What are some of the pressure factors that lead to language loss, either through language endangerment or language death by causing speakers to give up their language in favor of the language of the majority include

• Problems of access to mainstream economic opportunities as speakers of the minority language • Potential for ridicule, overt discrimination, and prejudice for being different • Lack of instruction in their native language • Limited "opportunities" to use their language in different speaking domains

common properties of pidgins

- They are made from mixtures of contact languages - Their vocabulary tends to be derived from the superstrate language because speakers of the substrate languages have higher motivation to learn the words of the economically powerful. - In pidgin contact situations, there is often little time or means for substrate speakers to be formally educated in the superstrate language, so they often acquire lexical items rather than whole grammars.

Prestige in this situation can come down to

- which language has the most overt prestige in regards to how the language is perceived globally or nationally - which language has the most speakers - and/or which language is the one made most easily available in educational settings by language planning or government officials.

language choice

A bilingual or multilingual person's decision--often politically, socially, or personally motivated--to speak a certain language in a certain situation

creole

A language that developed from contact between speakers of different languages and that serves as the primary means of communication for a particular group of speakers

dead language

A language that does not have any speakers; also called extinct language

endangered language

A language that has very few speakers left

semi-speaker

A person who does not speak a language fluently

pidgin

A simplified language that develops in contact situations in which speakers previously shared no common language

diglossia

A situation in which two distinct languages or dialects are used for different functions within one society

dormant language

A term used to label dead languages by people who believe they may be revived

dialect

A variety of a language defined by both geographical factors and social factors, such as class, religion, and ethnicity

second-language (L2) acquisition

Acquisition of a second language as a teenager or adult (after the critical period)

language

An abstract cognitive system that uniquely allows humans to produce and comprehend meaningful utterances

prepidgin jargon

An extremely rudimentary and variable type of language formed in the earlier stages of contact situations

Morphological borrowing

English has also adopted the derivational suffixes -able/-ible from French, via the borrowing of words such as incredible. Since being borrowed in English, the suffixes have been productive and fully integrated, being attached to non-French roots, as in words like writeable, drinkable, and readable

Phonological borrowing

For example, French /ʒ/ was borrowed into English from French in loanwords like rouge, measure, and prestige.

prestige

Having high standing or respect in a community

substratum language

In a contact situation, the native language of speakers of a politically and economically non-dominant group ex. Spanish (superstratal) and any of the Native American languages of Mexico (substratal), such as the Mixtec language that Spanish has come in contact with

bilingual mixed language

Language in which different aspects of linguistic structure derive from different languages, resulting from a high degree of bilingualism among speakers; also called an intertwined language

intensity of contact

Level of contact between speakers of different languages, determined by the duration of the linguistic contact and the amount of interaction among the speakers

adstratum language

One of two or more languages in contact that mutually influence one another, owing to relatively equal degrees of power and prestige associated with the groups of speakers; also called an adstratal language

Syntactic borrowing

Ordering requirements of surface elements in one language may be borrowed into another language, replacing the native word order. This process is fairly rare. An example in Language Files is Greek as spoken in Turkey, where Greek's original SVO order as adopted Turkish's SOV order under the influence of Turkish

societal bilingualism

Phenomenon in which bilingualism is the norm for a group of people

societal multilingualism

Phenomenon in which multilingualism is the norm for a group of people

loan translation

Phrase borrowed into a language by way of a word-for-word translation into native morphemes

borrowing

Process by which one language adopts words, phrases, or grammatical structures from another language

nativization

Process by which some variety of speech that was no one's native language is learned by children in a speech community as their first language

structural borrowing

Process of adopting grammatical structures from another language

lexical borrowing

Process of adopting words or phrases from another language

contact situation

Social situation in which speakers of distinct language varieties are brought together by social and/or economic factors such as settlement, trade, or relocation

bilingual

State of commanding two languages; having linguistic competence in two languages

language death

The complete demise of a language; a dead language no longer has any speakers

Decreolization

The convergence of a creole language towards a dominant language of the region (to the point of mutual comprehensibility).

transfer

The influence of one's native language on the learning of subsequent languages (which can facilitate or inhibit the learning of the second language)

lexifier

The language that provides most of the vocabulary of a pidgin

native language (L1) interference

The process of carrying over features from one's native language into another language, usually in language contact or second-language acquisition situations

crystallization

The process through which a pidgin establishes regular grammatical conventions

multilingual

The state of commanding three or more languages; having linguistic competence in three or more languages

superstratum language

The target language in a language contact situation; the language associated with the politically and economically dominant group ex. English (superstratal) and any of the Native American languages of North America (substratal) that English has come in contact with.

code-switching

Using words or structural elements from more than one language within the same conversation (or even within a single sentence or phrase)

loanword

Word borrowed from one language into another

language contact

contact of two or more distinct languages through social contact and linguistic exchanges between speakers. Contact situations can be described in terms of their influence on the linguistic systems, the social relationships of the speakers in contact, and the linguistic outcomes of the contact.

native language interference

impacting the contact situation among substrate language speakers impact of the substrate languages phonotactic constraints on the borrowings into the language from the superstratal language

Substrate influence

influence that the substrate language has on the superstrate language when borrowing occurs from the substrate language.

language convergence

is when two adstratal languages engaged in an extensive long-term contact situation become more similar due to the contact between them. Each of the languages involved changes to become more like the other(s) involved in the contact.

expanded pidgin

ones that are not limited to only certain social situations, and they tend to have larger structural and lexical resources. Thus, they are linguistically more complex

prototypical pidgin

ones that emerged rather abruptly in situations where contact is limited to certain social situations (such as trade).

Generally, what are the similarities and differences between types of AAVE across the US?

phonological differences regionally, but grammatical (syntax and morphological) convergence

Language Revitalization

s possible when a language is dying, although unfortunately it is less often the case than we would like it to be. With this process, a language that is losing native speakers (due to death or lack of use), is able to be preserved before the native speakers are lost. The preserved materials are then used to help new speakers learn to acquire the language and become speakers of it. In doing so, the language is kept alive for future generations to learn. • This has happened in the US with the Cherokee and Lakota languages. • In New Zealand, this has occurred with the Maori language.