Linguistics Final

Dialect Continuum

A problem with mutual intelligibility. When each dialect is closely related to the next, but dialects at the ends of the spectrum are mutually unintelligible. when there are a large number of dialects, some will be closely related, but others will be so far apart that they are not mutually intelligible

Balkan Spachbund

A sprachbund is when several languages enter into a linguistic alliance, have common features because of geographical distance. Balkan Sprachbund is region of southeastern Europe where Albanian, Macedonian, Greek, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Serbo-Croatian show signs of linguistic convergence from long standing contact.

Protolanguage

An earlier, common language that similar languages descended from. Influence from Darwins theory of evolution. Ex) Proto-indo-european: Sanskrit, ancient greek, latin

Abjad

Arabic/Hebrew conconant alphabet, no vowel symbol

Creole

Arise when speakers in contact are in need of a common, primary, means of communication. Unlike a pidgin it is a complete language and is acquired by children as a native language. Characterized plantation settings im Caribbean and parts of southern US Ex) Gullah

Family Tree Theory

Assumes that speech sounds change in regular, recognizable ways, so phonological similarities among languages may be due to a genetic relationship among those languages. Makes use of terms mother, sister or daughter relationships. Ex) Proto-Indo-European: french and Spanish are sister languages that are daughters of Sanskrit, Ancient Greek and Latin.

Style Shifting

Automatically shifting your speech from one style to another depending on the social context. Changing registers depending on the person you're speaking to.

Discourse Analysis

Avoid observers paradox by using larger databases of speech that have been recorded for other purposes. The study of use of language in a discourse or conversation between two people. Discourse analysts examine the structure of the information flow of speech, the interdependencies of sentences in speech, and other aspects of language use. technique used to analyze how particular identities are established in a course of a conversation; researcher must break down conversation between 2+ people into various components

Coinages

Bandaid, kleenex, kodak

Discuss factors that caused regional variation in the United States

Began in part in England, as speakers from various regions of England came to US and settled in east. -Eastern, central and south england settled in east New England and Virginia -North and west england settled in NJ, Delaware -Scots Irish settled in west new england, NY and appalachia. -Boston, Philidelphia, and Charleston acquired a prestige as venters of trade and culture. -Western migration had influence on dialects -Contact between English and Native american languages contributed significantly to North American english.

Loan Translation (Calques)

Calques are whole phrases and idiomatic expressions that are borrowed. They are translated directly word for word. Ex) "it goes without saying" from French, "Long time no see" from Chinese

Metathesis

Change in order of sounds Hros change to Horse Frist change to first Brid, bird

Monophthongization

Change of diphthong to simple vowel sound, monophthong riul change to rul

Logographic

Chinese -Ideographic, Pictographic

Linguistic determinism

Claims that language determines thought. This is the strong version of the linguistic relativity hypothesis. Speakers can only think of things the way their language expresses them. It is not possible to engage in rational thinking without language. Ex) Piraha speakers. They don't have a lot of numbers in their language, so they had a hard time recognizing quantities larger than 2 or 3.

Blends

Combining parts of two words together. Smoke and Fog: Smog Brunch

Conversion

Creating words by shifting part of speech to another part of speech without changing form of word. Steal started out as verbs "what a steal" it is a noun

Alphabetic

English, russian, korean Sers of letters that represent a phoneme

Idiolect

Every native speaker speaks with his/her own idiolect, which varies systematically from the idiolects of other native speakers. An individual's distinctive and unique use of language, including speech. This unique usage encompasses vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.

Covert Prestige

Exists among members of nonstandard speaking communities and that defines how people should speak in order to be considered members of those particular communities. The desire to belong to a group becomes the overriding factor. Ex) hanging out with high school friends, you may not want to use prescriptive standard due to the overtly prestigious stigma that may be associated with it. Doesn't fit in with how "the guys" are talking and you may be subject of ridicule.

Back Formation

Forming a new word by removing actual or supposed affixes from a word. It involves the creating of a new stem form. Ex) worker: work Burglar:burgle

Fronting

Fronts of tongue in production of vowels

Substratum

If speakers are unequal in terms of prestige, the less dominant group is the substratum. Less economically/politically powerful group. Ex) Native Americans to English. Foreign German workers language to German.

Language Death

If the shifting group is the only group of speakers who used their original language, the language will no longer be spoken once the shift is complete. No native or semi-speakers left.

Superstratum

If the speakers are unequal in terms of prestige, the dominant group is the Superstratum. The language associated with the politically and economically dominant group. Ex) English is superstratum language in contact between English and Native American. German is superstratum to foreign workers languages.

Mutual Intelligibility

If two speakers of two different varieties can understand each other, we can assume they are speaking two dialects of the same language. You're from Brooklyn, NY and you speak with someone from Texas. There are systematical differences but you can still understand each other. If you never studied Portuguese and went to Brazil, you wouldn't be able to understand them so they're not the same language.

Syllabic

Japanese/Cherokee 1 symbol for each syllable

Adstratum

Languages in contact with one another are equally prestigious. When they have equal degrees of power and and prestige associated with groups of speakers, they are adstratal. Ex) English and Norse in early England were adstratal languages.

Registers

Levels of speech formality. Speech style may vary depending on who you're talking to.

Isogloss

Lines that mark boundaries between regional dialects of a particular linguistic form. Dialectologists rely on field work to determine dialect regions. They come up with a list of particular characteristic that usually vary, then go out and directly ask people how they say things. It is plotted on maps, and the boundaries where different forms are used are isoglosses.

How do we know whether 2 varieties of languages are dialects of the same language or different languages? Linguistic Criterion and Socio-political Criterion

Linguistic Criterion is based on linguistic factors. Mutually intelligibility: if the two speakers can understand each other, they are speaking dialects of the same language. The problem with linguistic criterion is that there are no boundaries between what is mutually intelligible and what is not. (Dialect Continuum) Socio-political criterion is less scientific. It is based on borders and decisions/actions of countries. If the languages are spoken within the same autonomous country, they can be considered dialects of the same language. For example, Mandarin and other chinese languages aren't mutually intelligible, have common writing systems and speakers share the same culture despite not being mutually intelligible in spoken form. A problem with this is the example of Papago and Pima, there are barely any differences between these two languages but they consider themselves different languages.

Bundle of Isoglosses

Many isoglosses that appear in the same region, separating the same group of speakers, creates a bundle of isoglosses. Indicates that the speech of a particular group is different in a number of ways from that of other groups around it.

Folk Etymology

Obscure morphemes are reanalyzed in terms of more familiar morphemes. Driving force is reanalysis. Occurs most often when make up of words is obscure (unknown) Ex) garter snake garden snake Sickle cell anemia "Sick as hell anemia"

Observers Paradox

Observing a speaker makes them change their speech. For example, an african american speaker might speak in another way when interviewed by a Euro-American rather than an African american. One way to avoid observers paradox would be discourse analysis. Knowing that they are being watched or studied may make the speakers self conscious and many will try to speak the way they think the researcher wants them to rather than how they would normally speak.

Assimilation

One sound becomes more like another. wulfas change to wulvas

Regularity Hypothesis

Part of the Family tree diagram. Assumes that sound changes in regular, recognizable ways. Important in reconstructing a theoretical protolanguage, as all sound changes must follow regularity hypothesis: meaning sound change must occur in given environment.

PIE

Porto-Indo-European. Theoretical "common ancestor" of Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, and Latin. Theory that all of these languages evolved from this language. Influenced by Darwins Theory of Evolution.

Overt prestige

Prestige (In US, enjoy positions of power, wealth) attached to a particular variety by the community at large. Defines how people should speak in order to gain status in the wider community.

Raising

Raise in height of tongue in production of vowels.

Abugida

Sanskrit part alphabet part syllabic

Clipping

Shortening words Examination: Exam

Relatedness Hypothesis

Similarities across languages may be due to a genetic relationship among them because they come from common origins. However, cannot assume languages are related if they have similarities.

Insertion

Sound is added. athlit athelite

Southern Shift

Southern dialect often involves following a short front vowel and a glide, creating a diphthong out of what is usually pronounced as a monophthong. [E] is pronounced as [EI] led becomes lEId. Pin/pen merger: E is pronounced as I before an [n] sound. au is pronounced as [aeu] haus becomes haeus Use double modal using two modals to emphasize a sense of tentativeness. (I might could help you)

Semi-speakers

Speakers with some command of a language but not full fluency. Last speakers of a kind and trying to preserve the language. Usually elderly.

Discuss social factors influencing language variation. Martha's Vineyard

Study about the centralization of diphthongs on island of Marthas vineyard. There were different groups of people, decedents of English, Portuguese, a native american population and miscellaneous group. Found that how closely speakers identified with the island, wanted to remain, wanted to enter the mainstream and saw themselves as Vineyarders and were proud of it, was positively correlated with degree of centralization. Centralization associated with being a Marthas Vineyard native. Those planning on leaving the island didn't exhibit as much centralization.

Linguistic Anthropology

Study of how languages interacts with and shapes social structure and culture. Linguistic anthropologists are interested in social organization and cultural meaning as they are reflected in language. Ex) Spending time, wasting time, investing time, budgeting time. Reflects a system of worth, time is precious resource.

Diachronic Analysis

Study of language development through time. This provides across time analyses of languages.

Speech styles

Systematic variations in speech based on factors such as topics, setting and addressee. Usually described in terms of formality. Differences in their grammar to indicate the social context of a conversation. Ex) Speaking to an adult more formally. Tu vs Usted in Spanish.

Acronyms

Taking initial sounds or letters of each word and join them together into a separately pronounced word. Not always on letter per word, function words skipped. Ex) North American Treaty Organization NATO

Jargon

Technical language; a language variety that differs only in lexical terms. Almost everyone can speak at least a number of jargons, because each job, field of study, sport, hobby, etc, has one. Sometimes, words from jargons work their way into everyday speech. Ex. Strike out (baseball)

Communicative competence

The ability to interact with and communicate according to cultural norms. Must know politeness strategies, speaker roles, taking turn rules, and greetings.

Hypercorrection

The act of producing non standard forms by way of false analogy. Even violations of a prescriptive rule can be perceived as standard if used by a prestigious group. Ex) Use of "you and I" even when you and me is correct. Think "This is a matter between Kim and me" is wrong, and say it should be Kim and I because of other rules.

Lexical Borrowing

The adoption of individual words into one language from another language. These words are referred to as loans. Pronunciation adapts to phonology of that language. Ex) Ballet borrowed from french, Taco from Spanish, and pizza and spaghetti from Italian

Synchronic Analysis

The analysis of a language at a particular point in time. This includes studying the current phonological process, morphemes, syntactic rules, etc.

Linguistic Relativity

The claim that language affects thought. It is considered the weak version of linguistic relativity hypothesis. Ex) German and Spanish, specific words give off grammatical genders and affects how you think about it. Key is feminine in spanish, so they think little, lovely, tiny. In German Bridge is masculine, strong, dangerous sturdy.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The idea that language someone speaks affects how he perceives the world. Users of different grammars are pointed by their grammar toward different types of observations and evaluations of externally similar acts of observation. Therefore, they are not equivalent as observers and must arrive at somewhat different views of the world.

Lexifier

The language that provides most of the vocabulary in a pidgin language. This is usually the superstratum or dominant language. Ex) French is the lexifier for Haitian Creole.

Disglossia

The situation where different languages or dialects are used for different functions. For example, standard dialect used for conversation, different one from education used for written communication. Ex) Arabic has local dialects that are used in ordinary conversations, but a more standard version used for written communication.

Wave Theory

Theory recognizes the gradual speed of change throughout a dialect, language or group of languages similar to wave expanding on surface of pond from the point where pebble was tossed in. Some changes reinforce the area of existing changes while others only partially overlap or only affect a certain area. These changes can bring branches of language families closer together pr farther apart.

Northern Cities Shift

This shift involves a rotation of the vowel space and creates a specific dialectal variation in the pronunciation of long low/mid vowels and short vowels. -Long low/mid vowels are pronounced higher and closer to the front so that the [ae] is prounced as [E] bag, pronounced beg. Also, [a] is pronounced [ae] so lock is pronounced lack. -Short vowels are pronounced farther back..bet normally pronounced [bEt] is pronounced [bvt]

Dissimilation

Two similar sounds become less like one another. fith changes to fift

Pidgin Language

Typically arises when two or more peoples come together for the purpose of trade. If they do not share a common language they might create a simplified yet distinct language to facilitate trading. Not the primary language of their users. Ex) Chinnok Jargon spoken by Native American, British and French traders

Deletion

When a sound is no longer pronounced nose changes to nouz

Language Shift

When languages have unequal prestige relationship, a shift by one group of speakers towards another language occurs. They abandon their native language.

Language Convergence

When two languages become more similar because of contact between them. Occurs between two adstratal languages enter long term contact situation. In some cases a Spachbund may form

Accents

While most people refer to foreign accents as accents, every person actually speaks with an accent. This is true whether they are "foreign" or not. Systematic phonological variation of a language; these are differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and other areas of grammar

Eponyms

Words that are named for persons connected with them Washington DC after George Washington District of Columbia after Christopher Columbus

Cognates

Words with similar forms and meanings within two languages. Can be more confident that languages are related if cognates are systematic and seem to be result of language change. Ex) information and información in spanish.

Paradigm Leveling

a paradigm is a set of grammatically related forms that stem from a common root "go, went, gone"; leveling is when there is a change within a paradigm to create regularity that was disturbed by a sound change.

Backing

backness of tongue in production of vowels

Dipthongization

change from simple vowel to diphthong. Hus change to Haus Mus change to Maus

Lowering

lowering in height of tongue in production of vowels