Bilingual and Multilingual Communities

When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for their languages to influence each other

Bilingual speakers often borrow new word incorporate new words, morphological and grammatical structures into their primary languages which then spread into the primary language and thus act as catalysts for language change.

In bilingual and multilingual communities different languages can have different social meanings and values

Bilingual speakers can choose which language to speak depending on context, topics, personal goals etc.

Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) The hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans.

6000 BP

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

English One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine ten

German eins zwei drei vier fünf sechs sieben acht neun zehn

Spanish uno dos tres cuatro cinco seis siete ocho nueve diez

French un deux trois quatre cinq six sept huit neuf dix

Romanian unu doi trei patru cinci s,ase s,apte opt nouâ zece

Sanskrit éka dvá trí catúr páñca s.as. sap tá as.tá náva dáça

Indo European Numbers

The Anglo-Saxon Period410-787

1. Se man is god ‘the man is good’2. Ne drincst Þu win? “not drinkest thou wine?3. Ne habbað we cyning “not have we a king”4. We eow can. “We y’all know’5. Heo hine lærde “She him advised’6. Hi hæfdon hire mete geboht. “ They had their

food brought’7. He geseah Þone mann “ he saw the man”

Old English (OE) dates from approximately 400 A.D. to 1066

Lord's prayer in old english

OE inflected for • Case (subject, object, ind. obj, poss.)• Gender (masculine, feminine, neuter)• Number (singular, plural)• comparative and superlative adjectival

conjunctions (e.g. the suffixes –er and –est as in fair, fairer and fairest )

OE Morphology

Old English is nearly impossible to read or understand without studying it much like and English speaker today would study French, Latin, or Chinese

Early England Created by Three Invasions

1. Roman Occupation 55 B.C.-410 A.D.

2. Anglo-Saxon and Viking Invasions 410 – 1066 A.D.

3. The Norman Invasion (The Battle of Hastings) in 1066 A.D.LATINLATIN

GERMAN(IC)GERMAN(IC)

FRENCHFRENCH

Middle English (1100-1500)1066 William the Conqueror of Normandy invades England unites the kingdom. Replaces traditional gov’t with a new system and his own

appointments. replaces the English nobility with Normans. replaces the Church leadership with Normans

Middle English Canterbury Tales

Middle English

Class-based division in language useAristocracy –FrenchTradesmen and Servants –English and FrenchPeasants –EnglishClergy and “Scholars” –Latin, English, and French

the removal from the top levels of the English-speaking political and ecclesiastical hierarchy, and their replacement with a Norman-speaking one, both opened the way for the introduction of Norman as a language of polite refined discourse and literature and fundamentally altered the role of Old English in education and administration.

Results in a system of class-based synonymsEnglish ox pig sheep wood house boldFrench beef pork mutton forest mansion courageous

Some words of French origin are considered more formal or polite than Anglo-Saxon equivalents

Anglo-Saxon source French sourceSmell odorSweat perspirationEat dineDead deceasedWant desireLook at regardGo away departCome back return

the complex system of inflectional endings which Old English had was gradually lost and simplified in the dialects of spoken English

Some ME loans from FrenchLaw and government attorney, bailiff, chancellor, chattel, country, court, crime, defendent, evidence, government, jail, judge,jury, larceny, noble, parliament, plaintiff, plea, prison, revenue, state, tax, verdict

Church abbot, chaplain, chapter, clergy, friar, prayer, preach, priest, religion, sacrament, saint, sermon

Nobilitybaron, baroness; count, countess; duke, duchess; marquis, marquess; prince, princess; viscount,

viscountess; noble,royal (contrast native words: king, queen, earl, lord, lady, knight, kingly, queenly)

Militaryarmy, artillery, battle, captain, company, corporal, defense,enemy,marine, navy, sergeant, soldier,

volunteer

Cooking beef, boil, broil, butcher, dine, fry, mutton, pork, poultry, roast, salmon, stew, veal

Culture and luxury goods art, bracelet, claret, clarinet, dance, diamond, fashion, fur, jewel, oboe, painting, pendant, satin, ruby,sculpture

Otheradventure, change, charge, chart, courage, devout, dignity, enamor, feign, fruit, letter, literature,magic, male, female, mirror, pilgrimage, proud, question, regard, special

Some of the loan words were changed to fit the sound patterns and morphology of Anglo-Saxonmodern English /ž/ was absent in old English Anglo Saxonheard by 11th century Anglo Saxon inhabitants of British isles in speech of Norman invadersthey replaced the unpronounceable /ž/ with their native /ĵ/

English FrenchJust /ĵ/ust /ž/ustJudge /ĵ/u/ĵ/ /ž/uzJack /ĵ/aek /ž/ak The English consonant /ĵ/ replaced French /ž/ because it is the native sound closest to the French oneBoth /ĵ/ and /ž/ are voiced palatal consonants, although they differ in their manner of articulationEventually /ž/ became incorporated into English in such words as lingerie, rouge, pleasure, casual

Original: Whan þat Aprill with his shoures sote Þe droghte of Marche haþ perced to the rote, And baðed euery veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is þe flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeþ Inspired haþ in euery holt and heeþ Þe tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Haþ in the Ram his halfe course yronne, And smale fowles maken melodye, That slepen al the niȝt with open ye— So prikeþ hem Nature in hir corages— Þan longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes; And specially, from euery shires ende Of Engelond to Caunterbury þey wende, The holy blissful martir for to seke, Þat hem haþ holpen, whan þat þey were seke.

Translation: When that April with his showers sweet The drought of March has pierced to the root And bathed every vein in such liqueur Of which virtue engendered is the flower, When Zephyrus also with his sweet breath Inspired has in every holt and heath The tender crops, and the young sun Has in the Ram his half course run, And small fowls make melody That sleep all the night with open eye, So pricks them nature in their hearts, Then long folk to go on pilgrimages, And palmers for to seek strange strands To far shrines known in sundry lands, And specially from every shires’ end Of England to Canterbury they wend The holy blessed martyr for to seek That them has helped when that they were sick.

Prologue from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

canterbury Tales

Pyramid MummiObeliskEgyptGypsyPharaohGumEbonyOasisAdobeIvoryBehemothMannaBasaltMythpitcherPhoenixLilySackColumbus

SphinxSusan(na),Phineas,MosesAmmoniaLibyaMemphisbarge,BarkBarqueto embark tartSashpharmacyPaperAlabasterHumphreyBaboonalchemy chemistry

Words from ancient Egyptian (usually via Greek)

•Subject-Verb-Object word order•no embedded clauses•No tones, •Little case inflections

Pidgina simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in commonnot a native language of any speech community, but must be learned as second languages.usually have low prestigeUsually made up of elements from both languagesSince a Pidgin strives to be a simple and effective form of communication, the grammar, phonology, and lexicon are as simple as possible

Chinese Pidgin English and Melanesian Pidgin English arose through contact between English-speaking traders and inhabitants of East Asia and the Pacific islands.Other pidgins appeared with the slave trade in Africa and with the importation of West African slaves to Caribbean plantations.Most of the small vocabulary of a pidgin language (Melanesian Pidgin has only 2,000 words, Chinese Pidgin English only 700)It is believed that pidgins become Creole languages when a generation whose parents speak pidgin to each other teach it to their children as their first language. Creoles can then replace the existing mix of languages to become the native language of a community

Pidgin

Creoles

A language descended from a pidgin (usually) that has become the native language of a group of people.Creoles arise in contact situations where speakers of different languages interact and need to develop a mutually intelligible codeThe majority of creole languages are based on English, Portuguese, French, Spanish and other languages (their superstrate language), with local or immigrant languages as substrate languages.Generally have a low statusMost speakers of a Creole are bilingual

Gullah - derived from English and African languages spoken by about 300,000 people on islands of the coast of South CarolinaLouisiana Creole derived from various African languages and French about 80,000 Creole speakersHawaiian Creole is a complex mix of English, native Hawaiian and several Asian or pacific languages spoken in Hawaii by about 800,000 people

Examples

In bilingual communities particular languages can become associated with particular contexts and invoke distinct social and personal meaningsBilingual speakers must often choose between the two (or more options)What will choice depend on?

Language use in bilingual communities

context, participants, topics, and goalsBilingual English and Spanish may speak Spanish at home while talking about personal relationships which gives them a sense of solidarity and English at work when discussing business matters

A situation where there are two (often closely-related, or varieties of) languages coexisting in the same society These languages are usually arranged hierarchicallyThe high language • the more conservative form of the language• high prestige • generally used by the government and in formal texts• usually the written language • Dominates in `Formal' domains such as public speaking, religious texts and practice, education, and other prestigious kinds of usage• For diglossic situations involving two different (genetically unrelated) languages the high language is the language of the local power elite or the dominant religious community and/or its priesthood.• In such cases the High variety language is the language of the more powerful section of the society

Diglossia

The low language• has low prestige• usually the spoken vernacular tongue (i.e. the native or local language of an area - the common language). • used for informal conversation, jokes, street and market, the telephone, and any other domains (e.g. letter writing, cinema, television)• often associated with strong national loyalty and can be used to signal in group membership

Examples

French and English in Canada Classic Latin spoken by the Romans and Vulgar Latin spoken by the common people (Latin word vulgaris, meaning "of people“) • Vulgar Latin evolved into the Romance languages

Old English spoken by the English commoners and French spoken by the upper class

90% of Paraguans speak GuaraniBoth Spanish and Guarani are the official languages yet Spanish, spoken mostly in urban areas is the language of prestige (an international language with a long literary tradition) and used in government, schools, and commerce.Guarani is used in rural areas and in informal settings with friends and relatives, in talking with status inferiors. bilinguals choice depends on (1)location of interaction, (2) degree of formality. (3) degree of intimacy and (4)seriousness of discourse Guaraní is seen as emotional and unsophisticated but raises feelings of pride, solidarity, linguistic loyalty and nationalism in the people

In multilingual communities languages carry social meaningsBy choosing to speak in one over another social messages concerning relative status, prestige or authority can be sentChoosing the wrong language can cause offenceE.g. In NYC children and young adults, of Puerto Rican descent are likely to respond to parents or grandparents in Spanish thus accommodating to their needs but will use English with their siblingsLingua francas are nobody`s language so they transmit messages of equalitySpeakers engage in reciprocal accommodation

Selecting a code

Lingua Franca

Pieter Bruegel, The tower of Babel 1563.

language used by people whose mother tongues are different in order to communicate.Any language can serve as a lingua franca between two groups

Any given language normally becomes a lingua franca primarily by being used for international commerce, but can be accepted in other cultural exchanges

The Hanseatic League, an alliance of trading guilds trading over the Baltic and North between the 13th and 17th centuries used German as a lingua franca

Other ExamplesFrench - the language of diplomacy in Europe from the 1600s until after WW1 when it was replaced by English English, French, Spanish in former colonies English is the current lingua franca of international business, science, technology and aviation, diplomacy English is also regarded as an unofficial global lingua franca due to the economic, cultural, and geopolitical power of most of the developed Western nations in world financial and business institutions.

SwahiliUsed throughout large parts of East Africa as a lingua franca since the mid 1700sSwahili was used along trading and slave routes that extended west across Lake Tanganyika and into the present-day DRCAbout 35% of the Swahili vocabulary derives from the Arabic language, resulting from the fact that the language evolved through centuries of contact between Arabic-speaking traders and many different Bantu-speaking peoples inhabiting Africa's Indian Ocean coast.

It also has incorporated Persian, German, Indian and English words Swahili has become a second language spoken by tens of millions in Tanzania, Kenya, and Congo (DRC), where it is an official or national language.the only African language among the official working languages of the African Union.

Some non-Swahili ethnic groups speak Swahili more often than their mother tongues, and many choose to raise their children with Swahili as their first language leading to the possibility that several smaller East African languages will fade as Swahili transitions from being a regional lingua franca to a regional first language.

Swahili is typically the first language two strangers use upon meeting. The average East African encounters Swahili in the market, elementary education, government "how to" publications, popular radio and films. New Indian movies often dubbed in SwahiliTanzania uses Swahili as its official code and is used in all public domains because it wants the entire population to achieve an adequate level of literacy and education In Kenya Swahili is an official language but in practice English is used in public domains because it wants to en courage a select few to pursue advanced education

Swahili

India has hundreds of different languages spread over 4 language families and including many isolates.The largest, Hindi is spoken by over 400 millionAfter independence Hindi was given official status in the hopes that it would unite the hundreds of ethnic groups in India English was given status as an ``assistant`` language and was supposed to terminate officially 15 years after independence English is mother tongue of only 200,000 people but known by 100 million

English in India

British India 1858

English came to India in 1611 when the East India Company started trading British rulers used high caste Brahmins as mediators and administrators The British policy was to create an Indian class who were “Indians in blood and color but English in taste, in opinions and morals and intellect”.

English Christian missionaries came to India from 1813 and later built high schools with English as the language of instruction which obliged the Indians who wanted to study to have a good knowledge of English. The British also established universities in India beginning in 1857 again with English the language of instruction. Indian leaders also supported English and, claiming it to be the main key to success establish many new schools with English the language of instruction schools that emphasized English were preferred by ambitious Indians. Indians who spoke good English were seen as the new elite of India

Indians who know English will always try to show that they know English.It symbolizes in Indians minds, better education, better culture and higher intellect. Indians who know English often mingle it with Indian languages in their conversations. English also serves as the communicator among Indians who speak different language Until the beginning of 1990s, foreign movies in India weren’t translated or dubbed in Indian languages, but were broadcast in English and were meant for English speakers only

Use of English creates a language barrier that helps maintain the privileged positions of lawyers and other professionalsMany Elite classes oppose Hindi as the national language and advocate Englishbecause it enhances their prestige and control over governmental, economic and educational institutions

Though it lacks the symbolic power to be chosen as the sole official language, it is used widely in communication. serious journalism is English both in the print media, and broadcastingIn higher education English is the premier prestige language.Careers in any area of business or commerce, or within the government, or in science and technology require fluency in English.Very much a part of the educated middle and upper class person's life especially of the youth in Indiathe largest number of books are published in English

It's not simply a language thing, but concerns interrelated histories of cultural dominance and exploitation, economic power, wealth, and political power.

Bill 101 – the Charter of the French Language.

declaration that French was to be the only language allowed on commercial signs in the province. With few exceptions, the use of English was bannedn 1993, introduced Bill 86, which allowed English on outdoor commercial signs only if the French lettering was at least twice as large as the English.

situational language use assumes symbolic and personal meaningsselection of code between bilingual speakers may reflect underlying attitudes about each languageBy choosing one language over another, speakers assert their identity and show their sensitivity to the linguistic rights of othersspeech accommodation theory suggests that when speakers have positive attitudes towards interlocutors the accommodate or converge to the latter’s speech styles

People have strong emotional ties to their native language - ethnic identitylanguages that have lost speakers can be revitalized when attention is focused on the association between linguistic and ethnic identity

Basque is a language isolatelittle is known of its origins It is likely that an early form of the Basque language was present in Western Europe before the arrival of the Indo-European languages to the areaThe Romans neglected the western Pyrenees allowing the language to survive while other languages in the area died out

Basque (Euskera or Euskara)

was the majority language of the region until 18th centuryOutlawed by Franco during the Spanish civil war (1936-39) until 1975 because of its association with radicalism 1959 Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or ETA founded to advocate traditional cultural ways and language but evolved into an armed group demanding Basque independence1960s A lessening of official restrictions lead to the development of Basque language schools for children as well as programs aimed at teaching Basque to adultsnow taught to university levelA standardized form is promoted although not understood by allabout 1 million speakersA direct link between the political autonomy of Euskadi and the maintenance of their linguistic and cultural heritage

Basque (Euskera or Euskara)

Irish was the language of the poor In the mid 19th century Irish nationalist movement emerged and sought to encourage and revive the original language part of a national movement which led to the Irish Free State Irish was made the official language

Restoration of languages in decline may be taken as an aspect of ethnic revival e.g. Irish

English was the language of social prestige in the mid 16th century when the English colonized Ireland and Irish went into decline

support for it in the form of compulsory education, bilingual publications etc.association of Irish Gaelic with an uneducated poor rural population translates into a negative attitude toward the language

Trinidad Pacaya Inuma, one of the remaining 150 fluent speakers of Iquito (Peru).

Endangered languagesA language that it is at risk of falling out of use, generally because it has fewer than 1000 speakers If it loses all of its native speakers, it becomes an extinct language. Many indigenous peoples have abandoned their language after being subjected to invasion, conquest and subsequent control by an overwhelming power, e.g. Native American languagesmoribund languages spoken by adults but are no longer being learned as the mother tongue by the children and are therefore no longer viable at least 3,000 of the world's 6,000-7,000 languages are liable to be lost before the year 2100. (maybe 90%)

about half the world’s languages have fewer than 3,000 speakers.

Good or bad?Pros

represent unmapped and untapped knowledge of the full capabilities and limits of the mind languages embody unique local knowledge of cultures and natural systems which is essential for promoting scientific and technological progress languages serve as evidence for understanding human history

ConsFewer languages means better and clearer communications among the majority of speakers.maintaining many separate languages is enormous

e.g. Eu translations designing and marketing a product in several languages (instructions) education in minority languages necessitates huge economic investment in teacher training and preparation of textbooks

extremist view is that all languages should give way to one single language, thereby creating the greatest economic efficiency possible by utterly avoiding all transaction costs associated with linguistic differences.Is such a unified language desirable? – does it stifle originality.

Attitudes

Some communities actively resist promotion of their own minority language, since children educated in the language are perceived to be at an economic or social disadvantage, when compared to children educated in a more dominant national language.

members of very small linguistic communities sometimes express strong appreciation for the language as a means of communication as compared with other available languages

19th century, the Canadian government assumed responsibility for educating and caring for the country's aboriginal people.developed a policy called "aggressive assimilation" to be taught at church-run, government-funded industrial boarding schools, later called residential schools run, under the Department of Indian Affairs. Children were away 10 months of the year, and all instruction was in English

Residential schools

Native languages were forbiddenThe aim was improve their life chances by learning English , Christianity and Canadian customs. Ideally, they would pass their adopted lifestyle on to their children, and native traditions would diminish, or be completely abolishedSimilar situation in the USAmany native languages were forgotten

Plains Algonquian language spoken almost entirely by elders in Wyoming and is in great danger of becoming extinct,Early 1800s English was valued as means to communicate with federal officials who influenced and controlled reservation communitiesBilingual Arapahos became interpreters and brokers of relations with the native people and outsiders and often rose to positions of tribal leaderLate 1800s federal education policies restricted or even eliminated the use of native languages in schools thus limiting the young people’s fluency

Arapaho

For much of 20th century Arapaho at home and community meetings and celebrations and religious contextsEnglish in school, government and businessBeginning in the 1950s most children learned English as their first languageFew parents speak Arapaho to their childrenBy the 1990s only 500 or 600 people on a reservation of 5000 are fluent speakersMost are over 60 Scabby Bull, Arapaho

The attempt by individuals, cultural or community groups, governments, or political authorities--to recover the spoken use of a language that is endangered, moribund, or no longer spoken.efforts at revitalizing and maintaining native American languages have accelerated considerably in the last decade.Many younger people see it as a way to reconnect with their identity and try to learn their languages as well as ceremonial and social practiceseducation is key to promotion of its use in society

Language revitalization

where there are still many speakers, e.g. Inuktitut, Navajo, and Cree programs are aimed at maintenance

the native language is used in schools as either a primary or secondary code of instruction, books and other reaching materials are printed in the native languages, and children are encouraged to speak their native tongue in all appropriate settingsparents and other relatives need to be involved since the best hope for survival occurs when languages are sued in ongoing, spontaneous and meaningful interaction

where small number of speakers language immersion programs and the presence of elders as role models help develop the necessary motivation for young people e.g. Mohawk

In California only a handful of elderly speakersA master-apprentice language learning program startedThen returned to communities to involve a wider networkUnlikely to lead to widespread language use but important for language survival

After the 2nd century CE the Roman Empire exiled most of the Jewish population of Jerusalem and Hebrew gradually ceased to be a spoken language Letters, contracts, commerce, science, philosophy, medicine, poetry, and laws continued to be written in HebrewAt the end of the 19th century Hebrew began to be revived as part of the ideology of the national revival.

Hebrew

As people moved to Israel it began to replace scores of languages spoken by Jews from all over Europe1921 made official language in British-ruled Palestine 1948 became an official language of IsraelCurrently spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world.

The International Dominance of EnglishModern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca

is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy80-75% of computer data in EnglishThe initial reason for its spread was the British Empire,The growing economic and cultural influence of the USA since WWII accelerated adoption of English as a global languageApproximately 375 million people speak English as their first language.Fourth largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish and HindiEstimates that of it spoken as a second language vary from 470 million to over a billionMost frequency aught foreign language in worlds’ schools

In many countries English has a high status through its association with advanced education and pubic usesimplies privileges of class and social powerInclusion of English loan words in Japanese seen as modern and cosmopolitan, technical and scientific

some react against the seepage of English into Japanese

Code Switchingusing more than one language or variety in conversationBilingual speakers have a choice of languages to chose fromChoices can have several functions

lexical need – no word in one language or awkwardly phrasedSocial values associated with knowledge of the prestige codeused to switch topics, Signal group identityrelationship-building (solidarity)attention getting devicesswitch to match gender of interlocutor – female switch more to male than male to femaleswitch as a sign of deference or accommodation to addressees

A process that incorporates various linguistic features such as affixes (bound morphemes), words (unbound morphemes), phrases and clauses of from a second language into a base language.emphasizes hybridization

Code Mixing

"Oh, here comes El Tubbo" "I want some snackolas!!""Let's party-ola!", or "Here's the pizza-mundo", "Take los kitties to the vet, okay?" "No problem-o" (should be "problema").

Spanglish

Spanglish

Terms

Bilingual and Multilingual CommunitiesProto-Indo-European language Pidgin Creoles Diglossia low languageThe high language Lingua FrancaEndangered languagesLanguage revitalization Code SwitchingCode Mixing