Languages in Contact

Maarten MousLeiden University

Structure of talk

• why talk about language contact here

• historical linguistics

• models for language contact

• linking results of language contact to prior socio-linguistic situations

• prehistoric contact

Linguistics-Genetics

The link between linguistics and genetics is the speaker. Speakers speak different languages, shift to another language, become member of a different speech community. This is one obvious reason why the issue of language contact is important for this conference.

The linguistic genetic tree is an abstraction that has filtered out the admixture part of the linguistic history. 15

what to correlate to

• speech community (multilingualism: everybody belongs to several)

• ≠

• ethnic unit: relevance varies, not constant, multiple (clan affiliations)

Community

• speaker’s community

• ethnic community tribe-clan; caste

• economic community

• geography of settlement

• what do we compare?

Historical linguistics

• = study of language change

• basis is reconstruction of language change through the comparative method

• added result is a genetic tree of related languages; not central aim and an abstraction

• contact linguistics deals with the influence of other languages on change

Historical linguistics2

• Contact linguistics presumes the comparative method and does not aim at questioning it

• contact linguistics adds to a fuller understanding of the linguistics history; comparative method shows only part of the story and may give wrong impression of neat split15

• scientific robustness of regular sound change in comparative method is absent in contact linguistics

comparative method

• strong in sound laws• lexicon reconstruction; issue of conservative

basic vocabulary (sometimes precisely unstable; what is basic?)

• morphology (word structure): most resistant to language induced change; levelling; grammaticalization (lexical sign>grammar sign; can it predict?

• syntax: difficult, often linked to typology, fossilised in morphology

Dating by glottochronology

• retention rate as measure for time depth based on percentage of cognate forms in standard list of basic vocabulary of related languages

• heavily criticised for premise that change is constant over time. E.g. Blust showed important variation in change within branches of Austronesian.6

• retention rate different across vocabulary• look-a-like rather than cognate form

Starostin’s modification25

• exclude borrowings (=“chance mutations”)• variable factor over time (words become more

stable with age)• etymological roots from texts in stead of basic

word list• newly calibrated value for factor• only works when one knows linguistic history• evaluation: still problematic for revolutions of

language change (quite common)

Factors affecting rate of change

• literacy (more borrowings)

• existence of a standard

• size of language community (more tolerance to variation; quicker spread of change)

• attitude of speakers (blocks recognizable borrowings)

• language mixture

• processes of transfer

• sociolinguistic situation

• demographic situation

restrictions on borrowability

• Moravcsik (1978)

• Heath (1978)

• Matras (2000)

Proposed restrictionsCampbell (1993)

• structural-compatibility requirement (counter-examples)• fit with innovation possibilities of the borrowing language

(counter-examples)• grammatical gaps tend to be filled by borrowings (but not all)• morphological borrowing as replacement (but not all)• free standing grammatical forms are more easily borrowed

than bound morphemes (but cases of borrowed bound morpheme replacing free standing)

• borrowability according to ranking of categories• principle of functional load: if embedded in system then not

easily borrowed• etc

Everything can be borrowed• Both Campbell7 and Thomason27 hold the view that all

proposed constraints in borrowing are nothing but tendencies. There are always exceptions

• Interpretation of counter-examples sometimes open for dispute. Mixed language Ma’a as example of borrowing of Bantu grammar29 is no longer valid counterexample if one accepts that language shift took place.

• distinction between concept and content is needed. emergence of a noun class system through contact has been proposed but no Bantu noun class system (with the typical markers) has ever happened.

Thomason

• anything is possible

• implicational/chronological scales

• ordinary processes extra-ordinary results

Basic vocabulary

• in certain circumstances prone to change: language/register creation for identity or fear/respect

• stable vocabulary: Leipzig project to establish it empirically; lists on basis of retained items in various families (Lohr 1999)

• can be different across language family

Shift

• complete shift (very common)

• shift with effect of original language on recognizable community; with effect on language as a whole

• shift with carry over of vocabulary (e.g. pygmy technical vocabulary)

• arrested shift, u-turn when too late, re-borrowing of original vocabulary

Van Coetsem framevan Coetsem 1988,2000, Winford 2003

• Differences in stability across language components (grammar more stable than lexicon)

• Recipient language agentivity (borrowing)

• Source language agentivity (imposition)

• Linguistic dominance (not social) in bilingualism

contact situations

1. Recipient L agentivity AB

2. Source L agentivity AB

Agents / Agentivity

imitation / adaptation

1: borrowing

2: imposition

processes in individual

Examples

• RecL activity, borrowing, extreme case Media Lengua Quechua with every lexeme borrowed from Spanish

• SourceL activity: structures of dominant language in recipient language. Dominant language can be the new language influencing the language which is in process of being abandoned in cognitive and grammatical structure. Asia Minor Greek (RL): Turkish (SL) dominant. (and RL activity when speaking T)

• transfer of structure under RL activity differs from transfer of structure under SL activity

• RL: close to lexicon: function words, derivation

• SL: conceptualization, categories, structure

• result of adaptation in RL activity can be similar to that in SL activity, e.g. pronunciation of English borrowings in Hindi and Hindi pronunciation of English

second language acquisition

• most studies on formal learning

• few on informal learning at ages 9, 16

• few on learning strategies

• are there restrictions on vocabulary if >3 languages are acquired?

Individual – Community

• Model refers to the mind of the individual

• Essential is language as social construct:

establishment of the norm(variation is larger when various SLs)

reconstructing past contact situations

• Assumption: contact situations in the past are not different from those now

• If all things equal the simplest wins

• Propose scenario to explain present outcome

problems with the scenario game

• limits of imagination

• never are all other things equal

Proposed correlations socio-history language change

• Guy11-Ross23 based on Van Coetsem

borrowing imposition

dominant language of bilinguals

recipient language

source language

I II I II

Agents of change

native speakers

non-native

non-native native

Social motivation to adopt change

prestige emblema-ticity

communicative need

communicative simplicity

to resist change

emblema-ticity

... ... emblematicity

Structural domains

words, morphemes

words phonology syntax

borrowing

dominant language of bilinguals

recipient language

I II

Agents of change native non-native

Social motivation to adopt change

prestige emblematicity

to resist change emblematicity ...

Structural domains unstable first

words, morphemes words

imposition

source languageI II

non-native native

communicative need

communicative simplicity

... emblematicity

stable first

phonology syntax

dominant language of bilinguals

Agents of change

Social motivation to adopt change

to resist change

Structural domains

Additions by Reh21

If only migration as cause for contact

Added factors

• Intensity of contact

• Linguistic heterogeneity of community

Other factors

• identifiable group after “migration”

• degree of bilingualism

• language attitude

• size of group

• prestige

Comparable situations

• Northern Songhay

• Mozambican Swahili

• Pygmies

• Creole studies

• etc

languages of pygmies10

• speak different languages• which probably were once language of their

patron• also speak language of patron• pygmy special vocabulary• patrons and their language are link and

obstacle to outside world (forest pygmies have better knowledge of languages of wider communication)

Creole languages

• study link socio-history and outcome of language change

• similar sociolinguistic situations for a number of them

• similar outcome

• separate field of study

Mixed Languages5

• grammar and (basic) lexicon not from the same source

• originate in new communities of systematic mixed marriage: mother’s grammar with father’s lexicon

• originate as extended argot of itinerant and other groups who maintain identity under pressure: grammar of dominant language, deviant lexicon

• note the genetic difference for the two scenario’s

Contact situations

• multilingualism in the city,

• re-settlements,

• migration,

• seasonal work,

• etc., etc.

gene flow (and language contact)

• expulsion (ostracism as punishment)

• occasional sex (e.g. ritual: outside group)

• ritual expert (high status, founder of group)

• marriage pattern (e.g. women from outside)

• war (women from outside)

• refugees (e.g. masters in problems in client hunter group, pygmies, Aasax)

contact situations in prehistoric times

• symbiosis of hunters - farmers / cattle people

• agriculture / cattle stratification in limited area (East Turkana)

• reconstitution of bands of hunters

• war

• marriage outside group

• expulsion

hunter-cattle

• Dorobo

• division of labour across gender

• speech patterns in settlement

• ethnic diversity

• imbalance in power

hunting and speech

• gender division

• ways of hunting: individual / cooperating groups

• short / long hunting expeditions

• traps and ownership

• special communication during hunt

Dixon’s Rise & Fall9

• punctuation versus equilibrium• In situations/periods of punctuation languages

diverge quickly enough for the tree model to be valid

• In situations of equilibrium, contact is main force for change

• Situations of equilibrium are characterised by equality (in size, prestige)

• Periods of punctuation have external causes (e.g. development of agriculture)

Dixon2

• External causes can be linked to archaeology, history of climate, etc.

• provides model for Australia

• addresses pre-reconstruction period

Dixon3

• can linguistic history still be traced• punctuation and equilibrium kind of linguistic

events are simultaneous in same area. For example the Bantu languages are similar due to recent spread and common ancestor, yet the equality properties and the linguistic diffusion are valid for Bantu

• Africa must have had many situations of punctuation over the last millennia but also diffusion

Time gap

• beginning of human language• estimate of oldest families 10,000 years• divergence in (linguistic) genetic variation in Africa

(>100,000) and in the recently inhabited areas of Papua (50,000) and Americas (20,000)

• consequences of time gap: no linguistic knowledge about the period; most language families in Africa must have disappeared; can we extrapolate knowledge about human language to earlier periods?

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