LINGUISTIC VARIETIES AND MULITILINGUAL NATIONS

By :# Ani Istiana# Romy Mardian# Tuti Rumian

 Over half the world’s population is bilingual and many people are multilingual. They acquire a number of languages because they need them for different purpose in their everyday interaction.

Example: like Balinese people have many languages or “logat” to talk with other Balinese people. And they know about another language like Indonesian language English language and so on. So the Balinese people have multiple languages.

The selection of discussion about:

VERNACULAR LANGUAGE

The term vernacular is used in numbers of ways. It generally refers to a language which has not been standardized and which does not have official status. Vernacular are usually the first language learned by people in multilingual language communities, and they are often used for a relatively narrow range of informal functions.

Ex: like a children are talking with their friends used informal language from his places.

STANDARD LANGUAGE

The term standard is even more slippery then vernacular because it too is used in many deferent ways by linguists. Here is one definition which can serve as a useful starting point. A standard variety is generally one which is written, and which has undergone some degree of regularization or codification it is recognized as a prestigious variety by a community.

Ex: Human in their places use standard language in their places.

LINGUA FRANCA

Lingua franca can be describe as a language which is serving as a regular means of communication between different linguistic groups in a multilingual nation and used habitually by people whose mother tongues are different in order to facilitate communication between them.

Ex: Like in Bali, many people want to talk with other people use Balinese language.

PIDGIN

 Most people have a predictable reaction to pidgin languages. They find them amusing. If you read children story in variety of Pidgin English, it is easy to understand why – it sounds a lot like baby talk. But even if we take a serious article from the news paper, many speakers of English still find pidgin languages humorous or babyish.

Why do pidgins develop?

A pidgin is a language which has no native speakers. Pidgins develop as a means of communication between people who do not have a common language. So a pidgin is no one’s native language. Pidgins seem particularly likely to arise when two groups with different languages are communication in a situation where there is also third dominant language.

 Example:Like People from Kintamani talk with someone from Gianyar in the street their pronunciation will be different.

Attitudes

Example:Like someone long time stay in the foreign to work there and suddenly his or her return to the village and someone ask that people with high Balinese language and he or she said “punapi gatrene?” And he or she can’t give the answer and that people didn’t understand  with the meaning of the question because he or she  often used English language in the foreign so, that someone forget will mother language self when he or she return to the village again.

To sum up, a pidgin language has three identifying characteristics:# It is used in restricted domains and functions# It has a simplified structure compared to the source languages# It generally has low prestige and attracts negative attitudes – especially from outsiders.

Creoles A creole is a pidgin which has acquired native speakers. Many of the languages which are called pidgins are in fact now creole languages. They are learned by children as their first language and used in a wide range of domains.

Example:Like Balinese children talk with her mother in the house she or he used low Balinese language when he or she want request something to her mother. Example: that children request money to her mother to pay book in the school.

National and Official Languages

“A national language is the language of a political, cultural and social unit. It is generally developed and used as a symbol of national unity. Its functions are to identify the nation and unite the people of the nation.”

“An official language, by contrast, is simply a language which may be used for government business. Its function is primarily utilitarian rather than symbolic.”

Swahili National Language of Tanzania

1. Indigenous 2. Not the language of one of the groups competing for dominance 3. Widely known as a second language 4. Linguistically related to most of the vernacular languages of the population 5. Historically used as language of basic education and many government functions

Planning For a National Official Language

Form, Function and AttitudeThere are four steps involved in developing a code or variety1. Selection; choosing the variety or code to be developed .2. Codification; standardizing its structural or linguistic features.3. Elaboration; extending its function for use in new domains.4. Securing its acceptance; the status of the new variety is important, and so people’s attitudes to the variety being developed must be considered.

Language historyDuring the medieval times Norway was an independent kingdom. The spoken language was Old Norse, which also was used by the Vikings who settled in Iceland and the Faroe Islands where the Old Norse was maintained to a much larger degree than in mainland Scandinavia.In 1349 the Black Death wiped out almost one half of the Norwegian population. As there were only a few literate persons left, no one was present to preserve the written Norwegian language in years to come. In 1397 Norway entered a union with Denmark that lasted until 1814.  Denmark came to be the dominating part, and Danish came to be the primary language among the Norwegian elite. In churches the Danish Bible was used along with Danish religious books after the reformation in 1536, and Danish clergymen held services in Norwegian churches. The law was written in Danish, and all literature, prose and poetry in Norway was written in Danish. This had a crucial effect on the written language. Early in the 19th century educated Norwegians wrote Danish. The elite in towns spoke Danish with a Norwegian accent. Norwegian dialects were spoken by 95% of the population. Dialects had developed during the four hundred years under Danish rule. Due to the Norwegian topography, differences had developed and distinct local dialects had emerged.

Developing a standard variety in norway

Planning For a National Official Language

Form, Function and AttitudeThere are four steps involved in developing a code or variety1. Selection; choosing the variety or code to be developed .2. Codification; standardizing its structural or linguistic features.3. Elaboration; extending its function for use in new domains.4. Securing its acceptance; the status of the new variety is important, and so people’s attitudes to the variety being developed must be considered.

1.      Codification of orthography2.      Developing Vocabulary3.      Acceptance Language planning is defined most simply as deliberate language change. Language planners generally focus on specific language problems. Their role is to develop a policy of language use which will solve the problems appropriately in particular speech communities

The Linguist’s Role In Language Planning