Language Contact

Sociolinguistics

Topics:• Dialect Levelling

• Globalisation• Lingua franca

• Pidgin and Creole• Vernacularization

Dialect Levelling• The gradual erasure or loss of the differences

that distinguished very local and highly regionalised varieties of a language.

• Reduction of differences distinguishing regional dialects or accents. One possible outcome of contact between speakers of different varieties.

Example: • Dialect levelling in Britain: 1900-2000The traditional rural dialects of the country, once spoken by a

majority of the population, but by the beginning of the 20th century probably spoken by under 50%.

There are fewer differences between ways of speaking in different parts of the country (Britain). As anyone who travels round Britain quickly discovers, there are distinctive ways of speaking in each town and city.

Globalisation• The increased contact between people of different social and

linguistic backgrounds across broad swathes of geographical space.

• Commonly portrayed as a recent phenomenon and strongly associated with (and often attributed to) the new communication technologies (e.g., Internet, mass media, etc.).

• The dominance of a small number of language varieties (in particular US English) is seen as an important factor decreasing the ethnolinguistic vitality of lesser-spoken languages worldwide.

• Lingua Franca: Language used as a common means of communication among people whose native languages are mutually unintelligible.

Contact induced changed: •The language have contact with each other.•Features from the language in contact are reanalysed and reallocated to different parts of the linguistics systems for communications needs.

PidginA language variety that is not very linguistically complex or elaborated and is used in fairly restricted social domains and for limited social or interpersonal functions.

A creole, arises from language contact

Pidgin can be distinguished from a creole in having no native speakers.

• This situation is often found where multiple societies trade or where slave populations from multiple locations are brought into one area.

• The speakers create a mutual language using words from the speakers' mother tongues and an extremely flexible, simplified grammar.

• Most linguists do not consider a pidgin to be a full-fledged language, but something that is cobbled together due to circumstances and abandoned when it is no longer needed.

Example of Pidgin:1.Baba Malay, once a diverse group of pidgins, is spoken in Malaysia but is now almost extinct.

2. Sabah Malay, a pidginized variant of Brunei Malay, Sabah Malay is a local trade language. There are a few native speakers in urban areas, mainly children who have a second native language.

3. Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin, A pidgin used in the pearl industry in West Australia.

Creole• A language variety arising out of a situation of language

contact (usually involving more than two languages).

• A language that developed historically from a pidgin and came into existence at a fairly precise point in time.

• Example of Creole: 1. Betawi Malay, also known as Jakarta or Java Malay, is a

creolized-Malay which is spoken in Jakarta (the modern name for Betawi)

2. The Sri Lankan Creole Malay language is a unique mixture of the Sinhalese language and the Tamil language with Malay.

3. Malaccan Creole Malay, Spoken since the 16th century by descendents of Tamil merchants of the Malacca Straits. It may be historically related to Sri Lanka Creole Malay

A creole language differs from a pidgin language by the fact that it is a native language for the majority of its speakers.

Vocabulary is extensively borrowed from other languages, but the grammar often shares few traits with the languages that contributed vocabulary.

Grammar and syntax are as fully developed as any other long-established tongue.

Creolisation   The process by which a pidgin becomes the first language of a group of speakers. The linguistic outcomes of the expansion of the pidgin into a wider range of social functions.

TOK PISIN• Tok Pisin is a creole language spoken in the northern mainland of Papua

New Guinea and surrounding islands. • It is one of the official languages of Papua New Guinea and the most widely

used language in use there, spoken by over 4 million people. • The name "Tok Pisin" itself comes from the language, with "tok" meaning

"talk" and "pisin" meaning "pidgin". • A pidgin language is one that is created to facilitate communications

between two different groups which share no common language. • Since its formation, however, it has been steadily developing a more

complex and distinctive grammar, and it is now considered a creole (a pidgin language that now has native speakers).

• The vocabulary is 5/6 Indo-European (mostly English, with some German, Portuguese, and Latin), 1/7 Malayo-Polynesian, and the rest is from Trans-New-Guinea and other languages.

Days of the Week Monday  Mande Tuesday  Tunde Wednesday  Trinde Thursday  Fonde Friday  Fraide Saturday  Sarere Sunday  Sande

 Greetings Welcome  Welkam Good morning  Monin tru, Gutpela monin Good afternoon  Avinun tru, Gutpela avinun Good evening  Gutpela nait Hello  Gude, Halo

 Months January  Jenueri February  Februeri March  Mars April  Epril May  Mei June  Jun July  Julai August  Ogas September  Septemba October  Oktoba November  Novemba December  Disemba

 Daily Expressions and Phrases What is your name?  Husat nem bilong yu? please  plis sorry  sori Thank you  Tenkiu Thank you very much  Tenkiu tru, Tenkiu tumas Do you know Tok Pisin?  Yu save Tok Pisin? I speak English  Mi save tok Inglis Enjoy!  Hamamas! What do you think?  Yu ting wanem? How much does this cost?  Em hao mas? today  tete tomorrow  tumora yesterday  asde

Sample text in Tok Pisin•Yumi olgeta mama karim umi long stap fri na wankain long wei yumi lukim i gutpela na strepela tru. Uumi olgeta igat ting ting bilong wanem samting I rait na rong na mipela olgeta I mas mekim gutpela pasin long ol narapela long tingting bilong brata susa.

Translation•All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

How Are Pidgins and Creoles Related?

• If the situation that creates a pidgin endures, the first generation of children will learn pidgin as its mother tongue. There is argument as to whether this immediately develops the pidgin into a creole, if it takes more than one generation to do so.

• All humans learn language from birth and that the first generation of creole speakers create the aspects of language the pidgin was missing.

• Historians point out the frequent changes in vocabulary, syntax and pronunciation found in creole languages during their first 20 to 30 years, indicating that it takes more than one generation to stabilize.

Example of Creole and Pidgin

1. Native Hawaiians speak a creole language descended from Hawaiian, English, Chinese, Spanish and other languages brought by immigrants and sailors. The language is referred to as Pidgin or Hawaiian Creole English.

2. Haitians speak a creole based primarily on French and the languages of West Africa. It is the most widely spoken creole in the world.

3. Malay, a language spoke in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, has been widely pidginized and creolized as the area was settled by Dutch and Portuguese colonists. There are now at least 14 recognized creole languages based on Malay.

Vernacularization• Vernacular   The linguistic variety used by a speaker or a community as

the medium for everyday and home interaction. In some linguistic work the term may be associated with

the notion of non-standard norms.

• Vernacularisation   The process by which a contact variety becomes used with

the full range of social and personal functions served by a language of the home. Also the linguistic changes associated with the expansion of the variety in this way.

References• Meyerhoff, Miriam. 2006. Introducing

Sociolinguistics. London: Routledge