Summaries- Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Janet Holmes. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Linguistic Varieties and Multilingual Nations

Sociolinguists use terms that enable them to distinguish between different varieties or codes in multilingual communities. The codes or varieties are being categorized based on function and status.

1.    Vernacular language

2.    Standard Language

3.    Lingua Franca

4.    Pidgins and Creoles

Vernacular language: specific and broad definition:

·      It is a language that has not been standardized and which does not have official status.

·      In a multilingual community, the different ethnic languages used by different groups are also described as vernacular.

·      It is usually the first language learnt by the people, and they are often used for narrow range of informal functions.

·      The term vernacular is made up of three facts:

Ø It is an uncodified and nonstandardised variety. For example, Spanish is regarded as a vernacular in USA but not in Spain, this is because the UNESCO report defined a vernacular language as the first language of a group that is socially and politically dominated by a group with a different language. So in USA, the dominant language is English, but vernaculars would be any language spoken by ethnic groups.

Ø It is acquired as the first variety (usually in home).

Ø It is used for limited functions. It is used for communication in home and with friends. It is the language of solidarity.

·      It refers to the most colloquial variety in a person’s linguistic repertoire.

By extension, the term was used to refer in a monolingual community to the most informal and colloquial variety of a language which may also have a standardized variety. In this sense, the term is being used by sociolinguists who study dialects.

The term is also used to indicate that a language is used for everday interaction, without implying that it is being used for informal domains only. For example, Hebrew was not a mother tongue for any speaker, and was only used for performing rituals, and was not regarded as a vernacular. However as Hebrew started to be the national language of Israel, the sociolinguists called this process as vernacularization.  Therefore its H status included L functions. So Hebrew now became the language of everyday communication. In this sense, the term is very broad and not useful, as it regards all the languages spoke by native speakers as vernacular.

So:

Specific: informal vs. formal (the more useful definition)

Broad: calls any native language used by a speaker as vernacular.

Standard language:

Criteria المعايير:

ü Codified

ü Prestigious

ü Serves H functions

A standard variety is one that is written and had undergone a process of codification. It is recognized as prestigious in the community, and it is used for H functions along with a diversity of L varieties. This term is general because:

Few of the world’s languages are written

Few languages are standardized and accepted as a language for formal functions. The next example shows what the definition means:

   By the 15^th century, Standard English emerged naturally from a variety of regional English dialects. It was the variety used in court and the influential members and merchants of London, which was the centre of political, social and influential life in England. This dialect of English used is what we regard now as Standard English.

    This dialect was prestigious because its use in court. It was influential because it was used by economically powerful merchant class. This code later on, because many people were keen on learning it, developed formal H functions in the context of administration and government.

   Codification is usually done through lexicographers (Dictionary compilers) who lay down the grammar and the rules of the language as part of the standard variety, and they prescribe the standard forms of the language. The codification process was accelerated by the emergence of printing.

The development of Standard English illustrates the three essential criteria: it was an influential, prestigious variety. It was codified and stabilized, and it served H functions as it was used in court, literature and administration. It has also gained its special position as a result of social, economic and political influence.

Standard languages developed in a similar way in many European countries such as Italy, France and Spain. There were a variety of dialects of vernacular languages which were derived from colloquial Latin and served L functions for their communities, along with the classical Latin, the H language, which served H functions. From these dialects a standard dialect emerged. Once a standard dialect is developed it generally provides a very useful means of communication across areas of dialect diversity. Its status is prestigious and guarantees its spread. Standard English has also served as a useful variety for communication between areas of dialect diversities in the areas where the British influence existed. Local varieties have spread in areas like Malaysia, Singapore, and many African countries. The English of UK has served as a norm in countries that already developed their English like Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada. In Singapore, the British English is the endorsed language by the government rather than Singaporean English.

Lingua Franca

v The term lingua franca describes a language serving as a means of communication between different linguistic groups in a multilingual speech community.

v It is used between the people whose native language differs. For example:

If Colombian Indians want to communicate with Indians living in Vaupes, they would use Tukano as a lingua franca.

If Indians want to communicate with non-Indians (who are not familiar with Tukano), the Colombians would use Spanish, and the Brazilians would use Portuguese.

v It is the official or national language. For example:

Tanzania: Swahili

Papua New Guinea: Tok Pisin

                                Regional lingua franca like Hiri Muto

Soviet Union: Russian

Arab World: Standard Arabic

In multilingual communities some times linguafrancas displace vernaculars. For example, when people from different ethnic groups in Zaire or Tanzania marry they will use the lingua franca in home. Consequently, the lingua franca will be the language of their children (vernacular). However, sometimes the marriage system is exogamous. People must marry from outside the group. Each party will use his/her own language, and this will maintain both parties’ vernaculars due to linguistic distinctiveness.  (Like Pauves)

v Lingua Francas develop as a trade language. This emphasizes the economic influence over language change.

Africa

 

                                  East                            West

                                 Swahili                       Hausa

Swahili was used as the market and trade language in East Africa, while Hausa was the market and trade language in West Africa.

Papua New Guinea: Tok Pisin, which later on became official language.

Tanzania: Swahili was used as the official language by the gov. for promotion. 

Pidgin and Creole

Definition	Pidgin	Creole
	Has no native speakers, and develops as a means of communication between people who do not have a common language. (Ex. On seacoasts, it was developed as languages of trade between the traders who used the language of the colonizer with the people whom they are trading with). It may derive from the word business as pronounced in the pidgin English that developed in China.	A pidgin that acquires native speakers. It is learnt by children as their first language. (Ex: Tok Pisin has developed into a Creole because it became the native language of a large number of speakers). It is expanded in structure and vocabulary to express the range of meanings required for a first language.
Function	- It serves restricted domains and functions, ex: (trade-administration-buying and selling). - Used for referential rather than affective functions. - Not used for signaling group identification or to express social distance. - It has a short life if it is restricted for restricted functions. It disappears when he function disappears. (ex: American troops and Vietnamese people in Vietnam developed a pidgin to communicate. When this situation was over the pidgin died.	- It is used in a wide range of domains and functions. (Politics, education, administration, original literature, and debate in parliament in PNG). - It has been accepted as official and national languages in a number of countries.
Structure	- The H variety which tends to supply the largest amount of vocabulary is called (lexifier-superstrate), while the language used to influence the grammatical structure is called (substrate). Ex: in PNG, English is the lexifier for Tok Pisin, as it provided 77% of vocabulary, while Tolai is the substrate. - No affixes to mark gender.  No inflection to mark tenses or pluralism.	- It has structural complexity: There is a use of affixes and inflection to mark gender and pluralism. - It is more structurally regular than pidgins: a linguistic strategy that regularizes the structure of words with related meanings, and so makes the forms easier to learn and to be understood.
Attitudes	- Do not enjoy H status - Described as mongrel jargons and macaroni lingoes.	Speakers of creoles are proud of their language as a means of communication with a wide range of influential people, and in getting decent jobs. (ex: though Haitian Creole  is the L variety beside rather than French, the monolingual speakers of Haitian Creole  express strong loyalty to that language that express their feelings (affective). The same goes with Buang in PNG as the code switching between the Tok Pisin and Buang demonstrate solidarity.

Origins and endings

Origins: - some had argued that pidgins and creoles had a common origin, as most pidgins can be traced back to a single 15^th Portuguese pidgin or perhaps a Mediterranean lingua franca called Sabir.

- Others argue that each pidgin arises and develops independently. They say that similarities are caused by two types of constraints:

1- Pidgins arise in different contexts but for the same basic functions (trade or any other referential function).

2- These functions are expressed through universal structural processes like simplification or reduction.  These processes are found in any context where communication is the aim, so there is no need to argue for a common origin for all pidgins.

Endings: - what happens later to a Creole depends on the social context:

Societies with rigid social division:  Remains a stable L variety (ex: Haitian Creole is the L variety while French is the H variety)

Societies with more fluid social barriers   develops towards the standard language from which it derives most of its vocabulary.

Societies where social barriers are not insuperable                    decreolization (the features of Creole tend to change into the direction of the standard variety.

Eventually, there may exist a continuum of varieties between the standard language and the Creole. This is known as “Post-Creole continuum”.  It may also be standardized and adopted as an official language like Tok Pisin in PNG, or may become a national language like Indonesian which was developed from Pidgin Malay.  

Glossary

Vernacular language اللغة العامية

Standard language اللغة الرسمية

Lingua Franca لغة مشتركة

Linguistic Distinctiveness التمييز اللغوي

Exogamous له علاقة بزواج الأبعاد

Pidgin

Creole اللغة الهجينة

Structural regularity

Lexifier/superstrate اللغة المزودة بالألفاظ والكلمات

Substrate اللغة التي تساهم في البناء

Mongrel jargons لغة اصطلاحية هجينة

Macaroni lingoes

Decreolization

Post-Creole continuum سلسلة اللهجات ما بعد اللغة الهجينة