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

Summaries- "Introduction to Sociolinguistics" by Janet Holmes- Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Language Maintenance and Shift

This chapter discusses the political and economic factors that influence Language choice.

Language shift in different communities:

A- Migrant minorities:

Example 1 shows that migrant families provide examples of language shift. The example illustrates how a British Hindu woman living in Britain tended to use Gujerati at home as well as her work place with her friends as their home language. However when she was promoted (and this shows that she has moved to a high level which forces her to use an H variety) she used English more of the time. Finally when she was moved to the Main Office she used English all the time. This example shows the experience of a minority in a monolingual country, and how the predominant society’s language over time displaced the mother tongue of the minority. This shift was made by social factors, as the shift occurs from one language to another for communicative needs.

In English speaking countries like UK, USA or Australia, children are exposed to English in school, and over time they start to use English in home when they discuss school topics or even friends’ issues. Gradually English infiltrates the home through the Children who use English when they grow up and be engaged in jobs.

Immigrants who look and sound different have to use the language of the mainstream or the predominant society. They are under pressure, and therefore they shift to English.  Speaking good English is then regarded as a sign of successful assimilation. This leads to abandoning the minority language. Typically migrants are monolingual in their mother tongue, their children are bilingual, and their grandchildren are monolingual in the language of the host country.

B- Non-migrant minorities:

Here, the shift is caused by political, economic and social changes in a community. Example 2 shows how people of Oberwart, which was a part of Hungary before WW1, spoke Hungarian to each other, and German to outsiders. When the war was over, the town became a part of Austria, and grew to be an industrial area, the German language was increased to include domains of school, education, business and official transactions. It also symbolized formality and social distance. On the other hand, Hungarian was the language of solidarity used for social and affective functions. It became associated with peasants, and became old-fashioned, while the German language was associated with economic and social progress. Later, the young people used German with their friends, and even parents used German with their children. Hungarian was confined to prayers and church. The use of linguistic choices “patterns of language use” depend on the social networks that the speaker is involved in.  (Social interaction)    

C- Migrant Majorities:

Sometimes the language shift reflects the influence of political and economic factors such as the need to work. People may shift location and language for this reason. Many Scottish, Irish and Welsh people moved to England and changed their language accordingly by shifting to English in order to get a job.  In this case, they need to shift to English to maintain their social being and for their job success.

We also find the same result when a majority group moves to another place. For example, colonial countries like England, Spain or France made their language dominated in the places they have colonized such as India, South Africa and Papua New Guinea. But this was also by the help of the multilingual nature of those areas.  Multilingualism was well established in those areas. Otherwise it would be very difficult that an alien language would have the ability to eradicate (obliterate or delete) the indigenous (original) language. But when multilingualism was not widespread, the indigenous language becomes under threat, and the dominating language (the language of the colonizers) will be described as the “Killer Language”. Where one group brings about political power and imposes its language along with its institutions (government- education-religious places, courts), the minority will find themselves as under pressure to adopt the language of the dominant group. Example 3 shows how Maori people moved from monolingualism in Maori to bilingualism in both Maori and English, then to monolingualism again but in English. A survey made in 1998 indicated that less than 10% of Maori people can speak Maori fluently. The survey also indicated that there are very few domains where Maori is used.

The indigenous people in USA and Australia have similarly lost their language, as their language was obliterated by the language of the colonizer which is English. The indigenous people were also decreased in number due to war and diseases.

Language Death and Language Loss

Language death differs from language shift. In language death, the language is not spoken by anyone at all. This is due to the fact that the speakers of this language are disappeared due to continuous extermination or death by diseases. For example, Cornish disappeared completely from Cornwell by the 18^th century by the death of the last speaker of Cornish, Dolly Mousehole. On the other hand, a community such as the Turkish community in England may shift to English over a couple of generations. This involves the loss of the language of these speakers. But the Turkish Language, however, is not facing any threat because it is still being used in Turkey.

The process of language death comes about through a gradual loss of proficiency and competence by the speakers. Example 3 shows how a young speaker of Dyirbal (an Australian aboriginal language) has lost a great number of vocabulary of Dyirbal because she uses English most of the time. She even uses English words while she talks to her grandmother because she can not remember the words in Dyirbal, and how her grandmother complains her word order.

The result of this situation:

-       The girl can not use inflection and word order in the right way, because she puts the words together in the same way she does in English. The language in such a situation erodes over time.

-       With the spread of a majority group language (English in this case) into more and more domains, the number of domains and contexts in which the original language is being used decreases until it becomes confined to very personal things like dreaming or praying.

-         The stylistic range that people acquire when they sue a language in a wider range of domains disappears.

-       There is a gradual simplification of grammatical constructions and sound rules.

-       The number of vocabulary becomes smaller.

In a wide community the language may survive for ritual occasions, but the speakers’ fluency will be confined to prayers. For instance, in Australia Maori is used for ceremonial and religious speeches by the elders who still know how to perform the rituals.

Factors that contribute to / lead to Language Shift

1-   Economic, social and political factors:

A-  Importance of second language: The community believes in the importance of the second language. The importance is attributed to economic or political reasons. For example, looking for a job forces the speaker to learn English in English-dominated countries. This causes bilingualism which is a precursor of language shift. Although this is not the case in Diglossic communities.

B-   Unimportance of ethnic language: the speakers believe that there is no reason in maintaining the ethnic language, and that it does not offer any advantages to their children. In this case, shift is inevitable. 

C-   The speed of shift is governed by the social and the economic goals of the individuals in a community. When the dominant language is a prerequisite for success, the people are anxious to emerge successfully in the community. Newly arrived immigrant women to Zealand tend to have less education than their husbands because they tend to stay at home and do not seek job opportunities, maintaining their minority language. 

  

2-   Demographic Factors:

A-  Rural VS Urban areas: in rural areas people use their ethnic language as it fulfills all their needs. They are also isolated fro the centre of political power, while in urban areas they tend to use the predominant language. For example, in New Zealand Maori survives in inaccessible rural areas, and used by Maori people. In Canada, Ukrainians who live in rural areas and on farms maintained their ethnic language better than Ukrainians in towns.

B-   The size of group is a critical factor.  Language shift occurs at one group faster than another. For example, the Spanish community is great in USA, and this is why the Spanish language survived in USA. Example 5 shows how it is important to have a number of people to use the ethnic language with to protect it from dying. A Spanish-speaking girl finds her self weird among other students in school. This is why she shifts to English. She even refused to use Spanish at home, while her parents spoke Spanish to each other. The parents in this case are isolated. Maintaining language under such conditions is nearly impossible.

C-  Intermarriage accelerates language shift. In this case one language tends to predominate in home. For example, a German man in Australia marries an English-speaking Australian woman, the language used in home will be English. It will also be the main language used with children.  In other cases, when a mother’s English is not strong and wants to pass her ethnic language to the children, she would slow down the process of language shift by using the ethnic language to her children. Italian and Greek fathers in Australia believe that it is important for the children to acquire their ethnic language. Also, Maori fathers pass Maori to their children in order to be used in ceremonies like marriage or any other official occasion. When children of mixed marriages start school, a parent must exert so much effort to keep the ethnic language used in home.

D-  Attitudinal factors: Language shift is slower when the ethnic language is valued by a community. Example 6 shows how a Samoan family is proud of its ethnic Samoan language, and how it keeps using it every now and then in different occasion. The children are also happy because their parents taught them Samoan.

Also, if the language enjoys a high-level status on the international level, it will be maintained. French is maintained in USA and Canada because it is a language of an international status.  The Greek people are proud of their contribution to the western philosophy and culture. They view their language as important, and that is why they resist attempts of language shift to English.  However there must be a community to support these positive attitudes, other wise the language, even if it enjoys an international status, would die. (In example 5, the Spanish language was obliterated because there was no support to use it in the community of the speaker, even in home.).

How can a minority language be maintained?

·      Regarding the ethnic language as important: if the ethnic language is regarded as an important symbol of identity, it is likely to be maintained longer. For example, Polish people eyed their language important wherever they immigrated to preserve their identity. Therefore, the Polish language was maintained for three or four generations. The case is similar with Greek migrants to Australia, USA and New Zealand. 

·      Frequency of contact: if families from a minority group live near each other, their ethnic language is likely to be more preserved. For example, members of the Greek community in New Zealand belong to a common church where they use Greek, and have also established shops where they sell Greek food. I the market place they also used Greek with each other. The same goes with Indian and Pakistani communities in UK, in USA, Chinese people who live in Chinatown also preserved their Chinese dialect.

·      Degree of frequency of contact with homeland: migrants to another country or visitors need to keep their ethnic language alive. New Zealand Polynesian visitors arriving in New Zealand are being welcomed by the Polynesian New Zealands. The visitors provide a new linguistic input to the New Zealand community. Also, organizing trips back home is also a good opportunity to maintain fluency. Greek New Zealanders regard a trip to Greece as essential, which forces them to maintain proficiency in Greek.

·      Social factors may also help in resisting language shift resulting from economic pressures: Using the language in home, banning intermarriages help in maintaining the language.  Associating the use of language with a particular setting like the school or the place of worship also helps in maintaining the ethnic language.

·      Institutional Support: governmental offices, media, press, education, law or religion are domains of the predominant language. If the ethnic language is tied to such domains it will be maintained for sure.

Language Revival 

Sometimes a community becomes aware of the fact that its language is being threatened or endangered by disappearance. Therefore, attempts were made to revive these communities’ languages. For example:

a-    Hebrew: Hebrew was dead for nearly 1700 years. Its use was confined to religious sermons or prayers. However, the strong feelings of nationalism helped in promoting and reviving the Hebrew language 

b-   Welsh: when English industrialists invaded Wales (in-migration), the Welsh language was under a process of erosion. The miners and the workers began to use English as it became the predominant language used excessively by the English people. The situation became worse when many Welsh workers left the place (out-migration). The two thirds of population started to speak English. Welsh people then worked on slowing down the language loss by obtaining a welsh-language TV channel, as well as establishing bilingual educational programs. (bilingual education)   

Glossary

Minority أقلية

Mother tongue  اللغة الأم

Predominant السائد والمسيطر

Migrants مهاجرون

Mainstream الأغلبية

Infiltrates يتغلغل إلى

Assimilation اندماج

Institutions المؤسسات

Erodes: يتآكل erosion تآكل

Attributed to / due to / because of يرجع إلى

Contribute to يسهم في

Demographic سكاني / له علاقة بعدد السكان

Inevitable: حتمي/ لا مفر منه/ لا يمكن تجنبه

Language Loss فقدان اللغة /death اندثار اللغة

Language maintenance الحفاظ على اللغة

Language Revival إحياء اللغة

Migrants مهاجرين

In-migration الانتقال والهجرة إلى مكان

Out-migration الانتقال من وترك المكان لمكان آخر