englishes in contact Flashcards
why is english given a special status?
-given when other countries make it their official language
-given when countries make english a top priority as a foreign language (eg mandatory second lang)
lingua franca
a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers who native languages are different
why is english the new lingua franca?
-strong economic power of english speaking speaking nations
-widespread uses
-historical reasons
-entertainment reasons
-intellectual reasons
kachru’s expanding circles
inner circle - english is primary language
outer circle - english acts as secondary language, used in some official spheres
expanding circle - recognises importance of english, but has no historic link or official status
a pidgin language is…
-a type of contact language which emerges when people who have no existing shared language need to communicate
-no everyone’s first language
-usually short term
-much of the lexicon has been drawn from one language more than other (eg coloniser’s language)
-has a fusion of language influences drawn from various language background of speakers
a creole is…
-a type of contact language that can develop from a pidgin
-if a child hears a pidgin as their main language, it becomes their first language (native speaker)
-develops when there has been shift away from the use of the original languages spoken in the community
-because it’s spoken as a first language, it evolves a sophisticated structure to fulfil all the language functions
phonological features of aboriginal english
-consonant clusters: simplification eg asked – ask
-vowel sounds: vowel length varies
-r-sounds: /r/ is pronounced more prominently like american eng
-stress and intonation: patterns reflected from traditional languages
syntactic features
-pronouns: different or omitted
-negation: eg i don’t want that – not want that
-articles: use of definite and indefinite articles may be less frequent/used differently
lexical features
-kinship terms: reflects complex social structures eg cousin is used broadly
-loanwords/borrowing: incorporates words from traditional languages
-semantic shift/inversions: english words have different meanings eg deadly=good
other lexemes include mob, whitefulla, blak, unna
discourse features
-yarning: storytelling, sharing experiences etc
-indirectness: context, shared knowledge, non-verbal cues
-silence, respect, contemplation waiting for response
sociolinguistic signs of language decline
-fewer speakers
-aging speaker population
-reduced use in everyday life
-limited transmission to children
-disappearance of cultural practices
-few resources available
subsystem signs of language decline
-reduced vocabulary
-simplification of grammar
-loss of phonological distinctions
language maintenance
when a community continues to speak and use their language, even when another, more dominant language is being spoken around them
language revitalisation
efforts to bring a nearly extinct language back into more common use, especially by teaching it to new generations
language loss
when a language is no longer spoken at all because the last speakers have stopped using it or have passed away, leading to its extinction
