Language contact, maintenance, and death Flashcards
What is a bilingual speaker?
2 languages fluently
What is multilingualism?
broad term to refer to somebody who speaks 2 or more.
How many official languages in NZ?
3 - English, Te Reo, NZSL
how many languages and people in Papua new Guinea?
840 languages
8.8 million people
What type of linguistic community is in the Vaupes river?
Obligatory linguistic exogamy
Effects of multilingualism (3)
Phonological effects: foreign accents
Grammatical effects: learner errors
Lexical effects: words may have different range of meaning
What is convergence and where does it occur?
languages influencing each other mutually in a stable multilingual environment
What is the difference between convergence and interference?
Interference: at the individual level
Convergence: at the level of whole languages
Types of change in comparative method (3)
Lenition: consonants become weaker
Assimilation: sounds become more similar to nearby sounds
Majority principle
Types of lenition(3)
Stops > fricatives > glides > nothing
voiceless consonants > voiced consonants
oral consonants > glottal consonants
What is diglossia?
2 forms of a language, each used in a specific context
eg. liturgical, classical, local
What is it called when two speakers share two or more languages and can use them interchangeably in a conversation?
Code-switching
Examples of phonological convergence (3)
Retroflex stops in Indian subcontinent
Uvular trill in northern European languages.
Rounded front vowels in Northern European languages.
What is calquing?
When multiple languages (neighbouring) share morphological and syntactic structure but not lexical meaning.
What is Sprachbund?
Linguistic areas:
When a group of languages from different families converge.
What are causes of pidgins?
Colonial expansion
Used in communication between groups with no lingua franca
Slave trade
Labourers
What is language shift?
language shift: speakers stop their heritage language and switch to colonial language.
What is a lingua franca?
commonly spoken language
What English word is “pidgin” derived from?
business
What is a pidgin formed of? (3)
Colonial language environment (lingua franca)
Lexifier/Superstrate
Substrate
What is a creole?
A full language that derives from a pidgin.
2nd/3rd generation of native pidgin speakers
Give an example of a Creole continuum.
Jamaican accented English > Jamaican Patois
What is verbal hygiene?
Attitude towards ‘proper’ speaking of language
prescriptive ‘rules’
What are the steps towards language death?
Language endangerment
Obsolescence
Death
How many of the 6000-7000 languages of today will likely die in 100 years?
60-80%
Motivation for shift (4)
Political
Economic
Social values
Decline in domains of use
How can we discern language endangerment? (3)
Number of speakers
Mean age of native and/or fluent speakers
* Percentage of youngest generation acquiring fluency
How to maintain and revitalize languages (4)
- Extend domains in which it is possible to use the language
- Create dictionaries, readers, learning materials
- Speakers must have a good attitude
- Visibility of language
