2. Review
What is the common way that people often
mispronounce “sherbet”?
What is this phenomenon called?
epenthesis
Thunder used to be “thunor” (Donner in German)
3. L A N G U A G E S C O M I N G T O G E T H E R
Introduction
4. So important - Relevant
Summarize Chapter 12 introduction – p. 376
What strikes you as interesting/important?
5. Chapter 12 introduction
Language contact happens for many reasons
Colonization, business/trade, political change,
globalization
Results of language contact
lexical borrowings
creation of new languages
language coexistence/language dominance
6. Chapter 12 intro
Relevant factors
length and intensity of contact
power and prestige of relationships
different facets of language are affected differently,
depending on nature and direction of transfer,
structures, and rules
7. Chapter 12 intro
Language loss
Between 1950 and 2010, the world lost 230 languages
Today,1/3 of languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers.
There are 7,000 documented languages currently
spoken across the world,
half of them could be endangered, according to a new study. It
is predicted that 1,500 known languages may no longer be
spoken by the end of this century.
*World Economic Forum
9. Types of contact
When speakers of one language come into contact
with speakers of another, some might become fully
bilingual as children, while others learn the second
language as adults (as best they can).
Turung: part of a mosaic of languages in north-east
India.
In Balipathar, 3 square kilometers in size and has only
1500 people, with 13 languages (across five language
families) are spoken, with Turung used by around 120
people.
10. Long-term Outcomes of language contact
Language maintenance: Speakers of each language
continue to use their native language.
Language shift: Speakers abandon one language for
another.
Language creation: Long-term contact between two
languages gives rise to a new contact language.
Also, of course, bilingualism (or multilingualism).
12. Diglossia
Diglossia refers to situations where languages live in
almost symbiotic relationships. This can include divides
within one language (e.g., formal/colloquial forms), or
distribution of two distinct languages.
In these situations, there is often a High (H) and Low (L)
variety. The H variety is dominant, standardized and/or
literary. The L variety is used by a minority, is non-
standard and/or non-literary.
In a diglossic situation, both the H and L
languages/varieties have distinct roles in the daily life of
speakers.
13. Code-switching
In monolingual speech communities, people choose
from a vast repertoire of different linguistic forms.
Code-switching refers to similar situations where
bilingual speakers swap back and forth between
languages in a single interaction. It is a normal and
natural feature of conversations between bilinguals.
Attitudes to code-switching vary depending on time,
place, and the languages used. It some contexts it is
highly valued, while in others it is seen as defective.
14. Code-switching (continued)
A number of factors guide the selection of each language
during code-switching.
Social messages are attached to languages, and when
speakers swap between them they may be expressing
different types of relationships or identities.
Certain topics may also be more appropriate in one
language than another.
Code-switching is natural, and demonstrates high levels
of social and linguistic skill.
15. Code switching rules – consider these frases:
Eng: And then she told me: Do you want to get
married or something?
Sp: Y luego ella me dijo: ¿Quieres que nos
casemos o algo?
Which of these examples seems more
natural? Why?
CC-1: And luego she dijo me: Tú want to get
casemos or algo?
CC-2: And luego she told me: Quieres get married
o algo?
17. Equivalency restraint
Between subject and predicate
My mom ha cambiado su horario de trabajo.
Between verb and object noun (thing + adj.)
He went to buy un poco de hielo.
Between ser/estar (to be) and gerund (-ando, -iendo)
Ellos están walking the dog.
Between ser/estar and adjective
Su hijo es super cute.
Between verb and object clause
I was playing the videogame when he yelled yo también quiero
jugar.
18. Equivalency restraint
Between preposition and noun phrase
She is playing with los chamacos.
Between conjunction and next clause
I went to buy some fruit because no había en la casa.
Between noun and next relative clause
¿Conoces a la chica who lives with Ana?
between clauses joined by conjunction
Fuimos al cine and then to the mall.
19. Where code-switching is not permissible
clitic pronoun (lo, la, se me, etc.) and verb
*she wants lo
subject pronoun and verb
*yo went to school
helping verb haber and participle
*She had venido ayer
negation adverb and verb
*el no is very friendly
question word and verb
¿Cuándo will you visit us?
20. Why do people code switch
Possibly…
the word comes more quickly in one langauge than
another.
one doesn’t know a specific word in one language
These don’t represent the majority of cases.
Other reasons?
21. Why code switch?
Signal change of subject
Emphasize what is being said
Clarify or translate something
Directly quote someone
Metalinguistic commentary
Comments that create solidarity among members
of an ethnic group
Express respect for the dominant language of the
speaker
Signal dual identity/bilingualism
23. Borrowing
Borrowing - process where a linguistic element is
incorporated from another language.
Words are the most commonly borrowed part of a
language, but all parts of grammar can be “on loan”.
English has borrowings from 120+ languages!
24. Types of borrowing: Calques
Calque. This is when something is borrowed but
expressed using the borrowing language.
A very common calque is skyscraper.
o French: gratte-ciel Literally: “scrapes sky”
o Japanese: matenrō Literally: “sky-scrape-tower”
o Chinese: mótiānlóu Literally: “sky-scrape-building”
o Dutch: wolkenkrabber Literally: “cloud scratcher”
Calques often go unnoticed: earworm, long time no
see, brainwash, Adam’s apple, wisdom tooth
25. Calques in English
From Spanish
blue-blood – sangre azul
moment of truth – momento de la verdad
killer whale – asesina ballenas
From German
flamethrower – Flammenwerfer
rainforest – Regenwald
thought experiment – Gedankenexperiment
worldview – Weltanschauung
From French
flea market - marché aux puces
crime of passion - crime passionnel
26. Semantic loan
Words that already existed in a language and
borrows the meaning of a similar word in another
language
27. English word Semantic loan panhispanic
form
application aplicación solicitud
introduce introducir presentar
realize realizar darse cuenta
groceries groserías comida/provisiones
carpet carpeta alfombra
pretend pretender fingir
28. Borrowing and gain
Borrowing usually involves some kind of gain; the borrowers
profit in some way.
This gain could be social: speakers borrow words/
pronunciations for fashion or status.
Cross-linguistic influences (contact-induced changes or
transfers) can also provide useful resources to a language.
Vocabulary, for instance, might replace an obsolete expression
or fill a lexical gap. As an example, in Japanese shakkin (lit:
borrowed money) was replaced by rōn (loan) for many
purposes, as rōn lacked the negative connotations of shakkin.
29. C H A N G I N G P A T T E R N S
Language shift
30. Language shift – speakers “abandon” one
language for another
Language shift involves changing patterns of language use
within a multilingual society. It can be split into three general
categories:
Complete language shift: entire community switches to
another language.
Partial language shift - domain restriction: Dominant
language encroaches on domains formerly used by minority
language, which is now found across more limited domains.
Partial language shift – population reduction: the
proportion who speak the minority language (as mono- or bi-
linguals) is markedly reduced compared to those who only
speak the dominant language.
31. Factors contributing to language shift
Migration: People often move for new economic
opportunities, or to escape oppression. In doing so,
they might encounter a new language. Unless the
number is overwhelming (as in colonization), the
community will usually shift to the new language.
Economic change: Industrialisation is a common
trigger for large-scale migration, and commercial
and/or environmental changes can impact the
viability of small languages.
32. Factors contributing to language shift
Urbanization: The movement of rural populations to
urban centers brings large numbers of people from
diverse linguistic backgrounds into new language
communities, which can influence language use.
Education: Formal education can be an avenue for
economic advantages, as well as an overt tool for forcing
linguistic minorities to shit to a dominant language. The
best way to achieve maintenance of contacting languages
is through bilingual education, but this can have a
limited impact when the promoted languages are not
valued by the wider (voting) public.
