d

1. 12.2
Languages and
cultures in contact

2. Language change
 How does the “dominant” language affect the
“minority” language(s)?
 diglossia
 code switching
 borrowings
 semantic loans

3. Language squish
 Loss of semantic distinction between competing
forms
 ir vs irse
 indicative/subjunctive

4. Case studies
 Texas German
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwgwpUcxch4

5. ad for the street cleaning department in Berlin

6. Funny Japanglish Song for Tokyo Olympic!【
Tokyo Bon 東京盆踊り】Namewee黃明志 Ft. Meu
Ninomiya & Cool Japan TV
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhGnuWwpNxI

7. Can Japanese Speak In Pure Japanese?
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88Nh0wvQGYk

8.  カメラ (kamera) – “camera”
 チェック (Chekku) – “check-in”
 ホテル (hoteru) – “hotel”
 lレストラン (resutoran) – “restaurant”
 エスカレーター (esukarētā) – “escalator”

9. A S T R I K I N G O U T C O M E O F C O N T A C T
The creation of new languages

10. Pidgin languages
 Generally speaking, pidgins are makeshift languages
that arise from a need for communication between
speakers from different linguistic backgrounds.
 A pidgin always involves at least two languages
 The socially dominant one will be the point of origin
for the lexicon.
 Often seen as “debased forms” of a dominant language
(e.g., ‘broken English’).
 Pidgins have their own grammars; they are not simply
“defective varieties”.

11. Pidgins vs. other languages
 How are pidgins different from other languages?
 Pidgins aren’t an L1. They are used when speakers
speak with others outside their usual speech
community.
 Pidgins lack the range of stylistic variation
characteristic of other languages.
Used in limited context
 Pidgins have reduced vocabularies, and require less
complex and flexible grammatical/syntactic structures.
 They are “simplified” languages

12. Hawaii Pidgin
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7X9AAeDCr4
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRB2QXMREm
k

13. How many Pidgins?
 There are 7,000+ languages in the world
 How many pidgins do you think there are?
 16 – (according to Ethnologue)

14. Papua New Guinea
How many
languages spoken
there?
850 – dozens of
language families

15. Tok Pisin
 English
 mother
 father
 parents
 house
 money
 bank
 look
 to know
 identity, to recognize,
recognition, to think
clearly
 Tok Pisin
 mama
 papa
 mamapapa
 haus
 moni
 monihous
 luk
 save
 luksave

16. Pidgins vs. Creoles
 Pidgins are typically short-lived. They are usually
abandoned in favor of the source language or die out
if contact ceases.
 Continued contact can cause a pidgin to develop into
a complete “language”. This is called a creole.
 English-based creoles can be found in three major
clusters: the Caribbean, West Africa and the West
Pacific.

17. Pidgin or Creole?
 Native speakers
 Product of a pidgin
 Unstable grammar/changes frequently
 Acquired as native language (L1)
 More simple sentence structure
 Not a means of group identification (Tok pleis)
 Expanded vocabulary
 Reduced vocabulary
 Stable grammar
 Product of multi-lingual environment
 Generally short-lived
 More complex sentence structure
 No native speakers

18. F R O M O N E L A N G U A G E T O A N O T H E R
Translation and interpreting

19. Translation vs. interpreting
 Have you ever translated or Interpreted between
English and your LS?
 What challenges have you encountered?

20. Why is translation challenging?
 What is the goal? Who is the reader? (translating
consent waivers)
 Compatibility: how different are the languages?
Grammatical/lexical/cultural/social difference
increases the difficulty of translation.

21. Why is translation challenging?
 Lexical and semantic challenges: as one example,
 Japanese we polish (migaku) teeth and shoes, rather
than clean them.
 Connotations of otherwise equivalent words:
 the French tu is equal to the English thou, but thou has a
religious, archaic, or marked feel that makes it an
improper translation.
 Lack of corresponding forms/meanings:
 cultural concepts are rarely a perfect match.
 Do we switch to a culturally similar term (lamp > bamboo
torch), use the term as-is, add a footnote, or...?

22. Translation challenges: grammar
 Mismatches between grammar can also make life
difficult for translators.
 Also style, politeness, discourse markers, etc.
 How would you translate “¿Cómo estás tú?” vs.
¿Cómo está usted?”
 What other words or phrases are difficult or
impossible to translate from your LS to English?

23. Children’s book
 Soy chiquita, soy bonita.
Soy la perla de mama.
 Si me ensucio el vestido,
garrotazos me dará
 I am small, I am pretty
 I’m my mother’s pearl
 If I get my dress all dirty
 She will beat me

24. For Monday
 Chapter 14 – pp. 449 - 465
 Reading Questions