Language Contact - Sociolinguistics

1. Language Contact
Sociolinguistics

2. Topics:
• Dialect Levelling
• Globalisation
• Lingua franca
• Pidgin and Creole
• Vernacularization

3. Dialect Levelling
• The gradual erasure or loss of the differences
that distinguished very local and highly
regionalised varieties of a language.
• Reduction of differences distinguishing regional
dialects or accents. One possible outcome of
contact between speakers of different varieties.

4. Example:
• Dialect levelling in Britain: 1900-2000
The traditional rural dialects of the country, once spoken by a
majority of the population, but by the beginning of the 20th century
probably spoken by under 50%.
There are fewer differences between ways of speaking in different
parts of the country (Britain). As anyone who travels round Britain
quickly discovers, there are distinctive ways of speaking in each
town and city.

5. Globalisation
• The increased contact between people of different social and
linguistic backgrounds across broad swathes of geographical space.
• Commonly portrayed as a recent phenomenon and strongly
associated with (and often attributed to) the new communication
technologies (e.g., Internet, mass media, etc.).
• The dominance of a small number of language varieties (in
particular US English) is seen as an important factor decreasing the
ethnolinguistic vitality of lesser-spoken languages worldwide.

6. • Lingua Franca: Language used as a common
means of communication among people whose
native languages are mutually unintelligible.

7. Contact induced changed:
•The language have contact with each other.
•Features from the language in contact are
reanalysed and reallocated to different parts of the
linguistics systems for communications needs.

8. Pidgin
A language variety that is not very linguistically complex or
elaborated and is used in fairly restricted social domains
and for limited social or interpersonal functions.
A creole, arises from language contact
Pidgin can be distinguished from a creole in having no
native speakers.

9. • This situation is often found where multiple societies trade or where
slave populations from multiple locations are brought into one area.
• The speakers create a mutual language using words from the
speakers' mother tongues and an extremely flexible, simplified
grammar.
• Most linguists do not consider a pidgin to be a full-fledged language,
but something that is cobbled together due to circumstances and
abandoned when it is no longer needed.

10. Example of Pidgin:
1.Baba Malay, once a diverse group of pidgins, is
spoken in Malaysia but is now almost extinct.
2. Sabah Malay, a pidginized variant of Brunei
Malay, Sabah Malay is a local trade language.
There are a few native speakers in urban areas,
mainly children who have a second native
language.
3. Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin, A pidgin
used in the pearl industry in West Australia.

11. Creole
• A language variety arising out of a situation of language
contact (usually involving more than two languages).
• A language that developed historically from a pidgin and
came into existence at a fairly precise point in time.

12. • Example of Creole:
1. Betawi Malay, also known as Jakarta or Java Malay, is
a creolized-Malay which is spoken in Jakarta (the
modern name for Betawi)
2. The Sri Lankan Creole Malay language is a unique
mixture of the Sinhalese language and the Tamil
language with Malay.
3. Malaccan Creole Malay, Spoken since the 16th century
by descendents of Tamil merchants of the Malacca
Straits. It may be historically related to Sri Lanka Creole
Malay

13. A creole language differs from a pidgin language by the fact that it is a native
language for the majority of its speakers.
Vocabulary is extensively borrowed from other languages, but the grammar
often shares few traits with the languages that contributed vocabulary.
Grammar and syntax are as fully developed as any other long-established
tongue.
Creolisation
The process by which a pidgin becomes the first language of a group of
speakers.
The linguistic outcomes of the expansion of the pidgin into a wider range of
social functions.

14. TOK PISIN
• Tok Pisin is a creole language spoken in the northern mainland of Papua
New Guinea and surrounding islands.
• It is one of the official languages of Papua New Guinea and the most widely
used language in use there, spoken by over 4 million people.
• The name "Tok Pisin" itself comes from the language, with "tok" meaning
"talk" and "pisin" meaning "pidgin".
• A pidgin language is one that is created to facilitate communications
between two different groups which share no common language.
• Since its formation, however, it has been steadily developing a more
complex and distinctive grammar, and it is now considered a creole (a
pidgin language that now has native speakers).
• The vocabulary is 5/6 Indo-European (mostly English, with some German,
Portuguese, and Latin), 1/7 Malayo-Polynesian, and the rest is from Trans-
New-Guinea and other languages.

15. Days of the Week
Monday Mande
Tuesday Tunde
Wednesday Trinde
Thursday Fonde
Friday Fraide
Saturday Sarere
Sunday Sande

16. Greetings
Welcome Welkam
Good morning Monin tru, Gutpela monin
Good afternoon Avinun tru, Gutpela avinun
Good evening Gutpela nait
Hello Gude, Halo

17. Months
January Jenueri
February Februeri
March Mars
April Epril
May Mei
June Jun
July Julai
August Ogas
September Septemba
October Oktoba
November Novemba
December Disemba

18. Daily Expressions and Phrases
What is your name? Husat nem bilong yu?
please plis
sorry sori
Thank you Tenkiu
Thank you very much Tenkiu tru, Tenkiu tumas
Do you know Tok Pisin? Yu save Tok Pisin?
I speak English Mi save tok Inglis
Enjoy! Hamamas!
What do you think? Yu ting wanem?
How much does this cost? Em hao mas?
today tete
tomorrow tumora
yesterday asde

19. Sample text in Tok Pisin
•Yumi olgeta mama karim umi long stap fri na wankain long wei yumi
lukim i gutpela na strepela tru. Uumi olgeta igat ting ting bilong wanem
samting I rait na rong na mipela olgeta I mas mekim gutpela pasin long
ol narapela long tingting bilong brata susa.
Translation
•All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one
another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

20. How Are Pidgins and Creoles Related?
• If the situation that creates a pidgin endures, the first generation of
children will learn pidgin as its mother tongue. There is argument as
to whether this immediately develops the pidgin into a creole, if it
takes more than one generation to do so.
• All humans learn language from birth and that the first generation of
creole speakers create the aspects of language the pidgin was
missing.
• Historians point out the frequent changes in vocabulary, syntax and
pronunciation found in creole languages during their first 20 to 30
years, indicating that it takes more than one generation to stabilize.

21. Example of Creole and Pidgin
1. Native Hawaiians speak a creole language descended from
Hawaiian, English, Chinese, Spanish and other languages brought by
immigrants and sailors. The language is referred to as Pidgin or
Hawaiian Creole English.
2. Haitians speak a creole based primarily on French and the
languages of West Africa. It is the most widely spoken creole in the
world.
3. Malay, a language spoke in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, has
been widely pidginized and creolized as the area was settled by Dutch
and Portuguese colonists. There are now at least 14 recognized creole
languages based on Malay.

22. Vernacularization
• Vernacular
The linguistic variety used by a speaker or a community as
the medium for everyday and home interaction.
In some linguistic work the term may be associated with
the notion of non-standard norms.
• Vernacularisation
The process by which a contact variety becomes used with
the full range of social and personal functions served by
a language of the home. Also the linguistic changes
associated with the expansion of the variety in this way.

23. References
• Meyerhoff, Miriam. 2006. Introducing
Sociolinguistics. London: Routledge