TSL1044

LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND

SOCIETY

Theme 1:
Language and Culture

Topic 1.1
Language

THIS SESSION WILL COVER

factors

contributing to
language change
types of language change
language death and language
loss

MANY REASONS FOR CHANGE

Phonological
Structural

Economic

(sound system)

and technical change

Contact with other speakers
Sociolinguistic

SOCIOLINGUISTIC CHANGE
Provides

an adequate explanation
Languages change because of the
relationship between social groups
First

there must be variation i.e.

differences
But variation does not always lead to
change
-n, -ng differences for centuries but
no change

CONTINUE
Variation

acquires a social function

Differences indicate social status or
prestige
Forms vary according to social status
Forms will spread or disappear
because they are linked to social
characteristics

LANGUAGE CHANGE AND

SOCIETY
May

spread from one ethnic group to

another makan bohsia, innit
May spread geographically postvocalic /r/ deletion in English
May spread from one age group to
another grotty, sus out
Gender very important women
pioneers in downward change, men
in upward change (???Tutorial
task)

RATES OF CHANGE
Why does the rate of change vary?
Network theory dense network
slow change
(Tutorial task: explain this
phenomenon)

POLITICS AND LANGUAGE

CHANGE
Example:
In Berlin local dialect (BUV) declined
rapidly in middle class West Berlin
Fairly rapidly in Working class West Berlin
Not in Working Class East Berlin symbol
of identity before reunification Saxon
dialect used by unpopular government
Tutorial class: Compare and contrast
the Malaysian scenario

THUS
Languages change
at different rates
for different reasons including
social reasons
and it cannot be stopped

LANGUAGE SHIFT/DEATH
One result of language contact can be
language shift, where speakers begin to
speak a new language and stop speaking
their former language. Over time, this
can result in language death.
This phenomenon is happening all over the
world, and has already happened to many
Native American languages in the U.S.

THREE STAGES OF LANGUAGE

DEATH
In

language shift, people begin to use one

language more than another, and may encourage
their children to pick the new language.
Eventually, the community is using one language,
not the other.

language is moribund if no children are

learning the language as their first language

language is dead if there are no living speakers

of the language.

LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION
Language

revitalization is an attempt to
resurrect a language that is moribund
through increasing the number of people
who are learning and speaking the language

Language

revitalization programmes focus

on getting people to learn and speak a dying
language and teach it to their children

LANGUAGE IDEOLOGY
Revitalization programmes often must work
against social ideas about or prejudices
against the dying language.
For example, the language may not be
considered modern, or may be associated
with lack of education, negative ethnic
stereotypes, or be considered old-fashioned
Example: Garifuna

GARIFUNA
Garifuna

is an Arawakan language spoken

in Central America, e.g. in Belize

Total

number of current speakers is about

100,000

GARIFUNA: SHAME AND

SHIFT
Code

choice in a mixed population in Belize

Garifuna vs. Belizian Creole

Speak

Garifuna and identify with your ethnic

group, or English Creole and identify as
Belizean?

Children

are ashamed to speak Garifuna

because it marks them as poor and backward

Parents

feel that speaking Garifuna is a sign of

pride in who you are

PIDGINS AND CREOLES

The production of new languages in contact

situations

PIDGINS
A

pidgin is a trade language actually it

is grammatically simpler in form than a
true language and does not have full
elaboration of function.

Over

time, as people expand the situations

in which they use a pidgin, it can be come
fully elaborated and then become a creole,
through the process of creolization.

CREOLES
When a highly elaborated pidgin (one with
that can serve all the communication
needs of its speakers) reaches the point
where children are learning it as their
first language, it has become a creole, a
fully functional and elaborated language
that emerged from the interaction of two
or more languages.
This process is called creolization.

POWER AND CREOLES

Creolization

occurs in situations where

one language is associated with more
power than another. Some people limit
creoles to languages that arise in cases
of forced movement or colonization.

The

language on which a creole is based is

called the matrix language.

EXAMPLE
Hatian

Haiti

French

Kreyol a French creole spoken in

is the matrix language, but West

African languages contributed phonology,
vocabulary and some elements of the
syntax.

TOK PISIN
Tok

Pisin is a creole language spoken in

Papua New Guinea that is rapidly gaining
speakers. One of 2 official languages of
Papua New Guinea

Tok

Pisin has been standardized and is

used in written language, broadcasting,
and oral communication. You can even
search the internet in Tok Pisin.

KRIO
Krio

is an English creole language that is

one of the official languages of Sierra
Leone.

4,000,000

speakers, about 10% are native

speakers [around 23 languages are spoken
in Sierra Leone]

JAMAICAN CREOLE
Grammatically

distinct from English.

Some examples:
di woman dem = the women
Mi ron = I run (habitually); I ran
Mi a ron = I am running
Mi ena (en+a) ron = I was running
Mi en ron = I have run; I had run

VARIATIONS IN NEW ENGLISHES

She

is knowing her science very well (E. Africa)

I graduate there in 1990. (PNG)
Before I always go to that market (Malaysia)
------ pay attention on it (India)
You didnt come by car? (India); Yes, I didnt.
------ Dont kacau me when I want to work!
(Malaysia)
When we get home, we ask daddy to changkol
the garden (Singapore)