Bi lingual ism

“two”

“articulated with the tongue”

suffix that describes an

action or process

• Bloomfield, 1933: “Bilingualism is the native-like control of two languages”

• Haugen, 1953: bilingualism begins “at the point where the speaker of one language can produce complete meaningful utterances in the other language”

• Diebold’s, 1964: Incipient bilingualism “the initial stages of contact between two languages”

• Mackey, 1968: “the alternate use of two or more languages”– Degree – focus on ability. How well does the bilingual know each of the

languages?– Function – focus on the uses the speaker has for each of the languages

and the roles these languages play.– Alternation – focus on to what point the individual alternates between

the languages.– Interference – focus on to what point the speaker is able to distinguish

between the two languages, keeping them apart or allowing them to merge together.

Types of Bilingualism

• Individual Level

• Weinreich (1967)

• Coordinate bilingualism

• Compound bilingualism

• Sub-coordinate bilingualism

Coordinate bilingualism • The learning of two languages in two different settings

the words of the languages are kept completely separated each word has its own independent meaning

• E.g. school bilingualism: an English student studying Spanish at school = 2 languages, 2 different contexts.

• Book .v. libro

Book Libro

Compound bilingualism

Book Libro

• The learning of two languages in the same context, used at the same time

• The two languages have an amalgamated representation; inter-reliant

• Loewe (1888) “two-member system of the same language”• E.g. cultural bilingualism: an individual at home who has an

English mother and Spanish father, and speaks the two languages with their parents.

Sub-coordinate bilingualism

• Individual interpreting the words of his weaker language via the words of his/her stronger language

• The bilingual has one set of meanings established through his/her’s first language, with a different linguistic system attached to them.E.g. a Spanish person hears the word “book” in English, relates the word to their stronger language (libro) inducing the meaning of the word in English.

Book Libro Book

Types of Bilingualism

• Social Level (diglossia)

• Fisherman et al. (1966)

• Typologies of bilingualism based on societal variables focusing on the prestige and status of the languages involved.

• Elite

• Folk

Bilingual behaviour

• Code-switching• Gumperz (1982): “the juxtaposition within the same

speech exchange of passages of speech belonging to two different grammatical systems or subsystems”

• Borrowing• Johanson (1992): “the copying of a form from one

language system (the lexicon of Y) into another (X)• Interference• Haugen (1956): “the overlapping of two languages, or

application of two systems to the same item”

Language maintenance, shift and death.

Examples of factors that can affect shift, maintenance and death;

•Numerical strength: Large minority groups often stand a better chance of maintaining their language, with more people to mobilize it.

•Social class: the people who speak a language also play an important role its survival rather than the number of people that speak it.

•Ties with the homeland/native language: Refugees may reject their first language owing to its connections with the turmoil they left behind.

•Exogamous marriage: In Wales, due to an out-migration of Welsh speakers and an influx of English speakers, the number of exogamous marriages (in which English almost always dominates) now equals those in which both partners are Welsh (data collected 1981).

•Attitudes of the majority towards the minority: “If speakers of the minority language manage to find an ecological niche in the majority community, which is conducive to language maintenance, they may have a better chance of survival.” (Romaine, 1989).

•The relationship between dialect and standard: With regards to education, “when the extent of the difference between the variety spoken at home and the school standard is substantial, children may experience considerable difficulties.” (ibid).

Types of bilingual communities

• In an extreme case a community may have strict separation of domains with stable bilingualism.

• Conversely, a community’s bilingualism may be very unstable using both languages in all domains.

• Intermediate communities may use one language for certain domains but both in others.

Domains and other sources of variance in language behaviour

• Media variance: Writing, reading and speaking: The shift and maintenance of a language can be affected by the point at which each language media is obtained.

• Role variance: The degree of shift and maintenance may also be affected by inner speech, comprehension and production.

• Situational variance: Shift and maintenance may also relate to how formal or intimate the communication is.

• Domain variance: There are several distinguishable domains of language behaviour which may affect the degree of shift and maintenance. E.g. autonomy, power, influence, domain centrality.

Group, situation and topic in language choice

Group:

• Group membership can be observed with criteria such as age, sex, race and religion.

• It is also apparent in a socio-psychological sense of reference group member.

 Situation:

• Aspects of ‘situation’: participants, physical setting, topics and functions.• Style; intimacy-distance, formality-informality, solidarity-non-solidarity,

status equality-inequality.• Bilinguals usually view one of their languages to be more dialectal. Topic:

• Certain topics tend to be handled better in one language than the other.• A language may deal with a certain topic better than another because the

latter lacks the specific terminology required of the subject.

Grosjean’s view on language choice

Four factors that may affect the choice of language;

• the setting and situation,

• the participants in the interaction and their roles in relation to one another,

• the topic (work, sports, national events),

• the function of the interaction.

Loanwords: Catanyol

Spelling:

-"extendre" instead of "estendre" –also "extens" and "extensió"– (extend)

-"extranger" and "extrany" instead of "estranger" and "estrany" (foreigner/ foreign)

Loanwords: Catanyol

Morphology

Changes in verbal conjugation:

• -"abastir" instead of "abastar".• -"aclarar" instead of "aclarir". (Clarify)• -"reflexar" instead of "reflectir". (Reflect)• -"combatir" instead of "combatre". (Fight)

Loanwords: CatanyolMorphology:

• Prepositions and conjunctions :• -"a causa de", "per raó de" instead of the Castilian "degut a" (taken

from the English 'due to'). • -"a finals de" instead of the original "a la fi de", "a la darreria de", "al

final de".• -"a principis de" instead of the original "al començament de, "al

principi de". (At the beginning of)• -“no obstant” instead of ”no obstant això" o "això no obstant". • -"per a" and not "per", in all the cases. • -"sempre que" and not the Castilian "sempre i quan". • -"tal com" and not "tal i com".• prefixes and suffixes: • The Castilian suffix –ar substitutes the Catalan –ari.• - "interdisciplinar" instead of "interdisciplinari".

Loanwords: Catanyol

Lexicology: Locutions• -”Anar a més" (cast. "ir a más") (to increase) : Anar més

lluny, progressar • -"Brindar una oportunitat" (instead of the Catalan "donar

una oportunitat") (Bring an oportunity). • -"Fer la pilota" (that in Catalan would be said: "fer la

rosca")(to suck up to someone)• -"Fer-se el suec" (instead of the traditional "fer el longuis"

o "fer l'orni") (to act dumb). In Catalan the pronoun “se” in these kind of expressions is not used. (e.g.: *"fer-se el sord" - "fer el sord").

• - "Fet i dret" (cast. "hecho y derecho") instead of "de cap a peus".

Code-switching: Example

• [Cat.] El tercer dia es el pitjor. El primer està bé, perquè ets

màrtir. El segon, aguantes perque ho vas fer el primer. Però, el tercer, et dius; [Cast.] “¡¡No puedo más!! ¡¡Me da igual!!”

• (The third day is the worst. The first is okay, because you’re a martyr. The second day, you bear it because you did it the first day. But the third day you say to yourself, “I can’t stand it any more!! I don’t care!!”).

Language Competence in the BAC(Language competence in the BAC across age groups (1996

Census data)

USE OF GALICIAN CONDICIONATED BY SOCIAL VARIETIES

 

       Age: Galician: Main language to old people (80’ 6 %)

Main language to young people under 25 (36’7%)

 

  

•   Place where you live: Galician: Main language in the villages (85’8%)

Main language in the cities (16’7 %)

 

        Studies and jobs:

 - Studies: People with studies: Galicia, as main language (19’1 %)

Peoble without studies: Galicia as a main language (92’6%)

 

- Jobs: Unskilled worker: Galicia, as main language (96’1 %)

Skilled worker: Galicia, as main language (14’2 %)

PERIODS IN HISTORY AND SPEAKERS IN GALICIA

 

1. 1919- 1949 ( Ages: 60- 90 years old)

• Most of the people lived in villages and spoke Galician

• There was no education in Galician Galician was transmitted between generations without an education.

• Not to much education in Castilian.

MONOLINGUALISM IN FAVOUR OF THE GALICIAN

DIGLOSIA:

-Formal situations: Castilian

- Informal situations: Galician

2.      1949- 1969 (Ages: 40- 60 years old)

• Galician was forbidden • People were educated in Galician• A separation between “ life in the country” and “life in the city” conditions the use

of the language -> DIGLOSIA• Feeling of shame -> LOSS OF GALICIAN

3.       1969- 1984 (Ages: 25- 40 years old)

• People were educated in Castilian• Galicia become a minority language

BILINGUISM: in villagesMONOLINGUALISM: in cities

 

DIGLOSIA: -Formal situations: Galician -Informal situations: Castilian

4. 1984- Today (Ages: under 25 years old)

• The language most used in cities is Castilian -> MONOLINGUALISM

• People were educated in Castilian, but their parents spoke Galician.

• People heard Castilian in routine situations, but they decide start to study it

 BILINGUALISM

• People as victim of the new situation of diglosia

Conclusion

PROCESS OF ‘DESGALEIZACIÓN’

REVERSE PROCESS OF DIGLOSIA

Key scholars

• Charles A. Ferguson (1921-1998)Diglossia, 1959, Word vol. 15: 325-340-introduces the concept

• Joshua A. Fishman (1926-)-develops Ferguson’s ideas-introduces ‘extended bilingualism’

Ferguson’s definition of diglossia

a relatively stable language situation in which, in addition to the primary dialects of the language (which may include a standard or regional standards), there is a very divergent, highly codified (often grammatically more complex) superposed variety, the vehicle of a large and respected body of written literature, either of an earlier period or in another speech community, which is learned largely by formal education and is used for most written and formal spoken purposes but is not used by any section of the community for ordinary conversation (1959)

Ferguson’s definition of diglossia

• “a specific relationship between 2 or more varieties of the same language in use in a speech community in different functions” (1972: 232)

• One variety is superposed, labelled H, whilst the other variety(ies) are L and can be distinguished through their functional specialisation

NB. Polyglossia = when more than two varieties are involved

Typical situations for H and L varieties

• High usages:sermon in church/mosquepersonal letterspeech in parliament/political speechuniversity lecturenews broadcastnewspaper editorial, news storypoetry

• Low usages:instructions to waitersconversations with family, friends, colleaguesradio soap operacaption on political cartoonfolk literature

• Overlap between the two - in all defining speech communities it is typical to read aloud from a newspaper in H and discuss its contents in L.

Areas in which H and L differ

• Function – H and L different purposes, native speakers would find it odd if anyone used H in an L domain or L in an H domain

• Prestige – H more highly valued

• Literary heritage – literature normally in H variety, no written uses of L

• Acquisition – L variety learned first, H acquired through schooling

• Standardisation – H strictly standardised, L rarely standardised

• Stability – diglossias generally stable

• Grammar – H more complex than L

• Lexicon – often shared, but differentiations in vocabulary

• Phonology – two kinds of systems – H and L share same phonological elements but H has more complicated morphophenomics, or where H has contrasts that L lacks but may borrow

Diglossic communities

• HaitiH – FrenchL - Haitian creole

• SwitzerlandH – standard GermanL – Swiss German

• EgyptH – Classical ArabicL – colloquial Arabic

Institutional support systems• L typically acquired at home as a mother tongue – continued

use throughout life – familiar interactions• H learned through socialisation and never at home• Diglossic societies are marked by access restriction – i.e.

entry to formal institutions such as school and government requires knowledge of H

• Importance attached by community members to using the right variety in the appropriate context – speakers regard H as superior to L in a number of respects– in some cases speakers claim they do not speak L– alleged superiority for religious and/or literary reasons– strong tradition of formal grammatical study and standardisation

associated with H

How does diglossia come about?

Examples:

• -sizeable body of literature in a language closely related to natural language of the community - this literature embodies some of the fundamental values of the group

• -literacy in the community limited to a small elite

Power and prestige

• H - greater international prestige, language of the local power elite, or dominant religious community

• H-variety language = language of more powerful section of the society

• French Canada – English (H)– greatest prestige in North America and internationally– population numerically greater than community of

French speakers, – speech community is economically dominant, in both

the English and French areas of Canada

Fishman’s diglossia

• Extended diglossia:

includes speech communities in which the high and low varieties are not necessarily close related varieties

Two or more varieties are mother tongues, each of different segments of the population

Paraguay – Spanish (H), Guarani (L)-both are mother tongues for different groups

Fishman’s extended diglossia

• 4 variations of linguistic relationship between H’s and L’s– H as classical, L as vernacular, the two being

genetically related– H as classical, L as vernacular, the two not being

genetically related – H as written/formal-spoken and L as vernacular, the

two being genetically unrelated to each other – H as written/formal-spoken and L as vernacular, the

two being genetically related to each other

Diglossia vs. Bilingualism

• ‘Bilingualism’ - two languages of an individual‘Diglossia’ - two languages in society

• Fishman - the relationship between societal diglossia and individual bilingualism is not necessary or causal

• bilingualism with and without diglossia• diglossia with and without bilingualism

Diglossia without Bilingualism

• political or governmental diglossia - two or more differently monolingual entities brought together under one political roof

• Canada, Belgium, Switzerland• institutional protection for more than one

language at the federal level, though widespread monolingualism in individual territories

• Both diglossia with and without bilingualism tend to be relatively stable, long-term arrangements.

Examples of diglossia in Spain

• The first and most notable is the case of Galician. There still exists one fundamental problem in the region according to Loureiro-Rodríguez:

The fact that the Galician language has been historically considered inferior, even among the majority of its speakers, has made the functional and realization process more challenging (2007:123)

• Galician has traditionally been an oral language, with Castilian being used for written communication; as such it gains a level of prestige as it is the language used for official purposes.

 • For the majority of older speakers of Galician (the

category which has the highest number of speakers) they were never educated in Galician, solely in Castilian, and so there has always been a diglossic situation, using Galician as there means of oral communication but switching to Castilian for written communication.

• Since becoming co-official in the region Galician went through a process of normalisation to create a standard version of the language.

• However the ‘standard’ that was produced did not reflect the many local varieties of the language.

• What developed then were high and low versions of Galician, the ‘standard’ variety which was considered as high, and the local variants considered to be the low varieties.

• As a result when in a more official environment, the speakers of the ‘low’ variety often opt for speaking Castilian instead of Galician because they do not feel confident with the ‘high’ variety.

• A contrary example but one which still focuses on diglossia is Catalonia.

• Unlike Galicia, Catalonia receives high numbers of immigrants, particularly from other areas of Spain.

• In Catalonia the majority of public life is carried out in the medium of Catalan and as a result it has prestige within the region, and thus when considered alongside Castilian it is seen as the high variety with Castilian as the low variety.

• Those people that move to the region that are not Catalan speaking find themselves in a diglossic situation:

No doubt many of them feel socially disadvantaged as they often come from a low socioeconomic background and live in poor housing areas, often in large, homogenous groups. For everyday purposes they probably don’t need to use Catalan, although of course, they may resent to feel in a linguistically inferior position (Hoffman, 1996:75)

• My final example of diglossia in Spain is that of Aranés in the Valle de Arán.

• Almost all the inhabitants of this region speak Aranés and use it at home and family circles. However the language of administration in the region is Castilian.

• And so we have a classic case of diglossia, with speakers of Aranés switching to Castilian depending on the circumstance such as official or administrative purposes.

El uso fuera del entorno familiar está dominado por el castellano, sobre todo en las generaciones más jóvenes. Por el contrario, en cuanto al conocimiento de la lengua, ha aumentado, por efecto de la escolarización en aranés. Lo que muestra que los medios puestos para la enseñanza de la lengua en la escuela han sido muy superiores a las medidas de política lingüística que iban dirigidas a fomentar su uso. Lo que muestra la necesidad urgente de una activación de las medidas destinadas a la promoción y uso de la lengua, que fuera llevada a cabo con la seriedad y el rigor necesarios. (Etxebarria, 2002:311)

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J. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.• Hoffman, Charlotte ‘Monolingualism, Bilingualism, Cultural Pluralism and National Identity: Twenty Years of Language Planning

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Kim Potowski and Richard Cameron (Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2007)• Conde, Xavier Frías ‘A Brief Outline of Historical Sociolinguistics of the Galician Language’, Romania Alternativa• Rei-Doval, Gabriel, A Lingua Galega Na Cidade No Século XX: Unha aproximación sociolingüística

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