Languages in contactLING 400Winter 2010

OverviewLanguage contact situationsCoexisting languagesDiglossiaSuperstratum/substratumDevelopment of new languageFor further learning: LING 430 (Pidgin and Creole Languages)Please turn off your cell phone.

Tree model of language changeA good model of innovative changesBut inadequate: isoglosses can cut across well-established linguistic boundaries

Wave model of language changeWave model linguistic innovations spread, like waves created by a stone thrown into a pond, from their point of origination to the periphery, slowly lowing their momentum and intersecting with the waves created by other innovationsUseful for modelling influences of one language on any adjacent

Coexisting languagesGroups of equal powerCanada: French and EnglishNortheast England (8-11th cent. AD): Old English and DanishLimited or extensive bilingualism

BilingualismOver half(?) of the worlds population bilingualCommon inIndiaPapua New Guinea

One pentilingualMohamed Guerssel (Morocco)Berber (language of home)French (local common language)W. Moroccan colloquial Arabic (friends)Modern Standard Arabic (school)English (later school)

DiglossiaIn bilingual societies, coexisting languages with specialized functionsColloquial Arabiclanguage of homeused among friendsModern Standard Arabiclearned at schoolexperience of a speaker from United Arab Emiratesgrew up speaking Gulf Arabicstarted learning MSA age 10all middle, high school classes taught in MSAused in broadcasting, giving a lecture needed to succeed in governmentgenerally regarded as superior to colloquialtaught at UW

Israel Syria Iraq AfghanistanYemen Saudia Arabic UAEMorocco Algeria Tunisia Libya EgyptMalta CyprusColloquial Arabic6-7 major colloquial languagesVarieties at geographical extremes mutually unintelligible

Unequal languages in contactSuperstratum languagelanguage of politically, culturally and/or economically dominant group Substratum languagelanguage of less dominant group English has been both

Superstratum substratumSami (Lapp) speakers learn Finnish (but typically not vice versa)

5th century Germanic invaders, invited to help defend Celtic Britain from Pict/Scot invasions, also drove Celts to fringes of Britain many borrowings from English into Celtic languages, few borrowings from Celtic into English: crag (cf. Welsh craig rock), dun (cf. Irish and Gael. donn brown)In modern UK, Welsh speakers learn English (but typically not vice versa)

8th-11th c. Danish invasions of EnglandResulted in extensive bilingualism, borrowing into Englishfellow, egg, window, skirt, sky, get, take, both, they, them, theirDanes also invaded Normandy [Norman < North man]https://depts.washington.edu/llc/olr/linguistics/clips/DanishInvasions_ref.mov

Danish-origin place names in EnglandFollowing Danish defeat in 878, Danish settlement/rule (Danelaw) confined to NE England

Norman invasion1002 Aethelred took refuge in Normandy from Vikings; married Norman woman 1042 Aethelreds son Edward became king of England1066Edward died without offspringdispute over succession: Harold Godwinsson of Essex vs. William, Duke of NormandyNorman victory at battle of Hastingsdetail from the Bayeux tapestry

After the Battle of Hastings1066-1070 campaign of pillage and destruction in EnglandWhy didnt French replace English after Battle of Hastings?https://depts.washington.edu/llc/olr/linguistics/clips/Norman_ref.mov

Post-1066 contact situationNever large numbers of bilinguals (20%?)lower nobility (Norman/English marriages)government officials, merchantsFrench-speaking minority (2-10%)ruling class, upper clergyWilliam tried to learn English but gave upsoldiers, other merchants, artisansEnglish, language of subject people (former) upper classes, lower clergypeasants (80%)Extensive lexical borrowing into English (apx. 10,000 words)beef, baron, government, religion, fashion, etc.< passive, not active knowledge of French

Extensive connection with Normandy and France (King of England = Duke of Normandy) until 1204 (dispute over marriage)Fewer and fewer bilingualsFrench shifted from local to foreign prestige language1284: Fellows of Merton College, Oxford, spoke English (not Latin or French)1295: Edward I tried to gain popular support by claiming that the king of France intended to obliterate English

Development of a new languageMay be developed by speakers who otherwise share no common languageA hybrid language (jargon, pidgin, expanded pidgin)Functions as lingua franca

Lingua francaSpeakers of languages A, B use C for communicationLatin in medieval Europe English (air traffic controllers)https://depts.washington.edu/llc/olr/linguistics/clips/AirTrafficControl_ref.movFrench in MoroccoModern Standard Arabic throughout Arabic-speaking world

Characteristics of pidginsNo native speakersLexiconderived from one or more languagesGrammarvariable across speakersrelatively simple sound inventorylittle affixation or irregularitycoordinate rather than subordinate clauses

Some pidgins1737: That mixed Language called Lingua Franca, so necessary in Eastern Countries [of Europe]: It is made up of Italian, Turkish, Persian, and Arabian. [OED]Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea)Krio (Sierra Leone)Chinook Jargon (NW North America)

Chinook JargonOregon-Alaska, east to Montana100,000 speakers (5% population), late 19th centurydecline in number of speakers since 1920sOrigins (controversial)a precontact language used as lingua franca

Chinook JargonMain Native American source languagesNootkaChinookan

Chinook JargonEvolved with white trading and settlementUsed by 19th c. traders, natives and missionaries Even formal situations: written invitations, opera (1), newspaper

Chinook JargonLexicondictionaries: 800-2000 wordscf. English: 750,000 wordsPhonology: /r/ > /l/rum > lumrope > lopgrease > clease

Borrowings from Chinook JargonInto Englishchum (salmon) (< Nootka spotted)tumwata waterfall (Tumwater)tillicum friend (Tillicum Village)chuck water (< Nootka water)salt chuck salt waterskookum chuck rough watertyee chief (various proper names)

Borrowings from Chinook JargonInto Sahaptin[kuu] pig (< CJ < Fr)[lam] alcoholic beverage (< CJ < Eng?)[msmustsn] cow[ts] sweet

SummaryPossible results of language contactBilingualismDevelopment of new languageLingua francaLanguage shift (later)

QuestionAre you bilingual?Which languages learned when?When/where used?Or do you know someone who is bilingual?What is their language history and current use?

quotes from Hock, Principles of Historical Linguisticsbut more French speakers in Canada learn English than vice versasimilar in other Arabic speaking countries; but in (e.g.) Morocco or Tunisia, French functions similarly to MSADanes mixed with local English populations, did not drive them out (as the Celts had been)