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| may be defined as the official or unofficial superordinate language (the language whose speakers have the most power) |
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| language whose speakers have the most power, language that someone who wants to be upwardly mobile needs to know |
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| frequently used as a king of shorthand, also known as a subordinate languages (subordinate in terms of power) |
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| A language of less power. Example: South Africa, where the affairs of the country are conducted in Afrikaans (superordinate language), but the majority of the people speak one of the subordinate languages. |
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| Sweden's multilingual policies |
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| Sweden has a large number of similar immigrants and now offers mother-tongue education in 60 languages |
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| 21 ethnic republics have 175 languages, but 90% of the people speak Russian as their home language |
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| Africa's language situation |
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| After colonialism ended, there was a situation after independence where a number of languages vied for the status of official language. In many cases, the status quo was chosen, and the language of colonial administration (usually French or English) was chosen as the official language. |
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| a special form of bilingualism; two varieties of one language are used in what linguists call "functional distribution," meaning the varieties are specialized, with one being used for high functions (like sermons) and the other being used for low functions (like conversations with friends). Arabic is an example; classic used in Islam, colloquial regional varieties used in conversation |
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| Diglossia = Bilingualism? |
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| NO, b/c there are no native speakers of the high varieties- they must be learned in school. Children grow up speaking the low variety. High form is not used in conversation, but in public speaking. Bilingualism has no functional distribution either; both languages can be used for any purpose. |
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| Differences in Diglossic Varieties |
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| High varieties standardized (dictionaries and grammars) whereas low variety is simpler and not always standardized. Diglossic speakers cope by code-switching, and jumping from one variety to the other to mark emotional/social meanings |
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| 3 possible outcomes of contact between languages |
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Definition
| language maintenance, bilingualism, and language shift. |
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| If there are economic incentives |
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Definition
| to shift language and learn the superordinate language, speakers of a subordinate language will likely shift their language within 3 generations. |
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| Example of a successful maintenance of a subordinate language is... |
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| Catalan (in Spain it was outlawed in 1700s, but today 97% of Catalans speak it) Survived for a number of reasons: part of Catalan identity based on their territory, and there was no economic incentive to switch to Spanish. |
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| Minority language rights have come to be seen as a form of human rights. Giving rights to a group institutionalizes the group, group rights are useful for gaining political action. UNESCO has spoken of linguistic rights as universal; everyone should have the right to speak his/her own language publicly and privately. |
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| 2 kinds of language planning |
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| corpus planning and status planning |
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| concerned with standardization and codification of the language (grammar, spelling, new words, etc) |
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| concerned with the choice of languages and the attitudes toward dialects. Includes decisions about which languages should be taught in schools. |
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| nonstandard, popular variety: writers like Dante and Chaucer chose to write in the vernacular of their countries and were involved in a language planning of sorts. |
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| 3 outcomes for language planning |
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| language maintenance, language shift, and bilingualism. |
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| What is the mechanism of language shift? |
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| Bilingualism; second generation immigrants become bilingual, but their children usually shift to the dominant language and often become monolingual. Language shift may ultimately lead to language death. |
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| Name the stages of language planning |
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Definition
1) SELECTION of a variety as the norm 2) STANDARDIZATION of the new norm 3) DIFFUSION/IMPLEMENTATION, usually through schools
4) MODERNIZATION, where language is spread and updated. |
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Term
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Definition
| 18% speak a language other than English at home, but of these, 55% speak English very well (they just don't speak it at home). Spanish is the largest non-English language spoken in the US (28 million) |
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| Official English amendments |
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Definition
| Have been offered at every session of congress since 1980; US English is the principal lobby group, argues that language ties a country together and that the US could be split into factions if bilingualism increases |
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| have laws that declare English the official language of their state (but Arizona's was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1998) |
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| an organization formed to encourage pluralism; says English is the primary language of the US and will remain so, but those citizens who speak a native language other than English should be encouraged to keep their home tongue. They see bilingualism as an economic and cultural asset. |
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| program to help those with "limited English proficiency," but later amendments shifted the focus from maintenance bilingualism to a transitional model that supports English monolingualism. The act expired and wasn't renewed. |
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| 98% speak Cantonese, but when Hong Kong rejoined China the official language became Mandarin. The goal of its educational system remains trilingualism (English, Cantonese, and Mandarin Chinese) |
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| 4 official languages (Malay, Mandarin, English, and Tamil) Bilingualism in Singapore means English plus one other official language. Typically children are educated in English and another official language (their mother-tongue, based on ethnicity). Recent issue = Singlish (colloquial Singaporean English), but gov't encourages Standard English. |
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| 4 official languages (French, German, Italian, and Rhaeto-Romansh. Most public officials trilingual, and children grow up speaking one language while being educated in 2 or 3 others. |
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| when given an opportunity, minority language in a bilingual situation tends to shift to the dominant language over generations |
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| effort to keep a language alive; like Spanish in the southwestern US, where Spanish and English exist on a continuum from Spanish retention to English assimilation. The closer a person is to the border, the more likely is is that Spanish is important in life. |
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Term
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| when a language becomes extinct. Follows a basic pattern of simplification. Words in the language get replaced by words from the dominant language, syntax is simplified, certain elements like relative clauses may disappear. Language death is a continuum, and can occur through bilingualism or language shift, or through genocide. |
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| Where a language is brought back from the brink of death; like Gaelic in Ireland. Now its the first official language of Ireland, serves as a symbol of the nation of Ireland. The government supports it, and children must learn it in school. It is a requirement for entrance into university or the civil service. |
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| pockets of language maintenance associated with immigrant communities; stresses the positive attitude of scholars and gov't agencies toward these (often) bilingual speakers, who are considered an asset to the country they live in, where they can be trained as teachers, translators, etc. (As opposed to the view that they are a liability to be fixed by acculturation and schooling). They allow for a better delivery of services to the multilingual community or employment in international trade/relations. |
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