MULTILINGUALISM
MULTILINGUALISM
MULTILINGUALISM
BILINGUALISM &
MULTILINGUALISM
Theme 3
Societal and individual
multilingualism
Multilingualism is an individual and a social
phenomenon.
It can be considered as an ability of an individual, or
it can refer to the use of languages in society.
Individual multilingualism is sometimes referred to as
plurilingualism.
Societal and individual
multilingualism
The Council of Europe website defines plurilingualism
as the “repertoire of varieties of language which
many individuals use” so that “some individuals are
monolingual and some are plurilingual.”
In contrast, multilingualism is understood as “the
presence in a geographical area, large or small, of
more than one ‘variety of language’. . .; in such an
area individuals may be monolingual, speaking only
their own variety.”
Societal and individual
multilingualism
This distinction is the same as the most widely used
distinction between individual and societal
multilingualism.
Within individual multilingualism, there can be
important differences in the experience of acquiring
and using languages.
Language Contact
Exploitation conflict
and
Interference conflict
Political Language conflict
Masta
Pidgins and Creoles
These contact languages were initially used
for functional purposes in specific situations
and contexts and, therefore , they were not
the native language of anyone and speakers
continued to use their languages in their own
speech communities.
Pidgins and Creoles
Pidgins often undergo several geographical
and sociolinguistic contexts.
e.g. Melanesian pidgin English arose as a
shipboard lingua franca, later it was used as
a plantation language and it finally came to
be a language for inter-ethnic city
communication (Richford & McWhorter,
1997).
Pidgins and Creoles
Some instances of pidgins
Most pidgins and creoles are based on an
European language, and the most common
and widespread ones are based on one of
the following languages: English, French,
Spanish, Dutch, Italian, or German.
Pidgins and Creoles
English based creoles are very common in
Caribbean areas such as Antigua, Barbados,
Jamaica and the West Indies.
They are also present in Africa (Cameroon,
Kenya, St. Helena, Zimbabwe, Namibia), Asia
(India, china, Hong Kong) and the pacific
area (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands,
Australia).
Pidgins and Creoles
French-based creoles can be found in
Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia and Haiti.
Some Spanish-based pidgins and creoles
were used in the Dominican Republic, Cuba,
Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
Some instances of Portuguese-based creoles
can be found in Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao,
Malaysia and Singapore.
Pidgins and Creoles
Cameroon Pidgin English
Hawaiian Pidgin
Kamtok
Kenya Pidgin Swahili
Naga Pidgin
New Guinea Pidgin German
Nigerian Pidgin English
Papuan Pidgin English
Pidgin German (Gastarbeiters)
Pidgins and Creoles
Russenorsk
Sango
Vietnamese Pidgin
Pidgins and Creoles
Pidgins are to be found all over the world but, they
tend to share a number of general characteristics.
a. Almost complete lack of inflection in nouns,
pronouns, verbs and adjectives.
b. Nouns are unmarked for number or gender.
c. Verbs lack tense markers.
d. There is no distinction for case in personal
pronouns, so l can stand for me, and they for
them.
Pidgins and Creoles
e. Syntactically, the absence of clausal structures is
quite common in pidgins. However, relative
clauses and other types of embedding develop in
creolization.
f. In order to avoid possible confusion, as there is
often no distinction between long and short
vowels (e.g., ship and sheep would be
pronounced in the same way), a common
resource introduced in these languages is
'reduplication'.
Pidgins and Creoles
e.g., in Tok Pisin sip means 'ship' and sipsip means
'sheep', and pis means 'peace' while pispis has the
meaning of 'urinate'.
Another common usage of reduplication is to
intensify the meaning of a word, for instance, cry
means 'cry‘ whereas crycry means 'cry continually',
or talk meaning'talk' and talktalk meaning 'chatter'.
Pidgins and Creoles
Maritime Pidgins: multilingual crews, shore contacts
- Lingua Franca (Mediterranean), Russenorsk
Trade Pidgins: trading/selling distinct groups
- Chinese Pidgin English
Workforce Pidgins: e.g. plantation pidgins or mining
communities
- Hawaii PE; Fanagalo
Military Pidgins: officers & local soldiers/workers
- Juba Arabic, Hiri Motu
Interethnic contacts:
- Chinook Jargon, Bazaar Malay, etc.
Pidgins and Creoles
Creolization
The process of assimilation in which neighboring
cultures share certain features to form a new distinct
culture and therefore a new language.
Thus a new language emerges having this its own
native speakers (nativization has occurred)
Pidgins and Creoles
Characteristics of Creoles
A creole is a pidgin which:
is learnt by children as their 1st language
is used in a wide range of domains
is used for a variety of functions
has expanded structure and vocabulary
not appreciated by outsiders but has positive
attitudes by its speakers
Pidgins and Creoles
Pidgin or Creole?
Terminology and sociolinguistic status are
not always consistent and some creoles can
be referred to as pidgins (for instance, Tok
Pisin and
Hawaiian Pidgin English) or the other way
round.
Pidgins and Creoles
Mismatch produced because 'pidgin' and
'creole' are technical terrns commonly used
by linguists but not necessarily by speakers
of these languages. Instances of creoles are:
Anglo-Romani (a creolization of Romani in
England)
Asmara Pidgin (Italian-based, it is spoken
in parts of Ethiopia)
Berbice Creole Dutch
Pidgins and Creoles
Chabacano o Zamboangueño.
(Spanish_based)
Haitian Creole
Hawaiian Creole English
Jamaican Patwa
Tok Pisin
Pidgins and Creoles
Hymes, (1971: 3)
‘pidgins and creoles were ignored to a great
extent by linguists as marginal languages,
instead of being considered creative
adaptations, have been regarded as
degenerations and, therefore, not as systems
in their own right'
Pidgins and Creoles
Decreolization
Arises when one creole has extended contact
with a standard language in a specific
society, and that standard brings a
considerable influence to bear on the creole.
Speakers start to develop the creole taking
the standard as a model and a continuum is
created with the standard as a model at the
top and the creole as a model at the bottom.
Pidgins and Creoles
This process can be clearly perceived
nowadays in places like Barbados,
Cameroon, India, Nigeria and Papua New
Guinea, among others.
In such a situation the different forms of the
creole become socially stratified.
Pidgins and Creoles
The variety or varieties which are closer to the
standard often become the language of the elite and
educated society (acrolect), whereas the variety
which is closer to the creole often represents
illiterate people and lower social class (basilect).
Acrolect
Mesolect
Basilect
Pidgins and Creoles
Between these two poles there can appear a
whole range of varieties or mesolects which
determine not only social stratification but
also alleged identities among their speakers.
Extended Diglossia
Diglossic situations involving two different linguistic
codes genetically unrelated.
The one that dominates the H domains has the
greater power or international prestige, or is the
language of the local power elite or the dominant
religious community.
Clearly the H-variety language is the language of the
most powerful section of the society.
.
Diglossia
Taxonomy of Diglossias
Classical Diglossia – In-Diglossia – Endo-
Diglossia