Language Contact

Part 1

History of the English Language  History of English in 10 minutes History of English in 10 minutes

Borrowing  Lexical and Structural  Borrowing typical occurs when there is no existing equivalent expression  Different levels of borrowing can occur depending on the nature of the contact between speaker populations

Degrees of contact  Low – lexical  High – structural  Superstratum and substratum contact – unidrectional borrowing (typically)  Adstratum contact – bidrectional borrowing

Outcomes of contact  Language convergence – languages become more similar  Language shift – Merging of languages where prestige is at different levels (super/substratum)  Language death – Language is not learned as a first language by any community of speakers

Spanish and English…  What’s the relationship?  Prestige Prestige

Pidgin Languages  Language system that emerges as a result of trade between speakers of other languages.  Characterized by relatively small vocabulary (compensated by multiple meanings of phrases)  Simplification of linguistic systems like morphology and syntax  Vocabulary provided by the superstratum language (as well as others)

Pidgins and Creoles  A creole is a pidgin that has been nativized by children as their primary language.  A pidgin is not a first language.  These difference are often subtle

Pidgins, creoles, and bilingual mixed languages  Hawaiian Pidgin (Creole) Hawaiian Pidgin (Creole)

Creole Languages  A language that is initially non-native to a group of speakers and that is adopted as a first language by children of a speech community  Phase two in Pidgin Language  Phonetics are more cohesive within the creole and experience less interference from native language systems

Code-switching and diglossia  Code switching may occur because…  One language seems to have a clearer utterance for a specific thought/idea  The utterance has a more dominant reference in one language rather than the other (fast food, walmart)  May reflect a particular a gap in the second language proficiency  Political, social, or cultural/identity purposes

Language death  What is lost when a language dies?  The Last Languages The Last Languages