Language Contact
Linguistics 203 Languages of the World Major Language Families
Source: Comrie et al. (2003) Lack of Language Contact
• leads to greater differences in related languages/dialects • Reasons for lack of contact • migration • physical boundaries (mountains, rivers, etc.) • political • religious / cultural Language Contact
• causes languages to become more similar • shared vocabulary • shared grammatical structures • shared sounds / sound systems • etc English vocabulary
• English • Norman Conquest in 1066 • French became language of aristocracy for next 300- 400 years • Large influx of French vocabulary; often more erudite or specialized French origin Anglo-saxon French origin Anglo-saxon combat fight finish end conceal hide gain win cordial hearty mount go up economy thrift perish die egotism selfishness tolerate put up with Sprachbund
• A group of unrelated languages which come to share similarities due their proximity and language contact (and not due to common inheritance). Balkan Sprachbund
Source: Comrie et al. (2003) Balkan Sprachbund
• Languages from four Indo-European families 1. Slavic Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian 2. Romance Romanian 3. Hellenic Greek 4. Albanian Albanian
Balkan Sprachbund
• definite article is a suffix (except in Greek)
Romanian lup-ul (cf. Spanish) el lobo wolf-the the wolf Bulgarian voda-ta (cf. Russian) ta voda water-the that water Albanian mik-u friend-the
Data in ‘Balkan Sprachbund’ section mainly from Comrie et al. (2003) and lecture notes from Matthew Gordon. Balkan Sprachbund
• Have case system with Nom (subject), Acc (direct object), Dat (‘to’ + NP), Gen (‘of’ + NP) • Nom+Acc may be merged, and Dat+Gen may be merged
Romanian lup-ul-ui (cf. Spanish*) al lobo ‘to the wolf’ wolf-the-to/of del lobo ‘of the wolf’ Bulgarian na starikut (cf. Russian) stariku ‘to the old man’ to/of the.old.man starika ‘of the old man’ Greek tu anthrópu to/of the.man
*Spanish is not traditionally claimed to have case. This is just for comparison. Balkan Sprachbund • subjunctive replaces infinitive (not in Croatian) • probably borrowed from Greek
Greek ϑelo na γrafo ‘I want to write’ I.want that I.write Serbian hocu da pisam ‘I want to write’ I.want that I.write Romanian da-mi sa beau ‘give me sthg to drink’ give-me that I.drink Bulgarian daj mi da pija ‘give me sthg to drink’ give me that I.drink (cf. Croatian) hocu pisati ‘I want to write’ I.want to.write (cf. Czech) Chci psát ‘I want to write’ I.want to.write (cf. French) Je veux ecrir ‘I want to write’ I want to.write Balkan Sprachbund
• future tense comes from verb ‘want/wish’
Greek ϑa (=ϑelo na) γrafo ‘I will write’ Serbian pisa-cu ‘I will write’ Romanian o ʃa scriu ‘I will write’ Albanian do të shkruaj ‘I will write’
(cf. Spanish) escribir-é ‘I will write’ < escribir hé ‘I have to write’ Balkan Sprachbund
• numbers 11-19 mean ‘1/2/etc. upon 10’ • probably borrowed from Slavic languages
Bulgarian edi-na-deset ‘eleven’ Romanian un-spre-zece ‘eleven’ Albanian njëm-bë-dhjetë ‘eleven’
(cf. French) onze ‘eleven’ (cf. Czech) jedenáct ‘eleven’ < jeden-na-deset one-on-ten (cf. Russian) odinadzat ‘eleven’ < odi-na-dzat
• Kupwar is village of about 3,000 in India • Four languages: • Two Indo-European (Indo-Aryan): Urdu (Muslim landowners) Marathi (Untouchables; low-prestige) • Two Dravidian: Kannada (Jain landowners, Hindu craftsmen) [Telugu] (Hindu rope-makers; low-prestige) • Marathi, Kannada spoken there about 600 years • Urdu spoken there about 3-400 years
Data in this section is from Jones & Singh (2005) Kupwar Sprachbund
• Language determined by caste • Males in area are bilingual or multilingual • Interaction between groups (e.g. working) led to similarities. • Marathi is preferred for inter-group interactions, including education. • Marathi is the language of the lowest caste
Kupwar Sprachbund
• Grammatical structures are now almost identical • Vocabulary remains distinct • maintains group identification for religious, caste reasons
Kupwar pala jəra kaat ke le ke a ya Urdu Kupwar pala jəra kap un ghe un a l o Marathi Kupwar tapla jəra khod i təgond i bə yn Kannada greens a.little cut having taken having come PST I ‘I cut some greens and brought them.’ Kupwar Sprachbund
• Gender distinction in original languages • Urdu: masc (unmarked), fem • Marathi: masc, fem, neutral (unmarked) • Kannada: masc & fem (humans only); neutral (all non- humans) • Gender distinction in Kupwar village • Kupwar Urdu: masc (humans and non-humans), fem (humans only) • Kupwar Marathi: as in Kannada
Kupwar Sprachbund
• ‘to be’ with adjective predicates • not used in Kannada, used in Kupwar Kannada
Urdu tumhar-a ghər bər-a hay Kannada nim məne doddu Kupwar Urdu tumhara ghər bəda hay Kupwar Marathi tumcə ghər mothə hay Kupwar Kannada nimd məni dwədd eti your house big is ‘Your house is big.’ Southern Africa Sprachbund Click sounds • Exist in Khoisan languages • Borrowed into some Bantu (Nguni) languages like Zulu and Xhosa
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:African_language_families_en.svg Northwest America Sprachbund
• Includes: • Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tshimianic languages, Wakashan languages, Chimakuan languages, Coast Salisha languages, Lower Chinook, Alsea, Siuslaw, Takelma, Kalapuya, Coos, and some Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages.
Source for data in this section: Mithun (1999) Northwest America Sprachbund
• Common phonological traits: • large consonant inventories • small vowel inventories (3-4 vowels) • three-way plosive contrast • existence of ejectives • frequent use of glottal stop • many distinguish velar /k/ and uvular /q/ • distinguish some velar sounds for roundedness • existence of multiple laterals • Many common grammatical traits, too.
*Mithun (1999) doesn’t include Yup’ik Eskimo in her description of this sprachbund, but it shares most of these phonological traits (see Lyovin 1997:355) New Languages
• Language contact gives rise to other situations as well • Pidgin languages • a ‘mash-up’ of several languages; no native speakers • Creole languages • a pidgin language that has become a native language Pidgin Languages
• Reasons they arise: – contact between various groups of people – no common languages exists • Vocabulary largely based in one language • e.g. English-based pidgin • Generally have little prestige
Pidgin Languages
• Common traits • simplified phonology (consonant clusters reduced, preference for CV syllables, basic vowels (/a, e, i, o, u/))
• simplified morphology (little use of affixes, use of reduplication)
• simplified syntax (coordinated clauses preferred to subordinate clauses, tense indicated by separate word, SVO word order*)
• simpilified vocabularies
Creole Languages
• When a pidgin is learned as a native language, it becomes a creole language. • some pidgins die out, some remain pidgins, others become creoles • Children fill in ‘gaps’ in the grammar and vocabulary. • often have little prestige • (e.g. Haitian Creole; Tok Pisin is a major exception)
Creole (Tok Pisin)
1. Ol ikilim pik bipo. 1. They killed the pig. 2. Na pik bai ikamap olosem draipela ston. 2. The pig looks like a big rock. 3. Na pik ia [ol ikilim bipo ia] bai ikamap 3. The pig [that they killed] looks like a big olosem draipela ston. rock.
Sapos yumi tingting gut long dispela tripela If we think carefully about these three tok, yumi ken klia long tupela samting. sentences, we can obtain two Nambawan samting, sapos pik istap long (1) interpretations. First, if the pig of sentence em inarapela pik, na pik istap long (2) em (1) is one pig, and the pig of sentence (2) is inarapela, orait, yumi no ken wokim (3). another pig, then we cannot construct (3). Tasol sapos wanpela pik tasol istap long (1) However, if the pig in (1) and (2) is the na (2), em orait long wokim (3). Na tu, same, then we can construct (3). Thus, I tingting istap long (1) ia, mi bin banisim have bracketed in (3) the meaning insait long tupela banis long (3), long corresponding to (1) with two brackets, wonem, em bilong kliaim yumi long wonem because it has the purpose of identifying pik Elena itok en. for us which pig Elena is talking about.
Source: Finegan (2004) Lingua Franca
• language used as common language for groups of speakers of different languages
• a pidgin/creole can be a lingua franca, but a lingua franca need not be a pidgin/creole
Code-mixing/switching
• bilingual speakers often mix two languages in same utterance/conversation
• around ½ world’s population is bilingual/multilingual
Language/Dialect Continua
• Languages and dialects are not as easy to distinguish as their separate names suggest • Change from one place to another is often gradual • Southern Swedes can communicate better with Southern Danish speakers in Denmark than with northern Swedes* • Germans near Holland can communicate better with Dutch speakers near the border than with southern Germans* • Changes do not all spread in same direction, or to same extent
*This is true of local varieties, not standard varieties. West Germanic Dialect Continuum
West Germanic Dialect Continuum
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Continental_West_Germanic_languages.png see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_dialects West Germanic Dialect Continuum
Source for this and following slides: Johnson, Sally. (1998). Exploring the German Language. Oxford University Press. New York, NY. West Germanic Dialect Continuum
West Germanic Dialect Continuum
Romance Dialect Continuum
Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Romance_20c_en.png Romance Dialect Continuum
Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Romance-lg-classification-en.png Romance Dialect Continuum
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages
Sinitic Language Continuum
Source: http://schools-wikipedia.org/images/709/70957.png (modified) References
• Comrie, Bernard, Stephen Matthew and Maria Polinsky. (Eds.). (2003). The Atlas of Languages, revised edition. London: Quarto Inc. • Finegan, Edward. (2004). Language: Its Structure and Use. 5th edition. Thomson Wadsworth • Jones, Mari C. and Ishtla Singh. (2005). Exploring Language Change. New York, NY: Routledge. • Lyovin, Anatole. (1997). An introduction to the languages of the world. New York: Oxford University Press. • Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The Languages of Native North America. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.