The Effect of Language Shift on a Sound Change in Progress
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(2014) Dlùth Is Inneach: Linguistic and Institutional Foundations for Gaelic Corpus Planning
Bell, S., McConville, M., McLeod, W., and O Maolalaigh, R. (2014) Dlùth is Inneach: Linguistic and Institutional Foundations for Gaelic Corpus Planning. Project Report. Copyright © 2014 The Authors and Bord na Gaidhlig A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge The content must not be changed in any way or reproduced in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder(s) http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/98132/ Deposited on: 14 October 2014 Enlighten – Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow http://eprints.gla.ac.uk Dlùth is Inneach – Final Project Report Linguistic and Institutional Foundations for Gaelic Corpus Planning Prepared for Bòrd na Gàidhlig (Research Project no. CR12-03) By Soillse Researchers Susan Bell (Research Assistant, University of Glasgow) Dr Mark McConville (Co-investigator, University of Glasgow) Professor Wilson McLeod (Co-investigator, University of Edinburgh) Professor Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh (Principal Investigator, University of Glasgow) Expert Adviser: Professor Robert Dunbar, University of Edinburgh Co-ordinator: Iain Caimbeul, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig UHI 27 January 2014 Redacted version for publication GEÀRR-CHUNNTAS GNÌOMHACH Is e tha san aithisg seo toraidhean bho phròiseact bliadhna a rinn sgioba rannsachaidh Shoillse às leth Bhòrd na Gàidhlig (BnG). B’ e amas an rannsachaidh fuasgladh fhaighinn air a' cheist a leanas: Cò na prionnsapalan planadh corpais as fheàrr a fhreagras air neartachadh agus brosnachadh -
Convergence and Divergence in Language Contact Situations
Sonderforschungsbereich Mehrsprachigkeit International Colloquium on Convergence and Divergence in Language Contact Situations 18–20 October 2007 University of Hamburg Research Centre on Multilingualism Welcome On behalf of our Research Centre on Multilingualism (Sonderforschungsbereich Mehrsprachigkeit), generously supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and the University of Hamburg, we would like to welcome you all here in Hamburg. This colloquium deals with issues related to convergence and divergence in language contact situations, issues which had been rather neglected in the past but have received much more attention in recent years. Five speakers from different countries have kindly accepted our invitation to share their expertise with us by presenting their research related to the theme of this colloquium. (One colleague from the US fell seriously ill and deeply regrets not being able to join us. Unfortunately, another invited speak- er cancelled his talk only two weeks ago.) All the other presentations are re- ports from ongoing work in the (now altogether 18) research projects in our centre. We hope that the three conference days will be informative and stimulating for all of us, and that the colloquium will be remembered for both its friendly atmosphere and its lively, controversial discussions. The organising commit- tee has done its best to ensure that this meeting with renowned colleagues from abroad will be a good place to make new friends or reinforce long-stand- ing professional contacts. There will be many opportunities for doing that – during the coffee breaks and especially during the conference dinner at an ex- cellent French restaurant on Thursday evening. -
Managing France's Regional Languages
MANAGING FRANCE’S REGIONAL LANGUAGES: LANGUAGE POLICY IN BILINGUAL PRIMARY EDUCATION IN ALSACE Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy by Michelle Anne Harrison September 2012 Abstract The introduction of regional language bilingual education in France dates back to the late 1960s in the private education system and to the 1980s in the public system. Before this time the extensive use of regional languages was forbidden in French schools, which served as ‘local centres for the gallicisation of France’ (Blackwood 2008, 28). France began to pursue a French-only language policy from the time of the 1789 Revolution, with Jacobin ideology proposing that to be French, one must speak French. Thus began the shaping of France into a nation-state. As the result of the official language policy that imposed French in all public domains, as well as extra-linguistic factors such as the Industrial Revolution and the two World Wars, a significant language shift occurred in France during the twentieth century, as an increasing number of parents chose not to pass on their regional language to the next generation. In light of the decline in intergenerational transmission of the regional languages, Judge (2007, 233) concludes that ‘in the short term, everything depends on education in the [regional languages]’. This thesis analyses the development of language policy in bilingual education programmes in Alsace; Spolsky’s tripartite language policy model (2004), which focuses on language management, language practices and language beliefs, will be employed. In spite of the efforts of the State to impose the French language, in Alsace the traditionally non-standard spoken regional language variety, Alsatian, continued to be used widely until the mid-twentieth century. -
Dialectal Diversity in Contemporary Gaelic: Perceptions, Discourses and Responses Wilson Mcleod
Dialectal diversity in contemporary Gaelic: perceptions, discourses and responses Wilson McLeod 1 Introduction This essay will address some aspects of language change in contemporary Gaelic and their relationship to the simultaneous workings of language shift and language revitalisation. I focus in particular on the issue of how dialects and dialectal diversity in Gaelic are perceived, depicted and discussed in contemporary discourse. Compared to many minoritised languages, notably Irish, dialectal diversity has generally not been a matter of significant controversy in relation to Gaelic in Scotland. In part this is because Gaelic has, or at least is depicted as having, relatively little dialectal variation, in part because the language did undergo a degree of grammatical and orthographic standardisation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with the Gaelic of the Bible serving to provide a supra-dialectal high register (e.g. Meek 1990). In recent decades, as Gaelic has achieved greater institutionalisation in Scotland, notably in the education system, issues of dialectal diversity have not been prioritised or problematised to any significant extent by policy-makers. Nevertheless, in recent years there has been some evidence of increasing concern about the issue of diversity within Gaelic, particularly as language shift has diminished the range of spoken dialects and institutionalisation in broadcasting and education has brought about a degree of levelling and convergence in the language. In this process, some commentators perceive Gaelic as losing its distinctiveness, its richness and especially its flavour or blas. These responses reflect varying ideological perspectives, sometimes implicating issues of perceived authenticity and ownership, issues which become heightened as Gaelic is acquired by increasing numbers of non-traditional speakers with no real link to any dialect area. -
Attitudes Towards State Languages Versus Minority Languages in the Contemporary World: the Case of Catalan in Sardinia
Attitudes Towards State Languages versus Minority Languages in the Contemporary World: The Case of Catalan in Sardinia by José María Santos Rovira (University of Lisbon) Abstract The dichotomy of state language versus minority languages is a well-known subject among linguists. However, there are several competing perceptions of the role that minority languages play in society. In Italy, Catalan is a minority language and has been spoken for centuries in the Sardinian city of Alghero. Today, however, its survival is uncertain. Why have Algherese people progressively abandoned the Catalan language over last few decades? To answer this question, we begin by reviewing the range of scholars‘ interpretations of the motivations and attitudes that lead people to reproduce or abandon minority languages. In this article, I argue that there is an unavoidable link between social systems and linguistic practices that determines the consolidation or extinction of some languages, as has happened in Alghero, where the traditional language is at risk due to changes in social structure. Keywords: Algherese, Catalan, Sardinia, state language, minority languages, linguistic attitudes Introduction rights are rarely exercised” (Madoc-Jones & Parry, The dichotomy of state language versus minor- 2012: 165). In Italy, as in other European coun- ity languages has been thoroughly covered by tries, minority languages enjoy legal protection, linguists (Bradley & Bradley, 2013; Cenoz & but at the same time, their own native speakers Gorter, 2006; Fase et al., 1992 & 2013; Fishman, avoid using them in formal situations. As Gules 1991; Gorter et al., 2012; May, 2000 & 2011). It et al argue, “To have a real understanding of spe- is commonly agreed that minority languages cific language problems we need to study how suffer different processes of language shift and, people react to language varieties spoken in their in extreme cases, extinction, when faced with locale” (1983: 81). -
Essentials of Language Typology
Lívia Körtvélyessy Essentials of Language Typology KOŠICE 2017 © Lívia Körtvélyessy, Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky, Filozofická fakulta UPJŠ v Košiciach Recenzenti: Doc. PhDr. Edita Kominarecová, PhD. Doc. Slávka Tomaščíková, PhD. Elektronický vysokoškolský učebný text pre Filozofickú fakultu UPJŠ v Košiciach. Všetky práva vyhradené. Toto dielo ani jeho žiadnu časť nemožno reprodukovať,ukladať do informačných systémov alebo inak rozširovať bez súhlasu majiteľov práv. Za odbornú a jazykovú stánku tejto publikácie zodpovedá autor. Rukopis prešiel redakčnou a jazykovou úpravou. Jazyková úprava: Steve Pepper Vydavateľ: Univerzita Pavla Jozefa Šafárika v Košiciach Umiestnenie: http://unibook.upjs.sk Dostupné od: február 2017 ISBN: 978-80-8152-480-6 Table of Contents Table of Contents i List of Figures iv List of Tables v List of Abbreviations vi Preface vii CHAPTER 1 What is language typology? 1 Tasks 10 Summary 13 CHAPTER 2 The forerunners of language typology 14 Rasmus Rask (1787 - 1832) 14 Franz Bopp (1791 – 1867) 15 Jacob Grimm (1785 - 1863) 15 A.W. Schlegel (1767 - 1845) and F. W. Schlegel (1772 - 1829) 17 Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767 – 1835) 17 August Schleicher 18 Neogrammarians (Junggrammatiker) 19 The name for a new linguistic field 20 Tasks 21 Summary 22 CHAPTER 3 Genealogical classification of languages 23 Tasks 28 Summary 32 CHAPTER 4 Phonological typology 33 Consonants and vowels 34 Syllables 36 Prosodic features 36 Tasks 38 Summary 40 CHAPTER 5 Morphological typology 41 Morphological classification of languages (holistic -
Dative Overmarking in Basque: Evidence of Spanish-Basque Convergence
Dative Overmarking in Basque: Evidence of Spanish-Basque Convergence Jennifer Austin University of New Jersey, Rutgers. [email protected] Abstract This paper investigates a recent change in the grammar of spoken Basque which results in the substitution of dative case and agreement for absolutive case and agreement in marking animate, specific direct objects. I argue that this pattern of use is due to convergence between the feature matrix of the functional category AGR in Spanish and Basque. In contrast to previous studies which point to interface areas as the locus of syntactic convergence, I argue that this is a change affecting the core grammar of Basque. Furthermore, I suggest that the appearance of this case marking pattern in spoken Basque is probably attributable to recent changes in the demographics of Basque speakers and that its use is related to the degree of proficiency in each language of adult bilingual speakers. Laburpena Lan honetan euskara mintzatuaren gramatikan gertatu berri den aldaketa bat ikertzen da, hain zuzen ere, kasu datiboa eta aditz komunztaduraren ordezkapena kasu absolutiboa eta aditz komunztaduraren ordez objektu zuzenak --animatuak eta zehatzak—markatzen direnean. Nire iritziz, erabilera hori gazteleraz eta euskaraz dagoen AGR delako kategori funtzionalaren ezaugarri taulen bateratzeari zor zaio. Aurreko ikerketa batzuetan hizkuntza arteko ukipen eremuak bateratze sintaktikoaren gunetzat jotzen badira ere, nire iritziz aldaketa horrek euskararen gramatika oinarrizkoari eragiten dio. Areago, esango nuke kasu marka erabilera hori, ziurrenik, euskal hiztunen artean gertatu berri diren aldaketa demografikoen ondorioz agertzen dela euskara mintzatuan eta hiztun elebidun helduek hizkuntza bakoitzean daukaten gaitasun mailari lotuta dagoela. Keywods: Bilingualism, syntactic convergence, language contact. -
The Linguistic Experience of Italians in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1890-1914: Language Shift As Seen Through Social Spaces ______
THE LINGUISTIC EXPERIENCE OF ITALIANS IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, 1890-1914: LANGUAGE SHIFT AS SEEN THROUGH SOCIAL SPACES ________________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board ________________________________________________________________________ in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ________________________________________________________________________ by Maria Italiano-McGreevy January 2013 Examining Committee Members: Augusto Lorenzino, Dissertation Advisor, Spanish and Portuguese Jonathan Holmquist, Examination Committee Chair, Spanish and Portuguese Paul Toth, Internal Reader, Spanish and Portuguese Gabriella Romani, External Reader, Italian Studies, Seton Hall University ! ABSTRACT From 1890-1914, Argentina received a large influx of Italian immigrants who wanted to “hacer la América”, or live the American dream of economic prosperity. With Italian immigrants representing nearly half of all immigrants entering Argentina, the government strived to create a new sense of Argentine pride and nationalism. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate and analyze the linguistic experience of Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires, Argentina, applying Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social space and linguistic markets, and contact language theories to explain the attrition and shift of the Italian language. This study identifies three relevant social spaces that contributed to the linguistic experience of Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires: 1). conventillos or immigrant housing 2.) school community, and 3.) mutual aid societies. Within each social space thrived a linguistic market which language played a key role in the way people interacted and identified with each other. First, the conventillos were part of an alternative linguistic market in which cocoliche, a transitional language, thrived as a way for Italians to communicate with immigrants from different countries. -
Language Loss Phenomenon in Taiwan: a Narrative Inquiry—Autobiography and Phenomenological Study
Language Loss Phenomenon in Taiwan: A Narrative Inquiry—Autobiography and Phenomenological Study By Wan-Hua Lai A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning University of Manitoba, Faculty of Education Winnipeg Copyright © 2012 by Wan-Hua Lai ii Table of Content Table of Content…………………………………………………………………………………………………..……ii List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………………………………..……...viii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………………………………ix Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...xi Acknowledgement………………………………………………………………………………………………..…xii Dedication………………………………………………………………………………………………………………xiv Chapter One: Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….….1 Mandarin Research Project……………………………………………………………………………………2 Confusion about My Mother Tongue……………………………………………………….……………2 From Mandarin to Taigi………………………………………………………………………………………..3 Taiwan, a Colonial Land………………………………………………………………………………………..3 Study on the Language Loss in Taiwan………………………………………………………………….4 Archival Research………………………………………………………………………………………………….4 Chapter Two: My Discovery- A Different History of Taiwan……………………………………….6 Geography…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7 Population……………………………………………….…………………………………………………….……9 Culture…………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………..9 Society………………………………………………………………………………..………………………………10 Education…………………………………………………………………………………………………….………11 Economy……………………………………………………………………………………….…………….………11 -
Gender in Irish Between Continuity and Change1
Gender in Irish between continuity and change1 Alessio S. Frenda Trinity College Dublin The gender system of Irish appears to have undergone a process of simplification: traditionally depending on both formal and semantic assignment rules, agreement in contemporary spoken Irish is still rather conservative within the noun phrase, but almost exclusively semantic anaphorically. Language contact and the resulting obsolescence seem to have had some influence on these developments: for instance, structures that have a functional counterpart in English seem more resilient than others. But language-internal developments, particularly the phonetic erosion and loss of word-final syllables, may have played an important role, too: similar developments have been observed in non-obsolescent languages like Dutch and French. In this article, I illustrate some specific aspects of the Irish situation with examples drawn from a corpus of spoken Irish and frame the simplification process in terms of structural convergence in the context of language contact. Keywords: Irish, grammatical gender, language change, language obsolescence, contact, convergence 1. Introduction In this article I present the findings of a comparison between two corpora of spoken Irish, representative, respectively, of a traditional Gaeltacht vari- 1 This research was funded by a Government of Ireland Exchange Scholarship and by an IRCHSS Postgraduate Scholarship. I am grateful to the following people for their com- ments on earlier drafts of this article: John Saeed, Brian Nolan, Gearóid Ó Donnchadha, Pauline Welby and two anonymous reviewers; thanks are also due to Eamonn Mullins for his assistance with the statistical analysis of the data. I take full responsibility for any errors or oversights. -
Kathrin Brandt
A QUESTION OF LANGUAGE VITALITY? - ON INTERROGATIVES IN AN ENDANGERED CREOLE Kathrin Brandt Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität zu Köln im Fach Englische Philologie vorgelegt von Kathrin Brandt TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES IV LIST OF FIGURES VI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS VII 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Creole studies 1 1.2 LanguAge endAngerment 4 1.3 Minimalist syntax and wh-questions 5 1.4 Research questions and the orgAnizAtion of this study 7 2 LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT 9 2.1 The linguistic situAtion 9 2.2 In favor of linguistic diversity 10 2.3 Models of lAnguAge loss 13 2.4 Assessing lAnguAge vitality 18 2.5 StructurAl consequences 29 3 SYNTACTIC THEORY OF INTERROGATIVES 34 3.1 Accounting for cross-linguistic vAriAtion 36 3.2 Landing sites 38 3.3 ConstrAints on wh-movement 42 3.4 Movement triggers 44 3.5 ClAuse typing 47 4 LOUISIANA CREOLE – HISTORY, SOCIOLINGUISTIC SETTING AND LINGUISTIC PROFILE 51 4.1 History 51 4.2 The genesis of LouisiAnA Creole 56 i 4.3 The sociolinguistic profile of South LouisiAnA 58 Louisiana Creole 58 Louisiana Regional French 60 Multilingual South Louisiana 61 Louisiana Creole as an endangered language 65 4.4 Selected aspects of LouisiAnA Creole grAmmAr 71 The verbal system 73 The nominal system 75 Constituent structure 77 The lexicon 80 5 METHODOLOGY 82 5.1 Field methods 82 5.2 Consultants, AnAlysis and the quAlitative approAch 91 5.3 Notation 96 6 SOCIOLINGUISTIC FINDINGS 98 6.1 DemogrAphics 98 Region 101 Education and occupation 102 6.2 LanguAge competence -
Exploring Material Culture Distributions in the Upper Sepik and Central New Guinea
Gender, mobility and population history: exploring material culture distributions in the Upper Sepik and Central New Guinea by Andrew Fyfe, BA (Hons) Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Discipline of Geographical and Environmental Studies The University of Adelaide November 2008 …..These practices, then, and others which I will speak of later, were borrowed by the Greeks from Egypt. This is not the case, however, with the Greek custom of making images of Hermes with the phallus erect; it was the Athenians who took this from the Pelasgians, and from the Athenians the custom spread to the rest of Greece. For just at the time when the Athenians were assuming Hellenic nationality, the Pelasgians joined them, and thus first came to be regarded as Greeks. Anyone will know what I mean if he is familiar with the mysteries of the Cabiri-rites which the men of Samothrace learned from the Pelasgians, who lived in that island before they moved to Attica, and communicated the mysteries to the Athenians. This will show that the Athenians were the first Greeks to make statues of Hermes with the erect phallus, and that they learned the practice from the Pelasgians…… Herodotus c.430 BC ii Table of contents Acknowledgements vii List of figures viii List of tables xi List of Appendices xii Abstract xiv Declaration xvi Section One 1. Introduction 2 1.1 The Upper Sepik-Central New Guinea Project 2 1.2 Lapita and the exploration of relationships between language and culture in Melanesia 3 1.3 The quantification of relationships between material culture and language on New Guinea’s north coast 6 1.4 Thesis objectives 9 2.