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 ϑ elo na γ rafo ‘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 ϑ a (= ϑ elo na) γ rafo ‘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 <c> is pronounced [ts] in Czech
Kupwar Sprachbund • 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 jəra Kupwar pala kaat ke le ke a ya Urdu jəra g h e Kupwar pala kap un un a l o Marathi jəra təgond bə k h od Kupwar tapla i i 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
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