Language Contact and Language History Nicole Scott

General Aims  To identify the social contexts of language contact  To discuss the impact of contact on languages.  To discuss how new languages emerge.

Background The Caribbean space has a remarkable montage of linguistic situations. A study of the social and linguistic factors which defines us as a people will enable us to understand why we are who we are as a people.

What are the social contexts of language contact? ????

Social contexts of language contact  Trade/Business  Work  Recreation  Educational institutions  Worship centres  Migration  Willful migration e.g. Asian migration  Forced migration e.g. Slave trade

What is the impact of contact on languages? ????

Impact of Contact on Language  Language death  No consensus when a language is to be regarded as dead.  Minority languages most vulnerable

Impact of Contact on Language cont’d  Language maintenance  varieties can be maintained to different degrees. Three categories are proposed by Siegal (1990:94-96). According to him, languages can be: -  thriving  declining  dying

Impact of Contact on Language cont’d  Bilingualism  Multilingualism  Continuum  Diglossia  De jure  De facto Code switching/Code mixing Borrowing – syntax, lexicon etc.

Impact of Contact on Language cont’d  Language Change  Synchronic language change – study of a language at a given moment.  Diachronic language change – studies the history of a language or language families as it changes over time.  Syntax  Phonology  Lexicon  Semantics  (slangs)

Impact of Contact on Language cont’d  New varieties emerge  Jargon – occurs when individuals simplify and reduce their language on an ad hoc basis with no fixed norms (for example Jamaicans buying sunglasses in Caracas)  Pidgin – a reduced language that results from extended contact between groups of people with no language in common. It evolves when they need some means of verbal communication for example trade, but no group learns the native language of any other group. E.g. Tok Pisin spoken in Papua New Guinea

Impact of Contact on Language cont’d  Creole Languages  Spoken natively  History of slavery  Spoken natively  Use covers all aspects of social life  Examples of Creole languages  English Lexicon Creole -JC, French Lexicon Creole - TFC, Portuguese Lexicon Creole - Papiamento, Dutch Based Creole- Berbice Dutch Creole

How do new languages emerge? ????

How do new languages emerge? cont’d  Deliberate creation – For example Esperanto  People are forced to co-exist – Creoles.  There are various theories of Creole genesis  Language Bio-program Hypothesis (Bickerton)  Superstrate view (Mufwene)  Substrate view (Alleyne)

Questions ?????