Mieke Vandenbroucke 20/3/2013

Brueghel 1563, Tower of Babel

Exam reading Mesthrie et al 2009: ch. 9 Language Contact 2: Pidgins, Creoles and New Englishes Additional reading: 2 newspaper articles on Fanagalo Central focus - Multilingualism vs. Monolingualism
- Language contact and extreme language mixture: pidgins & creoles

Exam questions
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How many languages do you speak and to what extent are you fluent in them? Do you consider yourself to be monolingual or multilingual? Do you think this child is multilingual or a polyglot? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-URtZfIgKAU Do you consider multilingualism a good or bad thing?
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 history of distrust of multilingualism in Western tradition Cf. biblical story of tower of Babel in Babylonia
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 As people moved east, they found a plain in Shinar* and settled there. 4 And they said Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, that reaches unto heaven; and let us make a name for ourselves, otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth. 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men were building. 6 And the LORD said Behold, if as one people speaking the same language they do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come let us go down and confuse their language so they may not understand one anothers speech 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over all the earth and they stopped building the city 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel**; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth; and from there did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:1-9)

Building the tower of Babel (12th century anonymous mosaics in Sicily)

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In biblical account of tower of Babel in Babylonia:

single, universal language as gift of paradise linguistic diversity and need for multilingualism as divine punishment for human arrogance

Monolingualism as natural human condition Multilingualism as anomaly Language policies promoting monolingualism
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societal monolingualism is a figment of imagination (Joseph 2006) a myth detached from reality (Shohamy 2006) the idea that monolingualism is the human norm is a myth (Thomason 2001) Assumed monolingualism vs. multilingual reality Japan? Germany? France? England?
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The unification of the nation-state Germany by Otto von Bismarck (1848-1871)

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Eighteenth century and before: multi-ethnic empires

E.g. Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire

Ottoman Empire and its losses after 1807

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Nineteenth-century European nation-states

Period of intense nationalism + drastic change in attitude towards multilingualism Monolingualist language ideology as part of nationalist discourse
Create monolingual population, speaking national standard language Strive for unity in nationality, culture, history, territory, religion and most of all language Principle of commonality of language One-language-one-nation homogeneity Multilingualism: a threat to unity + bad influence childrens acquisition

Language as a social construct Consequences

Assimilation of ethnic minorities Colonies: perpetuation of myth
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Increasing mobility and flows of migration Globalisation Emergent world economies and new international division of labour (outsourcing) Rapid expansion of digital communication Multinational units (EU, UN, NATO, WB, etc) Post-colonial search for new identity

Result: increasing recognition, revaluation and positive approach of multilingualism as a resource

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Multiple areas in sociolinguistics deal with multilingualism

Language use in multilingual community
Code-switching, code-mixing, translanguaging Diglossia (Ferguson) / polyglossia (Platt) Lingua francas

Language conflict
Language shift, attrition, language death Reversing language shift, revitalization of minority languages

Language change
Borrowing, loanwords, transfers Extreme language mixture: pidgins and creoles
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PIDGIN No native speakers Restricted functions (trade, work) Simplified structure and small vocabulary

CREOLE Native speakers, acquired as L1 Full range of social functions Expanded structure and vocabulary, required of L1

Contact languages (extreme language mixture) > Creolistics (1960/70s onwards) Degrees of grammatical complexity (correlates with functions): Jargon (pre-pidgin) (Stable) pidgin Expanded pidgin > Creole
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Trade
Market languages; Trade pidgins E.g. Russenorsk >>

European settlement
Locations where indigenous population survived and not enslaved > necessity of learning indigenous languages Pidgin development in domain of employment E.g. Fanakalo (English, Zulu & Afrikaans)

Settings of war
E.g.Post WWII: American wars in Asia (Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand) > Bamboo English (marginal, unstable jargon, pre-pidgin)

Diasporas, large-scale movements

Labour migration: Tok Pisin & Gastarbeiterdeutsch (industrial pidgin)
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Majority of pidgins: slave-holding communities Trans-Atlantic New World slave trade (17th-19th C)
Colonisation of New World territories by European powers Development of crops plantations Labour force: mass-scale slave importation from W-Africa

> The Sale Triangle Crystallization:

fort creoles vs. plantation creoles
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Etymology?
business in Chinese Pidgin English Hebrew pidjom (trade or exchange) Chinese pi + tsin (paying money) English pigeon (bird messenger) 17th C Brazil Pidians (people) > uncertainty; but connection to trade

Linguistic structure >

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Etymology? Linguistic structure:

Reduced language: minimal vocabulary and grammar Pidginization implies two types of languages: Superstrate language
= the socially dominant language(s) = the LEXIFIER language = the surface level of the pidgin

Substrate language
= the subordinate language(s) = the language(s) that contribute to grammatical structure and semantic restrictions = the language(s) that influence the below-the-surface level

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CREOLE Jamaican Creole

WHERE SPOKEN Jamaica

SUPERSTRATE English

SUBSTRATE West-African languages Danish, English, French, Spanish and African African languages African languages (also Dutch and English) Kimbundu
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Negerhollands

Virgin Islands

Dutch

Haitian Creole

Haiti Netherlands Antilles So Tom

French

Papiamento

Spanish

Angolar > Mesthrie et al 276

Portuguese

 size of lexis is small maximum use of minimal resources some important strategies: polysemy multifunctionality circumlocution compounding
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Polysemy
shado: shadow, soul, reflection (Cam. Pidgin English)

Multifunctionality
sik: noun, adjective, intransitive verb, transitive verb (Sranan)

Circumlocution
Gras bilong fes (beard) Gras bilong hed (hair) Gras bilong ai (eyebrow) (Tok Pisin)

Compounding
Hos man vs. hos meri (stallion vs. mare) (Tok Pisin)
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How to account for worldwide similarities between pidgins? (1) Monogenetic theories considerable support in 1960s all pidgins with European superstrate derive from Portuguese pidgin (earliest explorers/colonisers) Portuguese pidgin as structural basis with later relexification by other European languages evidence: nautical element in many pidgins
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How to account for worldwide similarities between pidgins? (2) Independent parallel development Broad parallels in circumstances pidginization account for similarities in pidgin languages
Parallels between superstrate languages: European languages similar in structure and vocabulary Parallels in group of substrate languages : African languages, many slave languages from West-African language family Parallels in circumstances of language learning

Both (1) & (2) restricted to EU-based pidgins >>

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(3) Linguistic universals

relies on innate linguistic abilities of humans psycholinguistic account
Africans, Americans, Asians, Europeans, and Polynesians would have used their innate linguistic abilities to create simple communication systems which could be elaborated by having recourse to their mother tongues or to the linguistic common denominators which are thought to underlie all human languages . It is likely that speakers, in contact situations, simplify their languages in particular ways. (Todd 1994)

dominant theory in creolistics

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Fanakalo or Fanagalo Stable pidgin spoken in South Africa Developed in mining sector (instructions) Zulu as lexifier (!), lesser extent English and Afrikaans Structure: closest to English Recently: debate to replace it as lingua franca in SF mining sector
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Extinct dual-source pidgin Relatively stable (seasonal) trade pidgin (jargon) ! 50/50 well-balanced Norwegian Russian Used 1740-1917 in Arctic Pomor trade Rudimentary grammar + restricted lexis (400 words)
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Industrial pidgin in Germany Dubbed foreigner talk Simplified German spoken by migrant guest workers (Turkish, Greek, Serbian, Croatian, ) since 1950s Grammatical simplification + lexical reduction Pidginization or SLA continuum variety?
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Pre-pidgin > Pidgin > Expanded pidgin > Creole Creolisation/ vernacularisation/nativization Acquisition as L1 in creole community Expansion of structure and vocabulary to express full range of meanings and serve full range of functions required of full-fledged L1:
Lexis: substrates and superstrate expansions Phonology: more complexity Reorganisation of grammar Development of complex and embedded clauses
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Underdeveloped, restricted pidgin full-fledged L1 creole? Derek Bickertons bioprogram theory

Children play active role in providing structure and complexity to pidgin and in creolisation The bioprogram
= childrens innate capacity for language = linguistic blueprint that takes form by dominant L1 exposure Abstract syntactic and semantic structures Words then plugged onto abstract structures
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Bickertons arguments:
Bioprogram is universal: similarities in creole grammars 12 universal grammatical structures creoles (not non-creoles)
Multiple negation Zero copula Serial verb constructions (Reduplication)

Opposing and discrediting the bioprogram theory:

Evidence shows adults as much involved as children Creole universals: influence of African languages Sharp break: not demonstrated (intermediate varieties Tok Pisin)
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Alternate account of creolisation: Gradualism = process of gradual creolisation of expanded pidgin over generations Children & adults simultaneously involved in process Coexistence of P and C over time Bioprograms jump/break from P to C Gradualisms slow evolving and unfolding change over long period of time
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Standard superstrate language of a creolespeaking society exerts powerful influence on the development of the creole
social mobility: greater access of Creole speakers to superstrate L slave-holding societies (rigid class distinctions) replacement of original superstrate by another

Result: range of varieties between creole and superstrate L POST-CREOLE CONTINUUM >
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Result of decreolisation:
Synchronic variation; coexistence of varieties between superstrate and creole language
There is no sharp cleavage between creole and standard [but] a linguistic continuum, a continuous spectrum of speech varieties ranging from bush talk or broken language to educated standard [and showing an] extreme degree of variability (DeCamp 1971: 350)

Three central systems

Basilect: deep creole, farthest removed from lexifier Acrolect: closest to lexifier, (accent, grammatical differences) Mesolect: variety intermediate these two poles (fluid)
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Guyanese creole English-lexified creole spoken in Guyana, first colonized by Dutch British colony until 1966 ~ speech continuum

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Decreolisation Process whereby acrolectal and upper-mesolectal varieties start to become more creole-like Conditions: prevention of social mobility E.g. Fiona Wright (1984): study of black adolescents language use in Britain
Migrated parents from Caribbean spoke decreolized creole Increase in basilectal creole features occurred amongst adolescents Reason: lack of social mobility + social network in-group talk
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Tok Pisin Dialect of Melanesian Pidgin 2.5 million speakers in Papua New Guinea Used in broadcast, print media and parliament Complex development in Melanesia, Pacific Islands
1800s first contact with European traders: pre-pidgin > labour migration to Australia: early Melanesian Pidgin > return to home islands: stabilized Melanesian Pidgin (expanded pidgin) with three dialects on different islands
Papua New Guinea: Tok Pisin Vanuatu: Bislama Solomon Islands: Pijin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laTpd2ofjKg
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Tok Pisin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laTpd2ofjKg

Papiamentu (creole) Trinidad French Creole Hawaii Creole English (Pidgin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvCvyqMt0sc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Mk__YmSXo&feature=endscreen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtF0rUWnaw&feature=endscreen&NR=1
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Negative attitudes towards pidgins:

mongrel jargons or macaronic lingos Corruption and impure forms of superstrate language No high status or prestige

Signs on campus in Cameroon about Cameroon Pidgin English

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Lecture by Sue Fox on language maintenance, language shift and language death After Easter Break, 17 April: guest lecture about linguistic landscapes

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