SOCIETAL

BILINGUALISM &
MULTILINGUALISM

Theme 3
 Societal and individual
multilingualism
Multilingualism is an individual and a social
phenomenon.
It can be considered as an ability of an individual, or
it can refer to the use of languages in society.
Individual multilingualism is sometimes referred to as
plurilingualism.
 Societal and individual
multilingualism
The Council of Europe website defines plurilingualism
as the “repertoire of varieties of language which
many individuals use” so that “some individuals are
monolingual and some are plurilingual.”
In contrast, multilingualism is understood as “the
presence in a geographical area, large or small, of
more than one ‘variety of language’. . .; in such an
area individuals may be monolingual, speaking only
their own variety.”
 Societal and individual
multilingualism
This distinction is the same as the most widely used
distinction between individual and societal
multilingualism.
Within individual multilingualism, there can be
important differences in the experience of acquiring
and using languages.
 Language Contact

Language contact is the use of more than one

language in the same place at the same time.
It does not require fluent bilingualism or
multilingualism, but some communication between
speakers of different languages is necessary.
It involves face-to-face interactions among groups of
speakers, at least some of whom speak more than
one language in a particular geographical locality.
 Language Contact

- Language contact in neighboring speaking groups

Neighboring speaker groups may be on
friendly terms - sharing resources, engaging
in trade, and providing mutual support

Or they may be aggressive to each other

(getting resources, competitions, religion, etc.)
 Language Contact

Sometimes speakers of two or more languages live

together in a single community. In such cases there
may be mutual bilingualism or multilingualism.
Alternatively, there may be asymmetrical
bilingualism.

Asymmetrical bilingualism is especially common when

a subordinate bilingual group is shifting to the
language of a monolingual dominant group
 Language Contact

E.g. In Ireland most or all adults who speak Irish

Gaelic also speak English, but not vice versa; the
same is true, though not to the same degree, of
Spanish and English speakers in a city like Los
Angeles - native speakers of Spanish are much more
likely to be bilingual than native speakers of English
are.
 Language Contact

Bilingualism may be stable, in places where the

patterns of multilingualism are of long standing; or
transitional in language shift situations.
In these and other cases of contact, an important
factor in predicting whether a dominant language will
sweep the minority languages off the map is whether
or not there is institutional support for the
nondominant language(s).
 Language Contact

At the societal level, there is an important distinction

between additive and subtractive multilingualism.
In the case of additive multilingualism, a language is
added to the linguistic repertoire of the speaker while
the first language continues to be developed.
In contrast, subtractive multilingualism refers to
situations in which a new language is learned and
replaces the first language.
 Language Contact

Additive multilingualism more likely to happen when

speakers of a majority language acquire other languages.
Subtractive multilingualism - often found when immigrant
schoolchildren are required to shift to the language of the
host country without being given the opportunity to
develop their own language.
A related issue is the difference between being
multilingual in demographically strong languages with a
high status and weaker languages.
 Language Contact

The issue of stable vs. unstable contact situations, of

language maintenance (in which a group keeps its
language in a contact situation) vs. language shift (in
which a group shifts from its language to another
language) in a contact setting, will be discussed in
the coming lectures.
 Language Contact

In communities of all sizes, from the tiniest villages

to the biggest nations, language contact (which is
itself a result of social history) has social
consequences.
Sometimes these consequences are benign or
advantageous.
 Language Contact

e.g. In Paraguay, the indigenous language Guarani is

spoken alongside Spanish by the majority of the
population, and both Guarani and Spanish are
considered national languages. The people of
Paraguay are proud of their bilingualism. Spanish is
ordinary in Latin America, but Guarani is their unique
possession.
(The history of this contact is less benign, however; other indigenous
languages of Paraguay vanished because their speakers were
pressured by European missionaries to learn Guarani instead.)
 Language conflict

The existence of bilingual and multilingual societies raises

important social, political and educational issues.
◼ In what languages should education be delivered, and at
what levels?
◼ What languages should be accepted for publication and
broadcasting?
◼ In what languages should laws be written, and what
languages should be accepted in court proceedings?
 Language conflict

The presence of many languages in the same area easily

causes conflict. Language conflict arises from the
confrontation of different values and attitude structures of
two or more groups which are in contact within the same
society
 Language conflict

“Conflict is present when two or more parties perceive that

their interests are incompatible, express hostile attitudes,
or...pursue their interests through actions that damage the
other parties...Interests can diverge in many ways: Over
resources, over power, over identity, over status and over
values” (CAII, 1997a: 2–3)
 Language conflict

Language conflict appears when two or more languages

that are clearly different confront each other in the social
and political field. Language competition is then, driven by
individuals organized as groups of language speakers who
start having agreements by adopting certain language and
rejecting another. Two types of language conflict are
generally distinguishable:
Ethnic Language Conflict & Political Language Conflict
 Ethnic Language conflict

“Ethnic groups are communities whose members share a

collective identity based on cultural values”
Language - a symbolic feature of an ethnic group - every
ethnic group is deeply attached to his tongue; symbol of
identity.
“When ethnic group identity becomes important for
individuals, they may attempt to make themselves
favorably distinct on dimensions such as language”.
Liebkind (1989: 143)
 Ethnic Language conflict

Internal ethnic language conflict

vs
External ethnic language conflict
 Ethnic Language conflict

Internal ethnic language conflict (linguistic minorities)

This type of conflict differs in norms and values.
e.g. The multiplicity of indigenous minority languages in
Nigeria. In Nigeria today, according to the 15th edition of
the Ethnologue report for Nigeria, there are more than 400
living languages co-existing with one another.
 Ethnic Language conflict

External ethnic language conflict (ethno-political conflict)

It refers to a conflict which exists between minorities and
majorities.
“conflicts in which claims are made by a national or
minority group against the state or against other political
actors”. Gurr (2000: 65)
e.g. The Berber question in Algeria is one of these cases.
 Political Language conflict

One major source of political language conflict is closely

related to the unequal distribution of social roles assigned
to languages in competition.
The dominant language generally tends to reserve certain
areas of interest closely related to government, education,
economic institutions and media, whereas, the other
languages are excluded from the state national agenda.
 Political Language conflict

It is the result of the incompatibility of language attitudes

shown between population groups of different
socioeconomic structures.
“The height of a political language conflict is reached when
all conflict factors are combined in a single symbol,
language, and quarrels and struggles in very different
areas - politics, economics, administration and education-
appear under the heading language conflict” Nelde (1987)
Political Language conflict

Exploitation conflict
and
Interference conflict
 Political Language conflict

Exploitation conflict refers to an indirect interaction

between different groups involved in the conflict. It is
characterized by an unstable tension between the
conflicting parties without having recourse to violence.
e.g. The linguistic conflict existing between French and
English in public life in Canada.
 Political Language conflict

Belgium conforms a bilingual state but it contains Walloon

speakers of French dialects, Flemish speakers of Dutch
dialects, and speakers of German dialects. There, a
dominant language group (French) controls administration,
politics and economy, presumably giving employment
preferences to applicants who have command of the
dominant language (Hans Nelde, 2002).
 Political Language conflict

Interference conflict refers to a direct interaction also

called a violent conflict in which the conflicting parties are
in a perpetual state of armed confrontation.
e.g. During the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco,
Catalan and other regional languages were banned, as
Franco believed they could foster opposition to his regime.
Anyone caught speaking a regional language faced jail.
 Political Language conflict

For many decades the Kurdish language was ignored and

banned from public use and Turkish became the lingua
franca for all citizens to speak.
This way, the Turkish state sought to create a nation-state
based on one language and attempted to eliminate the use
of other languages, particularly Kurdish, through severe
regulations and prohibitions.
Political Language conflict
 Language conflict

Language conflicts can be viewed as natural or artificial

language conflicts.
Natural language conflicts have been traditionally, caused
by political decisions regarding majority or minority social
groups.
Assimilation or opposition represents the key factor in
language conflict.
 Language conflict

That type of conflict is seen in Canada with the French-

speaking community or in Spain with the Basque-speaking
community and it intensifies when ideological or political
arguments are posed and intertwine with linguistic ones.
Artificial language conflicts arise when a compromise is
attained and a language is disfavored.
The European union, for instance, faces the problem of
what languages should be officially spoken within the EU.
 Language conflict

From the language conflict concepts reviewed and what

you have learned, analyze the current situation in terms of
language conflict in Bolivia, classify the type or types of
conflict identified and provide examples.
 Language conflict

In some cases, socially or psychologically weakened

groups, or groups reduced in number, might move towards
assimilation of the dominant language (and culture).
When those groups are numerous or if they have a sound
cultural tradition, the most likely outcome is opposition and
resistance to the dominant group, resulting in language
conflict.
 Minority languages

What is a minority language and what kinds of problems

does such a language face?
The term presents certain difficulties of definition but it
seems safe to say that a minority language will exhibit
some at least of the features that will be listed.
The problem can be summed up as the danger of the
language becoming extinct.
 Minority languages

a) A minority language lives in the shadow of a culturally

dominant language, dominant usually because of
political factors, which puts the minority language at
risk.
b) A minority language is not the language of all domains.
It may be excluded from formal spheres such as
administration, education, or the mass media and may
be confined to the home, religious life, or literature.
 Minority languages

c) Bilingualism is a characteristic of its speakers. In the

case of many minority languages leading in most cases
to language shift (subtractive bilingualism).
d) Because the dominant language is used for discussing
certain topics, the minority language may lack areas of
vocabulary found in other languages that share the
same general culture.
Vocabulary may be influenced by that of the dominant
language to the extent of accepting borrowings where
native terms exist.
 Minority languages

e) There may be no standardized form of minority

language. There is, for example, no agreed standard for
Aymara. Similarly, conventions for such things as writing
letters may lack.
f) The minority language may be at risk from opponents
actively dedicated to its extirpation.
 Minority languages

g) Because the language may lack areas of vocabulary, or

because there is no standard, or because speakers are
completely bilingual, there may be reluctance on the
part of native speakers to speak the language to
learners or even to other native speakers from different
dialect areas, on the grounds that differences of dialect
present barriers to mutual comprehension. Thus the
minority language becomes the marker of increasingly
small in-groups.
 Minority languages

h) Efforts to promote minority languages may include

language planning or language purification in order to
fill the gaps mentioned.
i) Problems arise in education and official policy varies
from country to country: the language. may be banned
in school; it may be taught as a subject; or it may even
be the medium of instruction.
 Minority languages

Historical factors may be relevant. The language may not

always have been a minority one and it may therefore have
possessed at least written norms that it now lacks. Hence a
modern writer may incorporate usages from an earlier
written language that are no longer found in any spoken
variety.
 Minority languages

What is a minority language in one country may well be the

dominant language in another.
e.g. various dialects of German constitut a minority
language in France, but Standard German
 Language shift in minority
languages
Pressure from one language on speakers of
other languages to adopt it.
• Language
shift is
expected
• A sign of
successful
Pressure assimilation
from the
host
society
Language
shift for
practical
• Job reasons
• Education
• Business
 Language shift in minority
languages
Language shift
Displacement of a minority
mother tongue language by
the language of the wider
Immigrant
minority Local
society (majority) over time majority
Common in migrant
communities or communities
under military occupation.
 Language shift in minority
languages
What factors lead to language shift?

 Economic, social and political factors

 Demographic factors
 Attitudes and values
 Death of Speakers
 Language shift in minority
languages
Economic, social and political factor
1. The dominant language is associated with social status
and prestige
2. Obtaining work is the obvious economic reason for
learning another language (Young men moving to
urban centers)
3. The pressure of institutional domains such as schools
and the media
4. Aging population in the community
 Language shift in minority
languages
Economic, social and political factor
4. Political influences
5. Conquest
6. Language policy: official language
7. Assimilatory education
 Language shift in minority
languages
Demographic factors
1. Language shift is faster in urban areas than
rural ones
2. The size of the group is sometimes a critical
factor
3. Intermarriage between groups can
accelerate language shift
 Language shift in minority
languages
Attitudes and values
1. Language shift is slower among communities
where the minority language is highly
valued,
2. When the language is seen as an important
symbol of ethnic identity its generally
maintained longer.
How can a minority language be maintained?
✓ Documentation and archivization
✓ Intergenerational transmission
✓ Vernacularization
✓ Changing the society
Language Use
✓ Not only traditional, but also modern
context
✓ Not only in the classroom, but outside
the classroom
Factors Encouraging
Language Maintenance
and Language Loss
 Linguistic factors
◼ Maintenance: Mother tongue is standardized
and exists in written form
◼ Loss: Mother tongue is non-standard and/or
not in written form
◼ Maintenance: Use of an alphabet which
makes printing and literacy relatively easy
◼ Loss: Use of writing system which is
expensive to reproduce and difficult to learn
 Linguistic factors

◼ Maintenance: Home language has

international status
◼ Loss: Home language of little or no
international importance
◼ Maintenance: Home Language literacy used
in community and with homeland
◼ Loss: Illiteracy in the home language
 Linguistic factors

◼ Maintenance: Flexibility in the

development of the home language
(e.g. limited use of new terms from the
majority language).
◼ Loss: No tolerance of new terms from
majority language; or too much
tolerance of loan words leading to
mixing and eventual language loss.
 Cultural factors

◼ Maintenance: Mother tongue institutions

(e.g. schools, community organizations)
◼ Loss: Lack of Mother-tongue institutions
mass media, leisure activities.
◼ Maintenance: Cultural and religious
ceremonies in the home language.
◼ Loss: Cultural and religious activity in the
majority language.
 Cultural factors

◼ Maintenance: Ethnic identity strongly

tied to home language
◼ Loss: Ethnic identity defined by factors
other than language.
◼ Maintenance: Nationalistic aspirations
as a language group
◼ Loss: Few nationalistic aspirations
 Cultural factors

◼ Maintenance: Mother tongue the homeland

language.
◼ Loss: Mother tongue not the only homeland
national language.
◼ Maintenance: Emotional attachment to mother
tongue giving self-identity and ethnicity.
◼ Loss: Self-identity derived from factors other
than shared home language.
 Cultural factors

◼ Maintenance: Emphasis on family ties and

community cohesion.
◼ Loss: Low emphasis on family and community
ties. High emphasis on individual achievement.
◼ Maintenance: Emphasis on education to
enhance ethnic awareness controlled by
language.
◼ Loss: No emphasis on education to enhance
ethnic awareness.
 Cultural factors

◼ Maintenance: Low emphasis on

education if in majority language.
◼ Loss: Acceptance of majority language
education.
◼ Maintenance: Culture unlike majority
language.
◼ Loss: Culture and religion similar to
that of the majority language.
Why should we care about language loss?
Likable initiative

Loss of a language is a loss of a culture

“Every language reflects a unique world-view
and culture complex” (Wurm 1991)
Can you think of any other reasons to
account for language maintenance?
 Ethnolinguistic vitality

How can we predict the likelihood that a

language will be maintained?
By measuring its ethnolinguistic vitality.
 Ethnolinguistic vitality
Factor 2: Factor 3:
Number of Proportion of
Factor 1: Speakers Speakers within
Intergenerational the total
transmission Population
Factor 4:
Existing Language
Factor 9: Domains
Amount and
Quality of
Documentation Factor 5:
Response to New
Factor 8: Domains and
Community Media
Factor 6:
Members’ Materials for
Attitudes Factor 7: Language
Governmental Education and
and Institutional Literacy
Language Attitudes
and Policies
 Pidgins and Creoles
A second aspect of language contact is the
development of distinct varieties of language.
What is Pidginization?
It is a process that sometimes takes place
when two languages come into contact and,
as a result, there is a process of
simplification or hybridization.
 Pidgins and Creoles
Why does this process occur?
Develops as a means of communication among
people who do not have a common language
i.e., the language is only used for a specific purpose
such as trade.
Often, the words from one language are adopted
while using the syntactic ordering of the other
language but, as a rule the grammatical system is
simplified as well as other complex linguistic
features.
 Pidgins and Creoles
The formation of pidgins was characteristic in the
16th and 17th centuries when European colonial
powers spread all over the world and new
languages, which were lexically related to the
language of the colonizer emerged.

Masta
 Pidgins and Creoles
These contact languages were initially used
for functional purposes in specific situations
and contexts and, therefore , they were not
the native language of anyone and speakers
continued to use their languages in their own
speech communities.
 Pidgins and Creoles
Pidgins often undergo several geographical
and sociolinguistic contexts.
e.g. Melanesian pidgin English arose as a
shipboard lingua franca, later it was used as
a plantation language and it finally came to
be a language for inter-ethnic city
communication (Richford & McWhorter,
1997).
 Pidgins and Creoles
Some instances of pidgins
Most pidgins and creoles are based on an
European language, and the most common
and widespread ones are based on one of
the following languages: English, French,
Spanish, Dutch, Italian, or German.
 Pidgins and Creoles
English based creoles are very common in
Caribbean areas such as Antigua, Barbados,
Jamaica and the West Indies.
They are also present in Africa (Cameroon,
Kenya, St. Helena, Zimbabwe, Namibia), Asia
(India, china, Hong Kong) and the pacific
area (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands,
Australia).
 Pidgins and Creoles
French-based creoles can be found in
Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia and Haiti.
Some Spanish-based pidgins and creoles
were used in the Dominican Republic, Cuba,
Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
Some instances of Portuguese-based creoles
can be found in Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao,
Malaysia and Singapore.
 Pidgins and Creoles
 Cameroon Pidgin English
 Hawaiian Pidgin
 Kamtok
 Kenya Pidgin Swahili
 Naga Pidgin
 New Guinea Pidgin German
 Nigerian Pidgin English
 Papuan Pidgin English
 Pidgin German (Gastarbeiters)
 Pidgins and Creoles
 Russenorsk
 Sango
 Vietnamese Pidgin
 Pidgins and Creoles
Pidgins are to be found all over the world but, they
tend to share a number of general characteristics.
a. Almost complete lack of inflection in nouns,
pronouns, verbs and adjectives.
b. Nouns are unmarked for number or gender.
c. Verbs lack tense markers.
d. There is no distinction for case in personal
pronouns, so l can stand for me, and they for
them.
 Pidgins and Creoles
e. Syntactically, the absence of clausal structures is
quite common in pidgins. However, relative
clauses and other types of embedding develop in
creolization.
f. In order to avoid possible confusion, as there is
often no distinction between long and short
vowels (e.g., ship and sheep would be
pronounced in the same way), a common
resource introduced in these languages is
'reduplication'.
 Pidgins and Creoles
e.g., in Tok Pisin sip means 'ship' and sipsip means
'sheep', and pis means 'peace' while pispis has the
meaning of 'urinate'.
Another common usage of reduplication is to
intensify the meaning of a word, for instance, cry
means 'cry‘ whereas crycry means 'cry continually',
or talk meaning'talk' and talktalk meaning 'chatter'.
 Pidgins and Creoles
Maritime Pidgins: multilingual crews, shore contacts
- Lingua Franca (Mediterranean), Russenorsk
Trade Pidgins: trading/selling distinct groups
- Chinese Pidgin English
Workforce Pidgins: e.g. plantation pidgins or mining
communities
- Hawaii PE; Fanagalo
Military Pidgins: officers & local soldiers/workers
- Juba Arabic, Hiri Motu
Interethnic contacts:
- Chinook Jargon, Bazaar Malay, etc.
 Pidgins and Creoles
Creolization
The process of assimilation in which neighboring
cultures share certain features to form a new distinct
culture and therefore a new language.
Thus a new language emerges having this its own
native speakers (nativization has occurred)
 Pidgins and Creoles
Characteristics of Creoles
A creole is a pidgin which:
 is learnt by children as their 1st language
 is used in a wide range of domains
 is used for a variety of functions
 has expanded structure and vocabulary
 not appreciated by outsiders but has positive
attitudes by its speakers
 Pidgins and Creoles
Pidgin or Creole?
Terminology and sociolinguistic status are
not always consistent and some creoles can
be referred to as pidgins (for instance, Tok
Pisin and
Hawaiian Pidgin English) or the other way
round.
 Pidgins and Creoles
Mismatch produced because 'pidgin' and
'creole' are technical terrns commonly used
by linguists but not necessarily by speakers
of these languages. Instances of creoles are:
 Anglo-Romani (a creolization of Romani in
England)
 Asmara Pidgin (Italian-based, it is spoken
in parts of Ethiopia)
 Berbice Creole Dutch
 Pidgins and Creoles
 Chabacano o Zamboangueño.
(Spanish_based)
 Haitian Creole
 Hawaiian Creole English
 Jamaican Patwa
 Tok Pisin
 Pidgins and Creoles
Hymes, (1971: 3)
‘pidgins and creoles were ignored to a great
extent by linguists as marginal languages,
instead of being considered creative
adaptations, have been regarded as
degenerations and, therefore, not as systems
in their own right'
 Pidgins and Creoles
Decreolization
Arises when one creole has extended contact
with a standard language in a specific
society, and that standard brings a
considerable influence to bear on the creole.
Speakers start to develop the creole taking
the standard as a model and a continuum is
created with the standard as a model at the
top and the creole as a model at the bottom.
 Pidgins and Creoles
This process can be clearly perceived
nowadays in places like Barbados,
Cameroon, India, Nigeria and Papua New
Guinea, among others.
In such a situation the different forms of the
creole become socially stratified.
 Pidgins and Creoles
The variety or varieties which are closer to the
standard often become the language of the elite and
educated society (acrolect), whereas the variety
which is closer to the creole often represents
illiterate people and lower social class (basilect).
Acrolect

Mesolect

Basilect
 Pidgins and Creoles
Between these two poles there can appear a
whole range of varieties or mesolects which
determine not only social stratification but
also alleged identities among their speakers.

Wardhaugh (2002:80) shows the following

stages in the continuum to say 'I told him‘ in
Guyanese:
Pidgins and Creoles
The varieties 1 to 3 reflect the
acrolect typical of middle-class
usage, varieties 4 to 7 display
mesolect forms characteristic in
lower middle and urban working
classes. The pronunciation in
stage 8 is closer to the basilect
and shows a rural working class,
as well as item 9 which is used
by old and illiterate rural
laborers.
 Pidgins and Creoles
Hawaii is one of those places where we can find this
continuum of speech which ranges from the distinct
HCE to Standard English of Hawaii.
In this case, it depends mainly on the speaker's
location and upbringing.
The basilect (barely intelligible by standard English
speakers) is spoken in the country side whereas the
acrolect is spoken in the mayor cities.
 Diglossia
What is diglossia?
A sociolinguistic situation typical of languages found
in bilingual and multilingual societies in which two
languages or language varieties are used with one
being H a high variety for formal situations and
prestige, and L a low variety for informal situations
(everyday conversation).
 Diglossia

Features of diglossic situations:

 The coexistence of two or more varieties in a
speech community
 The domains of linguistic behavior are divided in a
kind of complementary distribution (an X variety
will serve some purposes and a Z variety will serve
others)
 The domains are ranked in a kind of hierarchy,
from high valued (H) to less valued (L)
 Diglossia

 If two varieties are recognized or accepted as

genetically related , the H domains usually make
use of the more conservative form of the language
(literary dialect if there is a written form)
o Formal or H domains will include public
speaking, religious texts and practice, education
and other prestigious kinds of usage.
o L domains will include informal conversations,
jokes, the street and market language, etc.
 Diglossia

Ferguson 1959 “Classical diglossia” varieties

of the same language having the H and L
status

Fishman 1967 “Extended diglossia” two or

more distinct codes having the H and L
status in a speech community.
 Diglossia

Extended Diglossia
Diglossic situations involving two different linguistic
codes genetically unrelated.
The one that dominates the H domains has the
greater power or international prestige, or is the
language of the local power elite or the dominant
religious community.
Clearly the H-variety language is the language of the
most powerful section of the society.
.
 Diglossia

e.g. English occupies the H-variety position in

Canada because…
 it has the greater prestige in North America and perhaps
internationally as well
 Its population is numerically greater than the community
of French speakers
 Its speech community is economically dominant both in
English and French Canada.
 Conversely in France French is the H. variety in diglossic
situations involving other languages or dialects.
 Diglossia

Taxonomy of Diglossias
Classical Diglossia – In-Diglossia – Endo-
Diglossia

Extended Diglossia – Out -Diglossia – Exo-

Diglossia