LINGUISTIC VARIETIES

AND MULITILINGUAL NATIONS

By :
# Ani Istiana
# Romy Mardian
# Tuti Rumian
Over half the world’s population is bilingual and many
people are multilingual. They acquire a number of
languages because they need them for different purpose in
their everyday interaction.

Example: like Balinese people have many languages or

“logat” to talk with other Balinese people. And they know
about another language like Indonesian language English
language and so on. So the Balinese people have multiple
languages.

The selection of discussion about:

VERNACULAR LANGUAGE

The term vernacular is used in numbers of ways. It

generally refers to a language which has not been
standardized and which does not have official status.
Vernacular are usually the first language learned by
people in multilingual language communities, and they
are often used for a relatively narrow range of informal
functions.

Ex: like a children are talking with their friends used

informal language from his places.
STANDARD LANGUAGE

The term standard is even more slippery then vernacular

because it too is used in many deferent ways by linguists.
Here is one definition which can serve as a useful starting
point. A standard variety is generally one which is written, and
which has undergone some degree of regularization or
codification it is recognized as a prestigious variety by a
community.

Ex: Human in their places use standard language in their

places.
LINGUA FRANCA

Lingua franca can be describe as a language

which is serving as a regular means of
communication between different linguistic
groups in a multilingual nation and used habitually
by people whose mother tongues are different in
order to facilitate communication between them.

Ex: Like in Bali, many people want to talk with other

people use Balinese language.
PIDGIN

Most people have a predictable reaction to pidgin

languages. They find them amusing. If you read
children story in variety of Pidgin English, it is easy to
understand why – it sounds a lot like baby talk. But
even if we take a serious article from the news paper,
many speakers of English still find pidgin languages
humorous or babyish.
Why do pidgins develop?
A pidgin is a language which has no native speakers.
Pidgins develop as a means of communication between
people who do not have a common language. So a
pidgin is no one’s native language. Pidgins seem
particularly likely to arise when two groups with different
languages are communication in a situation where there
is also third dominant language.

Example:
Like People from Kintamani talk with someone from
Gianyar in the street their pronunciation will be
different.
Attitudes
Example:
Like someone long time stay in the foreign to work there and
suddenly his or her return to the village and someone ask that
people with high Balinese language and he or she said “punapi
gatrene?” And he or she can’t give the answer and that people
didn’t understand with the meaning of the question because he or
she often used English language in the foreign so, that someone
forget will mother language self when he or she return to the village
again.

To sum up, a pidgin language has three identifying characteristics:

# It is used in restricted domains and functions
# It has a simplified structure compared to the source languages
# It generally has low prestige and attracts negative attitudes –
especially from outsiders.
Creoles
A creole is a pidgin which has acquired native speakers.
Many of the languages which are called pidgins are in
fact now creole languages. They are learned by children
as their first language and used in a wide range of
domains.

Example:
Like Balinese children talk with her mother in the house
she or he used low Balinese language when he or she
want request something to her mother. Example: that
children request money to her mother to pay book in the
school.
National and Official Languages

“A national language is the language of a political, cultural

and social unit. It is generally developed and used as a
symbol of national unity. Its functions are to identify the
nation and unite the people of the nation.”

“An official language, by contrast, is simply a language

which may be used for government business. Its function is
primarily utilitarian rather than symbolic.”
Swahili National Language of Tanzania

1. Indigenous
2. Not the language of one of the groups
competing for dominance
3. Widely known as a second language
4. Linguistically related to most of the
vernacular languages of the population
5. Historically used as language of basic
education and many government functions
Planning For a National Official Language

Form, Function and Attitude

There are four steps involved in developing a code or
variety
1. Selection; choosing the variety or code to be
developed .
2. Codification; standardizing its structural or linguistic
features.
3. Elaboration; extending its function for use in new
domains.
4. Securing its acceptance; the status of the new
variety is important, and so people’s attitudes to the
variety being developed must be considered.
 Developing a standard variety in norway

Language history
During the medieval times Norway was an independent kingdom. The spoken language was Old
Norse, which also was used by the Vikings who settled in Iceland and the Faroe Islands where
the Old Norse was maintained to a much larger degree than in mainland Scandinavia.
In 1349 the Black Death wiped out almost one half of the Norwegian population. As there were only
a few literate persons left, no one was present to preserve the written Norwegian language in years to
come. In 1397 Norway entered a union with Denmark that lasted until 1814. Denmark came to be the
dominating part, and Danish came to be the primary language among the Norwegian elite. In churches
the Danish Bible was used along with Danish religious books after the reformation in 1536, and
Danish clergymen held services in Norwegian churches. The law was written in Danish, and all
literature, prose and poetry in Norway was written in Danish. This had a crucial effect on the written
language.
Early in the 19th century educated Norwegians wrote Danish. The elite in towns spoke Danish with
a Norwegian accent. Norwegian dialects were spoken by 95% of the population. Dialects had
developed during the four hundred years under Danish rule. Due to the Norwegian topography,
differences had developed and distinct local dialects had emerged.
Planning For a National Official Language

Form, Function and Attitude

There are four steps involved in developing a code or
variety
1. Selection; choosing the variety or code to be
developed .
2. Codification; standardizing its structural or linguistic
features.
3. Elaboration; extending its function for use in new
domains.
4. Securing its acceptance; the status of the new
variety is important, and so people’s attitudes to the
variety being developed must be considered.
 The Linguist’s Role In Language Planning

1. Codification of orthography
2. Developing Vocabulary
3. Acceptance

Language planning is defined most simply as deliberate

language change. Language planners generally focus on
specific language problems. Their role is to develop a
policy of language use which will solve the problems
appropriately in particular speech communities