Republic of the Philippines
Province of Cebu
CONSOLACION COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Municipality of Consolacion
Tel. No. (032) 512-6743
EL-102 LANGUAGE CULTURE AND
SOCIETY
A Written Report About:
Language VS. Dialect
Speech Community
Linguistic Borrowing and Language
Contact
Submitted by:
Group Members
Submitted to:
Ricky A. Ignacio
Language vs. Dialect
INTRODUCTION
To begin with, Is there a difference between the terms language and dialect? Yes, these
two have a big difference but most people have a complexity about the definition of these. Also
these two terms have many definitions created by the philosophers and researchers. Moreover,
According to dictionary.com a language is defined as “The method of human communication,
either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way.”
But I also see it as another definition, which is that language is a source that separates one
culture from another. It is this type of bond set between nations, or on a larger scale, different
countries. Language is spoken, but when put in words, it is considered an art. When people write
stories, or poems, they take language and assemble it to bring out certain emotions in people, or
remind people of the past. So that confirms part of the definition that it is a method of human
communication, and that this method is endless in power and spirit because it can immerse itself
into anything around the world, and still be effective. Language is also official. It is used
properly, and just like in English, there are a lot of rules.
Language
Language is a system of arbitrary sounds used by a community for communication.
Based on the differentiation of my research and videos in YouTube, I came to understand that
language is the mother tongue or first tongue of people with common interests living in a
particular area. It’s a generic term. It is studied and regulated by the laws. It is part of the
curriculum; and is the language that brings or serves as identity to other nations. Take for
example the Filipino language. It is the official language of the Philippines dictated by the law. It
is the language of the nation known worldwide. But the Philippines also have various languages
like Cebuano, Ilokano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Bikol, and many more. Pelagio (2013). They are
known as regional languages commissioned by the law and considered languages because of
more than a million users.
Characteristics of a Language.
Language is Arbitrary
Language is undoubtedly arbitrary as there is no inherent connection between the
nature of things or concepts the language deals with, however by which those
things and concepts are expressed. There is no reason why a ‘single term’ is
pronounced differently by different communities.
The decision of a word chosen to mean a specific thing or idea is absolutely
arbitrary. It might be noticed that if a language had not been arbitrary, there would
have been just a single language remaining throughout the world. That is why we
can consider language as arbitrary vocal symbols.
Language is a Social Phenomenon
In a sense, language should be considered a social phenomenon. Language is
social that exists in our human society; it is a means of nourishing and developing
culture and establishing human relations.
As a member of a particular social group, we human beings interact with each
other, which allows us to identify with one another, to connect and coordinate
with one another. This is how language is the part and parcel of our society.
Language exists in the public arena, is a method for feeding and creating a
society, and sets up human relations. As a member of society, we acquire a
language permanently.
Language is a Symbolic System
Language signifies a symbolic system. It consists of different types of sound
symbols for concepts, things, ideas, object etc. Language has sounds and words as
their symbols.
These symbols are picked and routinely acknowledged and utilized. The words in
a language are not just patterns or images but symbols that denote meaning.
The language uses words essentially as symbols and not as signs for the concept
represented by them. The core value of a language sometimes relies on the true
explanation of these symbols.
Language is Systematic
Although the language is symbolic, its symbols are arranged in specific systems.
All languages have their arrangement of plans. Each language is an arrangement
of systems.
Furthermore, all languages have phonological and syntactic systems and within a
system, there are also several sub-systems.
For instance, inside the linguistic system, we have the morphological and
syntactic system, and inside these two sub-systems, we have systems, for
example, those of plural, of mindset, or perspective, of tense, etc.
Language is Vocal, Verbal and Sound
Language is a system of vocal and verbal symbolism. It is essentially comprised
of vocal sounds just created by a physiological articulatory component in the
human body.
First and foremost, it shows up as vocal sounds only. Language takes verbal
elements such as sounds, words and phrases which are fixed up in certain ways to
make several sentences.
Language is vocal and sound which is produced by different speech organs.
Writing can be considered as an intelligent platform to represent vocal sounds. It
is the graphic representation of the speech sounds of the language.
Language is Non-Instinctive, Conventional
No language was made in multi-day out of a commonly settled upon the recipe by
a gathering of people. Language is the result of advancement and tradition. Every
age transmits this tradition onto the following.
Like every single human organization, languages may also change and pass on,
develop and extend. Each language has a circulation in a particular community
around the globe. However, we can consider language as non-instinctive because
naturally it is acquired by us.
Language is Productive and Creative
Language has its own efficiency and innovativeness. The auxiliary components of
human language joined to created new expressions, which neither the speaker nor
his/her listeners may ever have made or heard previously.
Truly, the two sides comprehend without trouble. Language can be changed as
indicated by the necessities of human society. After all, language has the power of
productivity and creativity.
Language is a System of Communication
Language is strong, convenient and the best form of communication for no doubt.
It is the best way to express everything. It is through language that we human
beings express our thoughts, desires, emotions and feelings.
Further, we can interact with each other easily through the welfare of language.
After all, we may say that language is the best system of communication around
the world.
Language is Human and Structurally Complex
Human language is open-minded, extendable and modifiable in contrary to animal
language. Language should be modifiable from time to time.
No species other than human beings have been endowed with language. So we
can say that language is naturally human and in some cases, structurally complex
and modifiable.
Language is Unique, Complex and Modifiable
Language is indeed a unique phenomenon in the world. Every language has its
own characteristics and distinctive features. Furthermore, each language has its
own creativity and productivity to deliver the best ways to communicate with
each other.
And this is how language has its own potentiality to be unique, complex and
modifiable by the change of time and culture.
Dialect
Dialect on the other hand is a subdivision of language. It is a local tongue; spoken and
understood in a certain region by a certain people. A part of the speech community that has a
distinct feature that distinguishes them from the whole language (Pelagio (2013). Created by the
local persons of a particular place. It is the Language of the folks. Additionally, according to Dr.
Cadiente A dialect is considered a language when the majority or of the said dialect reaches a
million and above.
Furthermore, Dialect according to dictionary.com is “A particular form of a language that is
peculiar to a specific region or social group.” Other words, language is the tree, and dialect is a
branch off of it. Dialect can use slang terms, and has no real structure like language alone does.
Being that dialect is a branch of language, the idea of bringing language to life, and making it an
art, is with the help of dialect. Without dialect, language would not really have a voice. It really
could not be relatable to people, because people are not robots and they depend on individuality.
So languages being an official language, people insert their own control with dialect, and use it
to create this bond between those around them, or separate those who are regionally a part from
them almost works as a fingerprint for different dialects in different parts of the world.
To be more specific, let’s take example, Waray language encompasses various dialects. It is
obvious that there are some variations in terms of speech among provinces of Samar, Northern
Samar, Eastern Samar, Leyte & Biliran. Examples like Barugo differ in intonation & accents
with Carigara. Jaro & substitution of “o” to “u” in their vowels. Tacloban on the other hand is
similar to the Samar region and many others. See? Inside a language are different forms of
dialects. Like an alcohol which represents a language and its different brands like Whisky,
Emperador, Redhorse etc., are dialects.
Characteristics of a Dialect.
shows variations in grammar.
shows variations in vocabulary.
shows variations in prosody.
shows variations in usage patterns.
likely will not have its own written literature
Facts about Dialects.
All languages consist of dialects (a language is a group of dialects; to speak a language is
to speak a dialect of that language)
Therefore, everyone speaks at least one dialect
Dialect differences are usually minor and dialects of a language are usually mutually
intelligible
Dialects are geographically, socially, politically determined
Dialect variation is a matter of difference, not deficit
Nonstandard dialects are "self-contained" systems, with their regular phonological and
syntactic rules.
Nonstandard dialects of English are close relatives to SE, sometimes reflecting older
forms of SE.
Kinds of Dialects
1. Regional Dialect.
2. Social Dialect.
It is possible in a given community, people speak more than one dialect.
Social Dialects
Factors such as occupation, place of residence, education, income, racial or ethnic origin,
cultural background, caste, religion related to the way people speak.
Social dialects originate from social groups and depend on a variety of factors; social
class, regional, and ethnicity.
Regional Dialect
Very distinctive local varieties - regional dialect
1. It is reflected in the differences in pronunciation, in the choice and forms of
words, and in syntax.
2. There is a dialect continuum.
3. Various pressures-political, social, cultural, and educational- serve to harden
current national boundaries and to make the linguistic differences among states.
4. Dialect geography - term - used to describe attempts made to map the
distributions of various linguistic features.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, Language is a general term of communication that started from a dialect until
it is illicitly used by millions of people. It is a language understood by a community. It is studied
and commissioned by the law. Dialects on the other hand is a peculiar type of communication
that differs from the language in the community with some distinctive features. It is used by
certain people in a certain area of the community. Both are part of our culture so they must not
be eliminated if possible but instead respected.
Speech Community
Definition of Speech Community
When we say speech community, it is a group of people who share rules for conducting
and interpreting at least one variety of a language or dialect. This term can be applied to a
neighborhood, a city, a region or a nation. In addition, speech community is a term in
sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology that is used to describe a group of people who share
the same language, speech characteristics, and ways of interpreting communication.
Characteristics of a Speech Community
Speech communities may be large regions like an urban area with a common, distinct
accent (think of Boston with its dropped r's) or small units like families and friends (think of a
nickname for a sibling). They help people define themselves as individuals, community members
and identify (or misidentify) others.
Earliest Speech Community
The earliest speech community we belong to is the one we share with our primary
caregivers (usually our parents) and is the basis for some of the most intimate and long term
relationships we form across our life. The rules and norms of this speech community show up in
a dialect referred to as the vernacular, the most basic variety or dialect of language we command.
Our vernacular speech is least susceptible to monitoring and least likely to change across our
lifetime.
Speech and Identity
The concept of speech as a means of identifying with a community first emerged in
1960s academia alongside other new fields of research like ethnic and gender studies. Linguists
like John Gumperz pioneered research in how personal interaction can influence ways of
speaking and interpreting, while Noam Chomsky studied how people interpret language and
derive meaning from what they see and hear.
Linguists and their Theories
Speech communities can be large or small, although linguists don't agree on how they're
defined.
Muriel Saville-Troike say that it’s logical to assume that a shared language like English,
which is spoken throughout the world, is a speech community. But she differentiates between
"hard-shelled" communities, which tend to be insular and intimate, like a family or religious sect,
and "soft-shelled" communities where there is a lot of interaction.
Zdenek Salzmann describes speech community as "[P]eople who speak the same
language are not always members of the same speech community. On the other hand, speakers of
South Asian English in India and Pakistan share a language with citizens of the U.S., but the
respective varieties of English and the rules for speaking them are sufficiently distinct to assign
the two populations to different speech communities."
John Gumperz defines the speech community as any human aggregate characterized by
regular and frequent interaction by means of a shared body of verbal signs and set off from
similar aggregates by significant differences in language usage.
Salzman and others says that speech communities should be more narrowly defined based
on characteristics such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and manner of speaking.
Study and Research
The concept of speech community plays a role in a number of social science, namely
sociology, anthropology, linguists, even psychology. People who study issues of migration and
ethnic identity use social community theory to study things like how immigrants assimilate into
larger societies, for instance. Academics who focus on racial, ethnic, sexual or gender issues
apply social community theory when they study issues of personal identity and politics. It also
plays a role in data collection. By being aware of how communities are defined, researchers can
adjust their subject pools in order to obtain representative sample populations.
Five Key Elements of a Speech Community
It is stated that if all of this five key elements show their dominant attributes in a speech
community, the speech community can be regarded as a typical speech community; in
comparison, the recessive display of any of the five key elements may make speech community a
marginal one.
A. The element population
The element population acts as a foundation and the first element for any speech
community; or in other words, population is the last element that shall be omitted when
considering identifying a speech community.
B. The area element
The element “area”, serving as the landmark of a speech community, comes next
only to the factor population in terms of importance. “Area” here is different from the
“area” used to describe a dialect area, as the latter one is a strict geological
concept, indicating a clear cut and distinct lingual boundary and featuring dominant and
fixed attribute for a certain dialect
area.
C. The facility element
The third element “facility” works as a chain for a speech community. The
community in the sociological context should operate with common facilities. As for a
speech community, its facility is the language shared by the members. It is difficult to
determine the community without language, and in other word, it is not speech
community without language.
D. The identification element
The fourth element identification acts as a binding agent for a speech community.
Identity is a psychology term, refers to the attitude of approval copy other people or
groups of subject, make it become a part of personality psychology course, can also be
interpreted as approval. “Identification” in this paper is defined as a proactive way of
accepting the influence of other people, in thinking mode, emotion, attitude and action,
with the goal of assimilate one’s own thought and behavior with others.
E. Interaction Element
The authors maintain that the element interaction makes a speech community fit
in with the ideal mode. There are two levels of interactions: cold interaction applies to the
situations when speech community members lack real communications even though they
meet the requirements on the elements of population, area, facility and identification; in
contrast hot interaction applies to the situations when speech community members
conduct effective and frequent communications. The latter mode is the core interaction
element while former interaction mode is a marginal one, as some warming up
procedures are needed to stimulate the core element.
Conclusion
A speech community is a group of people who share a set of linguistic norms and
expectations regarding the use of language. It is a concept mostly associated with
sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics.
It is important to remember that group is a relative concept with respect to speech
community.
There are many definitions for speech community which are all different, too
simple and to complex.
An individual belongs to various speech communities, at the same time, he/she
will identify with only one of them.
Speech community five elements is indispensable, but dominant composition and
recessive ingredient is the difference between each element.
References:
https://www.slideshare.net/s5750369s/chamari-speech-community-copy
https://www.thoughtco.com/speech-community-sociolinguistics-1692120
https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/6715.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_community
Linguistic Borrowing and Language Contact
What is linguistic borrowing?
The term "borrowing" in linguistic, refers to the process of speakers adopting words from a
source language into their native language. The word "borrow" is a course of metaphor, because
their is no literal leading process. There is no transfer from one language to another, and no
returning words to the source language.
Haugen (1950)
-He pointed out that there're five different types of linguistic borrowing or lexical borrowing.
Loanword- the word and the meaning are borrowed. e.g. hummus or humous.
(Hummus is a Middle Eastern dip, spread, or savory dish made from cooked, mashed chickpeas
blended with tahini, lemon juice, and garlic.)
Loan transition- a word-for-word translation from one language into another. e.g.
Superman derives from the German "Übermensch"
(In 1909, Thomas Common translated it as "Superman")
Loan rendition- the translation slightly captures the original meaning e.g. refrigerator is
translated as "Ice box" in Chinese.
Loan-blend- translate some parts of a compound but not others. e.g. saorview
("Saorview" is Irish digital television service, the loan blend of that of the UK service is
"Freeview")
- Half of the word from English to Irish but leaving the second half unchanged.
Semantic loan- only the meaning is borrowed not the word e.g. slaughter (Old Norse "
slahtr") war (Old French "guerre") zero (Arabic word "sifr")
Deroy (1956)
-He pointed out that:
Loan words are evidence of the major historical events of a society.
Social, political, ideological or cultural process.
What is language contact?
-Contact with other languages and other dialectal varieties of the language. Leading to a transfer
of linguistic features like alternative pronunciation, grammatical structures and vocabulary.
Prolonged language contact generally leads to bilingualism or multilingualism.
Two types of contact
1. Direct transfer
Immediate effect.
Alterations in the structure of the recipient language.
Immediate influence on morphology and syntax of a language
E.g. Invasion, Immigration,
2. Delayed effect contact
The effect is not immediate.
No structural order in the recipient language.
Low level influence speech habits' migrate from one language to another.
E.g. Intervention of literature or television, radio.
Generally accessible internet.
Seven Types of Language Contact
1. Code switching- speakers move from one language to another and back again with the
same sentence.
2. Barrowing- the most common way the language influence each other is the exchange of
words.
3. Adoption of another language features- extends to the exchange of even basic
characteristics of a language such as morphology and grammar.
4. Language shift- result of two languages can be the replacement of one by the other.
5. Pidgin- simplified form of language.
6. Creole- a language that has evolve in a contact situation to become the native language of
a generation of speakers.
7. Stratal influence- when language shit occurs, the language that is replaced known as the
substratum can leave an impression on the replacing language known as the superstratum.
