CLC 102: SOCIOLINGUISTICS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LECTURE 1 – THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS…………………………………....6
The Strong Version – Linguistic Determinism……………………………………………..….7
The Weak Version – Linguistic Relativity ……………………………………….…………….7
LECTURE 2 - SPEECH COMMUNITY, DIALECT AND IDIOLECT...........................10
The Speech Community……………………………………………………………………….10
Idiolect………………………………………………………………………………………...11
Dialect ………………………………………………………………………………………...12
LECTURE 3 - VARIABLES IN LANGUAGES BEHAVIOUR AND LINGUISTIC
VARIATIONS…………………………………………………………………………….….14
Regional Variation ………………………………………………..………………………..…15
Social Variation ………………………………………………………………………….…...16
Varieties According To Field Of Discourse……………………………..……………….…...16
Varieties According To Medium…………………………………………………..……….....17
Varieties According To Attitude…………………………………………………………..…..18
Varieties According To Interference…………………………………………….…………….19
LECTURE 4 – LANGUAGES IN CONTACT…………………..…………………………21
Language Maintenance ……………………………………………………….…………….…21
Language Shift ……………………………………………………………………….………..24
Language Death ……………………………………………………………………………….22
LECTURE – BILINGUALISM AND MULTILINGUALISM ………..…………….……31
Bilingualism …………………………………………………………………….…………..…31
Multilingualism………………………………………………………………………………...33
INTERACTION OF LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY, CULTURE AND HUMAN
INTERACTION ……………………………………………………………………..……….37
Interaction of Language and Society…………………………………..…………………….…37
Interaction of Language and Culture ………………………………………..…………………38
Language and Human Interaction ……………………………………………..……………….40
LANGUAGE IN DEVELOPING NATIONS……………………………..………….………42
Language in Developing Nations……………………………………………………….….……42
Language in Kenya (The Sociolinguistic Geography of Kenya)……………………….……….43
STANDARD AND OFFICIAL LANGUAGE……………………………………….….……46
Standard Language …………………………………………………………………….………..46
Official Language ……………………………………………………………………………….47
LANGUAGE POLICY …………………………………………………………………..…….49
National Language Policy ……………………………………………………..…………..…….49
Regional Language Policy ……………………………………………………………..………..50
SOCIOLINGUISTIC IMPLICATIONS OF MULTILINGUALISM IN EAST AFRICA...53
Sociolinguistic Implications of Multilingualism in East Africa………………………..………..53
REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………………….58

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SEMESTER______________ ACADEMIC YEAR_______________
CLC 102: SOCIOLINGUISTICS
LECTURER: GERALD MURIITHI

PURPOSE
To expose students to the study of sociolinguistics as a discipline of linguistics

OBJECTIVES
By the end of the course unit the learners should be able to:
i) Describe the interrelation between language and society
ii) Demonstrate ability to use sociolinguistic concepts practically.
iii) Explain national and regional language policies
iv) Discuss variable in languages behaviour and linguistic

COURSE CONTENT
1. LECTURE 1 – THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS
i. The Strong Version – Linguistic Determinism
ii. The Weak Version – Linguistic Relativity
2. LECTURE 2 - SPEECH COMMUNITY, DIALECT AND IDIOLECT
i. The Speech Community
ii. Idiolect
iii. Dialect
3. LECTURE 3 - VARIABLES IN LANGUAGES BEHAVIOUR AND LINGUISTIC
VARIATIONS
i. Regional Variation
ii. Social Variation
iii. Varieties According To Field Of Discourse
iv. Varieties According To Medium
v. Varieties According To Attitude

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vi. Varieties According To Interference

4. LECTURE 4 – LANGUAGES IN CONTACT

i. Language Maintenance
ii. Language Shift
iii. Language Death

5. LECTURE – BILINGUALISM AND MULTILINGUALISM

i. Bilingualism
ii. Multilingualism

6. INTERACTION OF LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY, CULTURE AND HUMAN

INTERACTION
i. Interaction Of Language And Society
ii. Interaction Of Language And Culture
iii. Language And Human Interaction

7. LANGUAGE IN DEVELOPING NATIONS

i. Language In Developing Nations
ii. Language In Kenya (The Sociolinguistic Geography of Kenya)

8. STANDARD AND OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

i. Standard Language
ii. Official Language

9. LANGUAGE POLICY
i. National Language Policy
ii. Regional Language Policy

10. SOCIOLINGUISTIC IMPLICATIONS OF MULTILINGUALISM IN

EAST AFRICA
i. Sociolinguistic Implications Of Multilingualism In East Africa

4
Teaching / Learning Methodologies
Lectures, Tutorials, Class discussion

Instructional Materials and Equipment

Handouts, Chalk board

Course Assessment
Examination - 70%; Continuous Assessments (Exercises and Tests) - 30%; Total - 100%

Recommended Text Books

i) Radford (2007); Linguistics: An Introduction; Foundation Books Private Limited
ii) James J. (2005); Learning Another Language Actions; Sky Oaks Production
iii) Fishman, J. (1972); Sociolinguistics: A Brief Introduction; Rowley, M.A. Newbury
House.

Text Books for further Reading

i) Romaine, S. (1994); Language in Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics; Oxford:
Oxford University Press
ii) Chaika, E. (1982); Language: The Social Mirror Rowley MA Newbury House
iii) Hudson, R. A. (1980); Pidgin and Creole Languages London & New York Longman

5
 LECTURE 1 - THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS
Introduction
In this lecture, world views are discussed according to the viewpoints of two linguists that are
Benjamin Lee Whorf and Edward Sapir.

Objectives

By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

1. explain the view of linguistic determinism
2. explain the view of linguistic relativity

In linguistics, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis states that there are certain thoughts of an
individual in one language that cannot be understood by those who live in another language. The
hypothesis states that the way people think is strongly affected by their native languages.
It is a controversial theory championed by linguist Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin
Whorf.

A Short History of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

This hypothesis brought attention to the relationship between language, thought, and
culture. It was first discussed by Sapir in 1929. the hypothesis became popular in the 1950s
following publication of Whorf's writings on the subject after his demise. After vigorous attack
from followers of the Chomskyan theories in the following decades, the hypothesis is now
believed by most linguists only in the weak sense that language can have some small effect on
thought.

6
 Edward Sapir (1884-1939) was an American anthropologist-linguist and a leader in
American structural linguistics. He is the Author of Language: An Introduction to the Study of
Speech. Born in Germany, he was a pupil of Franz Boas, teacher of Benjamin Whorf. Whorf
(1897-1941) graduated from the MIT in 1918 with a degree in Chemical Engineering and shortly
afterwards began work as a fire prevention engineer . Although he met, and later studied with
Edward Sapir, he never took up linguistics as a profession. his primary area of interest in
linguistics was the study of native American languages. He became quite well known for his
work on the Hopi language. He was considered to be a captivating speaker and did much to
popularize his linguistic ideas through popular lectures and articles written to be accessible to lay
readers.

The Strong Version - Linguistic Determinism

Linguistic Determinism is the extreme version of the hypothesis. This is the idea that
language and its structure limit and determine human knowledge or thought. This hypothesis
argued that the structure of a language can strongly influence or determine someone’s World
View. A World View describes a (hopefully) consistent and integral sense of existence and
provides a theoretical framework for generating, sustaining and applying knowledge. World
view can also be said to be a comprehensive and usually personal conception or view or
humanity, the world or life.
Examples:
Kahĩĩ (Gikuyu language, Gikuyu culture) - a young uncircumcised male
Boy (English language, European culture) - a young male (aspect of initiation omitted)
The above are two linguistic terms from two different cultures which can be learnt by a
bilingual speaker. Each of the terms activates a different set of beliefs and values as it is used. In
this case, we may claim that language (English or Gikuyu) has determined the way of thinking
about these two terms that seem as a direct translation of each other. However, they have
different senses in the languages involved.

The Weak Version - Linguistic Relativity

This hypothesis discussed Linguistic Relativity. This is a theory that states that there
are no universal properties of languages other than the basic properties like arbitrariness,

7
productivity, discreteness among others. It further stipulates that every language is as it were
a law unto itself. It thus contradicts universalism. Because languages are acquired through the
process of cultural transmission, linguistic variation is tied very much to the existence of
different cultures. Hence, languages are culture specific. it argued that structural differences
between languages are paralleled by nonlinguistic cognitive differences (the structure of the
language itself affects cognition). For instance, the number and the type of the basic colour
words of a language determine how a subject sees the rainbow. This is to mean that language
affects thought or the way people think.
This principle of relativity (weak form) which says that all observers are not led by same
physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are
similar or in some way can be regulated. In other words, the structure of a language affects the
way in which its speakers are able to conceptualize their world view. An example of this comes
from the Eskimos for they are said to have various names for snow while other people who
come from areas that do not snow only have one name for it. Arabs too have different names for
camels since that phenomenon is a common aspect of their environment.

Activity

➢
Why do you think there are references to the ‘fact’ that
Eskimos have hundreds of words for snow?
➢
What is one common definition of ‘culture’ in the study of
language?
➢
What is meant by ‘linguistic determinism’?
➢
What is meant by ‘linguistic relativity?

8
Summary

In this lecture, we have learnt the various opinions that contribute

to the discussion of world view in relation to language.

9
 LECTURE 2 – SPEECH COMMUNITY, DIALECT
AND IDIOLECT
Introduction
In this lecture, we are going to learn about the idea of speech community, the virtue of dialect
as well as idiolect and what the mean from the perspective of real language practice in the
community.

Objectives

By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

1. Explain the idea of the speech community
2. Define the term idiolect
3. Give an explanation about the meaning of the term ‘dialect’

The Speech Community

John Lyons offers a definition of a real speech community as all the people who use a
given language or dialect. This definition suggests that it is a definition of language or
dialect where there exists what can be called a language also exists a community.
Language and speech community may not share a common boundary e.g. English. It is spoken
in almost all the world in a variety of methods. What may be a single speech community may
use different languages e.g. many people speak many different languages e.g. in Kenya, one has
one local language, then Kiswahili and English. It is hence hard to fix boundaries and determine
their speech community. A speech community need not have any social or cultural units. It is
purely a linguistic definition. Individuals identify with each other on the basis dialect or
language. Other ways include socially, politically and ethnically.

10
 Charles Hockett says that each language defines a speech community as the whole set
of people who communicate with each other either directly or indirectly via a common
language. For instance, if two communities spoke a similar language but exhibit no
communication with each other, they are different speech communities. The Maasai of Kenya
and those of Tanzania can be said to be of two different speech communities.
Bloomfield Leonard argues that a speech community is a group of people who interact by
means of speech. This is a shift of emphasis not requiring the speakers have a common language
but that the speakers interact by means of language (shared interaction).
Gumperz says that there is completely no reason that forces us to define speech
communities so that all members speak the same language. He says that a speech community is
any human aggregates characterized by regular or frequent interaction by means of shared verbal
signs. He later uses the term ‘linguistic community’ rather than ‘speech community’. He defines
a linguistic community as a social group which may either be monolingual or multilingual and
held together by frequency of social interaction patterns and set off from the surrounding areas
by weaknesses in the lines of communication. The members interact differently from other
groups. They may be small groups bound together by face to face contact or may cover larger
regions.
Communities are defined partially due to the relationship with other communities so that
internally a community may have internal social cohesiveness. Externally, its members must find
themselves cut off from other communities in certain ways and there are certain factors that
bring about cohesion and differentiation and these factors vary from occasion to occasion.
Individuals will shift their sense of cohesiveness depending on the factors that bring about
cohesion and differentiation. These factors of cohesion and differentiation vary according to
political, ethnic or religious affiliations. A speech community is not only defined by what it is
but also by what it is not.

Idiolect
This is what distinguishes one individual from another. The aspects focused on are, for
instance, pronunciation, grammar, choice of vocabulary and voice quality. Our voices are
actually for part of idiolect. In writing, an idiolect comprises vocabulary choice, grammar,
and also handwriting.

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 In short, these are the unique linguistic characteristics that each individual has. It is
an individual way of speaking: a personal dialect.

Dialect
Many speakers have difficulties distinguishing what they speak as a language or dialect.
English uses the term ‘dialect’ and language in conflicting senses. Dialects are said to be local
varieties of the informal lower class individuals or rural speech. It is not clear whether or not
such dialects are part of language codes. Dialect is not considered as part of language. Dialect
as a social norm
This Language form excluded from polite society (high class). It is equivalent to non-
standard/ substandard form of language. The term used in some cases depends on extra-linguistic
considerations’ particularly, religious, political or social factors. For example, there is the Hindi
versus Urdu situation. The two varieties are considered to be the same language. There are
certain differences magnified for political or religious reasons. Hindi is affiliated to Hindu and
Urdu is affiliated to Islam. The minor differences are: Hindi is written from left to right while
Urdu is written from right to left since it borrows from Arabic. Hindi borrows from Sanskrit.
These differences are magnified by the speakers themselves.

Dialect in Linguistics
It doesn’t carry any value judgments. It simply means a distinct form of language due to
differences in vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar. Language is a single linguistic norm or a
group of related norms. Hence dialect refers to one of these norms. A language can be made of
one for more of these dialects. If a language has only one dialect, then this dialect is also the
language. If the language is a group of related norms, then the language is a group of related
norms.
For example, the Luhya language has about 19 varieties which all put together make up the
Luhya language. These norms are not static; they are subject to change and evolution.

Types of dialects:
A. regional dialect – confined to a particular geographical region

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B. social dialect – this is a variety associated with a specific social group or class. The class
demarcation can arise from income levels, level of education, religious affiliation, as well
as caste

Activity

➢
What is a speech community?
➢
In the Kenyan situation, what is the difference between
a tribe and a speech community?
➢
Define the term idiolect, with examples.
➢
What is the difference between a language and a dialect?
➢
Define the two types of dialects.

Summary

In this lecture, we have learnt about the speech community,

idiolect and dialect and how these concepts function in the society
as far as language is concerned.

13
LECTURE 3 - VARIABLES IN LANGUAGES BEHAVIOUR AND
LINGUISTIC VARIATIONS

Introduction
In this lecture, we are going to learn how language changes in various situations and places in the
society.

Objectives

By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

1. define linguistic variation

2. give reasons why speakers choose certain linguistic variables

in speech
3. outline various linguistic variations

Speakers choose the variables to use in language depending on the group they wish to
identify with at any particular time. Speakers will vary their speech according to
• social class identification ( upper-class with standard versions while lower-class with
non-standard versions)
• identity with a particular ethnic group ( the person speaks more like the members of
that group)
• stylistic variation – this depends on whether the situation is formal or informal (informal
situations use more non-standard features than formal situations)

14
 Speakers monitor their speech carefully to ensure they use more non-standard features i.e.
an appropriately informal speech style. Some researchers say that regardless of the formality of
the situation, women tend to use more standard features regardless of their social class; since
they are more status/class conscious of stigma associated with non-standard forms.
Among young speakers, there is a different variation. They are aware that some features are
pointers to membership of a certain social group. They mostly align themselves to a different
social group from their parents. For example, educated children of non-educated parents would
use more standard form to indicate or symbolize their education while those from educated
parents would do vice-versa.
A study carried out in Iran among speakers called Tehrani Persians confirmed the
above assertion.
The following are categorizations of possible varieties of language with reference to the
English language:

1. Regional Variation
Varieties according to region have a well established label both in popular and technical
use: Dialects. Geographical dispersion is in fact the classic basis for linguistic variation, and in
the source of time, with poor communications and relative remoteness, such dispersion results
in dialects becoming so distinct that we regard them as different languages. This latter stage was
long ago reached with the Germanic dialects that are now Dutch, English, German, Swedish etc,
but it has not been reached (and may not necessarily ever been reached given the modern case
and range of communication) with the dialects of English that have resulted from the regional
separation of communities within the British isles and (since the voyages of exploration and
settlement in Shakespeare’s time elsewhere in the world.
Regional variation seems to be realized predominantly in [phonology. That is we
generally recognize a different dialect from a speaker’s pronunciation or accent before we notice
that the vocabulary (or lexicon) is also distinctive. Grammatical variation tends to be less
extensive and certainly less obtrusive. But all types of inlanders’ might say. I see it, a
Pennsylvanian I seen it and a Virginian either I seen it or I seed it, if they were speaking the
rural nonstandard dialect of their locality and the same forms characterize certain dialects within
Britain too.

15
2. Social Variation
Within each of the dialects there is considerable variation in speech according to
education, socioeconomic group, and ethnic group. Some differences correlate with age and
sex. There is an important polarity between uneducated and educated speech in which the
former can be identified with the nonstandard regional dialect most completely and the latter
moves away from regional usage to form of English that cuts across regional boundaries.
Educated English naturally tends to be given the additional prestige of
government agencies, the professions, the political parties the press, the law count and the
pulpit any institution which must attempt to address itself to a public beyond the smallest
dialectal community.
It is codified in dictionaries, grammars and guides to usage and it is taught in the school system
at all levers. It is almost exclusively the language of printed matter. Because educated English is
thus accorded implicit social and political sanction, it comes to be referred as Standard English.
In contrast with Standard English, Forms that are especially associated with uneducated
(rather than dialectal) use are generally called Non standard.

3. Varieties According To Field Of Discourse

The field of discourse is the type of activity engaged in through language. A speaker of
English has a repertoire of varieties according to field and switches to the appropriate one as
accession requires. The number of varieties that speaker command depends upon their profession,
training and interests. Typically the switch involved nothing than turning to the particular set of
lexical items habitually used for handling the field in question. Thus in connection with repairing a
machine: nut, bolt, wrench and the like. But there are grammatical correlates to field variety as
well. To take a simple example, the imperatives in cooking recipes: pour the liquid into a bowel,
not you should or you might care to still less the cook should…….
or the omission of direct object that is common in instructional language in general; Bake at 456o;
keep (this bottle) away from children more complex grammatical correlates are to be found in the
language of technical and scientific description the passive is common and clauses are often nominal
zed’ thus not usually; You can rectify this fault if you insert a wedge………
but rather: Rectification of this fault is achieved by insertion of a wedge….
More radical grammatical differences are found in the language of legal documents:

16
Provided that such payments are aforesaid shall be a condition precedent to the exercise of
the option herein steadied-----and in newspaper headlines.
Development plan for Harlem fought.
The type of language required by choice is broadly independent from the variables (dialect,
national standard) already discussed. Some obvious contingent constraints are however
emerging: the use of a specific variety of one class frequently presupposes the use of a
specific variety of another. The use of a well – formed legal sentence, for example,
presupposes an educated variety of English.

4. Varieties According To Medium

The only varieties according to medium that we need to consider are those conditioned by
speaking and writing respectively. Since speech is the primary or natural medium for linguistic
communication, it is reasonable to focus on the differences imposed on language when it has to
be expressed in a graphic (and normally visual) medium instead. Most of these differences
arouse from two sources. One is situational: the use of a written medium normally presumes the
absence of the person(s) to whom the piece of language is addressed. This imposes the necessity
of a far greater explicitness: the careful and promise completion of a sentence, rather than the
casual expression supported by gesture and terminating when speaker are assured by word or
look that their hearers have understood. As a corollary, since the written sentence is evanescent)
writers tend to anticipate criticism by writing more concisely as well as more carefully as well as
more carefully and elegantly than they may choose to speak.
The second source of differences is that many of the devices we use to transmit language by
speech (stress, rhythm, intonation, tempo, for example) are impossible to represent with the
relatively limited repertoires of conventional or ethnography. They are difficult enough to
represent even with a special prosodic notation. As a consequence writers often have to
reformulate their sentences to convey fully and successfully what they want to express within the
orthographic system. Thus instead of the spoken sentence with a particular intonation nucleus on
John one might have to rephrase the sentence in writing to convey the intended focus:
JOHN didn’t do it.
It was not in fact John that did it.

17
The advantage is not on who side, however: the written medium has the valuable distinctions of
paragraphs, italics, quotation marks, etc. Which have no clear analogue of speech?

5. Varieties According To Attitude

Varieties according to attitude constitute like field and medium varieties a range of English
any section of which is in principle available at will to any individual speaker of English irrespective
of the regional variant or national standard he may habitually use. This present class of varieties is
often called ‘stylistics ‘ but style like register is a term which is used with several different meanings
We are here concerned with the choice of linguistic form that proceeds from our attitude to the
hearer (or reader) to the topic and to the purpose of communication. We recognize a gradient in
attitude between FORMAL Creatively Shift, Cold, Polite , Impersonal) on one hand and
INFORMAL (relatively relaxed, warm, rude, friendly) on the other. The corresponding linguistic
contrasts involve both grammar and vocabulary for Example.
Overtime emoluments are not available for employees who are non-resident---
Staff members who don’t live in can’t get paid overtime---
While many sentences like the foregoing can be rated’ more formal’ or more informal’
in relation to each other it is useful to pursue the notion of the common come here , so that we
can acknowledge a median or un marked variety of English, bearing no obvious colouring that
has been induced by attitude. For example:
This students work is now much better and seems likely to go on improving on each side of
this NEUTRAL (and normal) English, we may usefully distinguish sentences containing features
that are marked formal or informal. It should be realized that the neutral term often covers items’
in one or the other extreme as well. For example contractions such as didn’t are appropriate in
both informal and neutral English; they are excluded from formal English.
Mastery of such a range of attitudinal varieties seems a normal achievement for educated adults,
but it is an acquisition that is not inevitable or even easy for either the native or the foreign
learner of a language. It appears to require maturity, fact, sensitivity and adaptability. Young
native speakers at the age of five or six have, broadly speaking, one form of English that is made
to serve all purposes, whether they are speaking to their mother, their pots, friends, or an aged
neighbor,. And although this invariant language can cause parents tunings of embarrassment, it
is generally recognized that it is a limitation that the child will grow out of.

18
Foreign learners are in a somewhat similar position until their skill in the language is really very
advanced one final point on altitude varieties. As with the English dictated by field and medium,
there are contingency constraints in their normal selection of attitudinal variety. Just as statute
drafting (Field) normally presupposes writing (Medium), so also it presupposes a particular
attitude variety. In this case very formal similarly it would be hard to imagine an appropriate
football commentary on the radio being other than (Informal or a radio commentary on the
funeral of a head of state being other than formal, though both are in the same medium (Speech).

6. Varieties According To Interference

A very different type of variation applies to spokes of English as a second language or
foreign language. The variation is caused by into force from another language. The Frenchman
who says I am here since Thursday is imposing a French grammatical usage of English : the
Russian who says .There are four assistants in our chair of mathematic is imposing a
Russian lexico–semantic usage on the English would chair most obviously, we always tend ton
impose our natives phonological pattern on any foreign language we learn,
At the opposite extreme are interference varieties as that are so widespread in a
community and of such long standing that they may be thought stable and a adequate enough to
be institutionalized and hence to be regarded as narrators to be as varlets of English in theory
own right rather than stages on the way to a more nature. Like English. There is active debate on
these issues in India, Pakistan and several African countries, where efficient friary stable
Varieties of English are prominent in educated use at the highest political and professional level
and are beginning to acquire the status of national standards. The now cultural setting for the use
of English has produced considerable changes: different notions of appropriate style and
rhetoric, and influx loan words, changes of meaning, and now expressions.
We can also recognize regional supranational varieties such as south Asian English, East
Africa English, and West African English, and these in turn may share characteristics. For
example in African English and to some extent in south Asian English, yes is commonly used in
a negative reply that confirms the speaker’s assumption in a negative question
A! Isn’t she in bad?
B! Yes (she isn’t)

19
 Activity

➢
explain the concept of regional variation
➢
give varieties that can come forth due to variations in medium

➢
Outline the varieties arising due to variation according to
field of discourse

Summary

In this lecture, we have learnt the meaning of linguistic variation. We

have also seen reasons why speakers choose certain linguistic
variables in speech as well as outlining various linguistic variations

20
 LECTURE 4 - LANGUAGES IN CONTACT

Introduction
When languages come together in the society, various linguistic events take place. These
languages affect each other in unique ways that will be discussed in this lecture.

Objectives

By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

1. define language maintenance
2. explain the meaning of language shift
3. explain the concept of language death

Language Contact: Language Maintenance

Maintenance is a term that is used in relation to language contact. When the speakers of
different languages (speech communities) come into contact and thus interact, then obviously
their languages too come in contact.
Language maintenance can be viewed as the direct opposite of language shift. Language
shift simply means that a community gives up a language completely in favor of another one.
Thus the members of the community when the shift has taken place have collectively chosen a
new language where an old one used to be used.
In language maintenance, the community collectively decides to continue using the
language or languages it has traditionally used.

21
 If the members of a speech community are monolingual and are not collectively
acquiring another language, then they are obviously maintaining their language use pattern
(Fasold, Ralph: 1984).
Maintenance, however, is often a characteristic of bilingual or mulit-lingual communities
as well. This only happens when the community is diglossic. ‘Diglossic’ comes from, ‘diglossia’,
a term which was first used by Charles Ferguson in 1959. Diglossia is a situation where two
varieties of a language exist side by side throughout the community with each having a definite
role to play (Ferguson 1972:232). Hence language maintaining multi-lingual communities
reserve each language for certain domains with very little encroachment of one language on the
domains of the others.
It should be noted that it is not possible to make a discrete separation between
bilingualism as a societal and individual phenomenon particularly in the treatment of certain
aspects of bilingual behavior such as borrowing and interference.
Borrowing is a collective and systematic whereas interference is contingent and
individual; it can be idiosyncratic.
Usually, the more powerful groups in any society are able to force their language upon
the less powerful.
There are certain salient factors that influence the maintenance of a language. They include
the following:
• Demographics
The numerical strength of the group in relation to other minorities and majorities. Those groups
with bigger numerical strength are better placed to pressure its language. If there are Kamba
speakers interacting with speakers of the Kikuyu language the most likely Kikuyu will be
maintained in this particular case. But it should be noted that it is not always the case that
numerical strength guarantees maintenance.
• Social class.
The social class of a certain speech community determines its maintenance shift or death. A
higher language or more prestigious obviously is better placed to uphold maintenance in relation
to a lower language.
• Religious and educational background.

22
Certain religions have a wider following hence being able to assert itself. Strong educational
background of certain speech communities may have a positive bearing on language
maintenance.
• Settlement patterns
Certain settlement patterns help to maintain certain languages. Speech communities that live in
the rural setting rarely lose their language. On the contrast most speakers who live in the urban
areas are likely to lose their L1 and this is taken over by Swahili, English and Sheng.
• Ties with homeland
Speech communities who maintain strong ties with their homeland are more likely to maintain
their language. This is due to the fact they readily relate and associate with their fellow speech
community members.
• Degree of similarity between the minority and majority language,
Certain similar languages can favour the maintenance of the other but others readily swallow
another as in the case of the Suba language getting swallowed by the Dholuo.
• Policy towards language
If a government of the day puts in strong policy on language this is likely to favor the
maintenance of a language.
• Education of minorities
If a minority speech community is given education opportunities then chances are that they get
empowered and won’t likely have a language shift that easily.
• Patterns of language use
Should a government put in measures to warrant vibrant use of a certain or languages then
maintenance is quite guaranteed.
The factors above therefore influence maintenance of language. There are certain factors that do
guarantee the maintenance of language as discussed below.
• Identity and positive attitude
If a certain speech community identifies itself with a certain language and embraces a positive
attitude towards it then maintenance is guaranteed.
This has worked in Ireland where the necessity of using English has empowered antipathy
towards English and English speakers.
• Accommodation

23
If a majority group develops a positive attitude towards a minority group then maintenance is
guaranteed. Thus if speakers of the minority language manage to find an ecological niche in the
majority community, which is conducive to language maintenance, they may have better
survival.
Hamp (1980), explains the success of Albanian enclaves in Italy and their failure in
Greece in security safe places for their language by noting the differences in cultural ideology
between Italy and Greece. In Italy, a localist attitude prevails, with each region valuing its own
local dialect while in Greece, a more exclusionist policy is pursued.

Language Contact: Language Shift

Language shift sometimes referred to as language transfer or replacement or assimilation
is the progressive process whereby a speech community of a language shifts to speaking another
language The rate of assimilation is the percentage of individuals with a given mother tongue
who speak another language more often in the home .For instance in America native languages
have also undergone extreme shift since the first contact with Europeans.
The most recent language shift in china is the disappearance of the Manchu language.
When China was under the Manchurian rule, Manchu and Chinese had co-official status
.However the Chinese language was culturally so strong that Manchurian rulers began to prefer
Chinese to Manchu. It is believed that the Qianlong Emperor and his successors though
ethnically Manchurian were more proficient in Chinese than in Manchu. Manchurian people
completely dropped their own language. Today there are fewer than 100 native speakers of
Manchu.
In the Philippines Spanish speaking families have gradually switched over to English
since the end of world war two until the former [Spanish]eventually ceased to be a practical
everyday language in the country.

Reasons for Language Shift

Language shift involves bilingualism [often with diglossia] as a stage on the way to
monolingualism in a new language Thus existence of bilingualism, diglossia and code switching
are cited as factors leading to language shift and death.

24
 Where a mixed language community exists the loss rate is highest. For example in mixed
marriages there are usually shifts to the majority language. For instance mothers in mixed
marriages have a better chance of passing Welsh to their children than Welsh speaking fathers
according to the household and language composition based on 1981 census data.
The degree of isolation of a community is an important factor in language shift the world
over. This can work to maintain as well as to undermine a language. It can favour shift if for
example is an immigrant community which has lost ties with the mother country .it can also
favour maintenance if the group members do not have to interact with members of the dominant
language group.
The degree of linguistic similarity between the minority and majority language may
facilitate or hinder shift. In Australia the similarity between Dutch and English may have aided
acquisition of English (Betton 1981). However, there has been a large shift from Maltese, which
is a Semitic language unrelated to English.
Effects of Language Shift
Joshua Fishman (1999) argues that language shift especially when it involves loss of the
first language can led to cultural disintegration and a variety of social problems including
increased alcoholism, dysfunctional families and increased incidences of premature death
Language shift also allows greater communication and integration of isolated groups
previously unable to communicate .This could have a positive effect in the long term.
Fishman proposed a method of reversing language shift which involves assessing the
degree to which a particular language is disrupted in order to determine the most effective way of
assisting and revitalizing the language.

Language Contact: Language Death

Related terms: language extinction; linguicide; glottophagy
This process affects speech communities where the level of linguistic competence that the
speakers possess of a language is reduced or decreased. It can also mean that the existence of
language ceases altogether.
The process can result in no native or fluent speakers of a certain language variety, idiom
or dialects.
Language death can manifest itself in a three major ways:

25
 a) Bottom To Top Language Death – this is when a language begins to change at a low
level pace such as the home. The family is the basic building unit of a society and this
includes language wise. An instance of this is when two parents bring up their child at an
urban setting like Nairobi where the lingua franca is either English or Swahili. The child
may not learn the mother tongue of his parents or even get caught between the mother
tongue and the lingua francas. A child who has two parents of different ethnicities may
also get caught between the two languages and hence never get to learn any of these
language well meaning that that is one less speaker of a native language.

b) Top To Bottom Language Death – this is where a language begins to die from a high
level like a government institution. If the Kenyan government were to ban the speaking
of mother tongue in all public schools, it would inevitably lead to a slow language
death. The present constitution enforces English and Swahili as the official languages of
the nation and this is bound to have an effect on the long term effect on the native
languages of Kenya.

c) Linguicide (sudden language death) – the causes of this phenomenon is genocide or

mass murder or killing of members of a certain language group. In the case of the
Rwanda genocide of 1994, if the Hutus had managed to eliminate the entire Tutsi
community, the Tutsi language could have also disappeared with the genocide. The
atomic bombs that were dropped in Japan had the capacity to eliminate the Japanese
peoples and that could also have heralded the extinction of the Japanese language.

Another process is one where a community, formerly monolingual, becomes bilingual

and changes allegiance to a new language. In Tanzania, the advent of the acceptability of the
English language as a language of communication and as the language of instruction in
schools will have a long term bearing on the existence of the Swahili language which has been
the only lingua franca of the whole country.
A community that is not endowed with numbers can also assimilate the culture and
language of the surrounding communities. In Kenya, the Ogiek community has had this kind of
experience. The Ogiek that live in Kenya have assimilated to the Gĩkũyũ language as well as
their way of life. The ones in Northern Tanzania have assimilated to the Maasai language and

26
their culture too. This has resulted in the extinction of the Kinare dialect and has also left
the Akiek and Sogoo dialects endangered.
A language is declared dead when the last native speaker of that language is dead. Research
done by Steve Connor (2009) shows that out of the 7000 languages of the world, 357 have fewer
than 50 speakers while 46 have only 1 native speaker. A good example of this idea is in Alaska
where in 2008, the state buried Marie Smith Jones (89) who was the last native speaker of the Eyak
language. By burying her, they were also bidding goodbye to the Eyak language.
Another phenomenon that leads to language death is when there are only a few
elderly people remaining who are the native speakers of a language but they no longer use
that native language for communication; in which case the language is considered dead.
Cultural transmission is an important element in passing of a language from one
generation to the next. When parents fail to teach their children their native language as their
primary language of communication, this process of cultural transmission is decidedly severed.
This also leads to language death. One of the agents of this tragedy is urbanization, migration
and globalization. The Dinka of South Sudan to live in Kenya as refugees will not teach their
children the Dinka language as effectively as they would if they were in their native
environment.
Language death can also result from being relegated to the domain of traditional use. This
means that a language only becomes important when the traditional practices of a society and its
rituals are taking place. These traditional practices include religious and cultural ceremonies;
weddings and funerals; circumcision and rites of passage ceremonies. The members of these
communities switch to another language to carry out their normal daily activities slowly leading
to the Death Of Their Native Language.

Examples of Death Processes

1. Overgeneralization – here, the members lose the finer details of their native language
and only preserve the superordinate terms. For instance, in Gĩkũyũ, the children can
retain one term ‘mbũri, to refer to all animals that are goat or sheeplike and forget the
specific terms used to refer to these family of animals such as ‘mwatĩ’- female sheep,
‘harika’ – female goat, ‘thenge’ – male goat, ‘ndũrũme’ – male sheep and so forth. A

27
 child can even refer to all vehicles as ‘gari’ – car in Swahili or even call every
man ‘daddy’ even when these men are not his father.

2. Undergeneralization – a child can make assumptions about his environment especially

in the homestead where he lives that the names of objects in his house refer to those
things only and not others outside his environment. For example, a child can call their
pet cat ‘nyau’ in Gĩkũyũ but fail to call other cats using the same name and think that
there is another term for other cats outside his home.

3. Loss Of Phonological Contrasts – here, a language that marks a difference between two
sounds ceases to mark that difference. An example of this is the two sounds [f] and [m]
in the Gĩkũyũ language where the speakers start to use them in the style of free variation.
The can have ‘thamuni’ and ‘thafuni’ (soap) and the two have the same meaning. Other
examples are [a] and [u] as in ‘thaburia’ and ‘thuburia’ (sufuria); [k] and [g] in ‘okoka’
and ‘ogoka’ (create space) and ‘kwifanga’ and ‘gwifanga’ (sort yourself out).

4. Changes In Word Order – every language has a system or arranging words and phrases.
In English, the adjective can come before the noun as an attributive adjective or after the
noun as a predicative adjective. In Gĩkũyũ, adjectives come after the noun, for example,
‘mũthuri(n) mwega(adj)’ meaning ‘good husband’. If the speakers of this language start
to put the adjective before the noun as in ‘mwega mũthuri’, here begins the process of
language death; structurally speaking.

5. Morphological Loss – in language morphology, every language has a pattern of

forming plurals and tenses. These patterns make use of affixes. If, for instance, Gĩkũyũ
marks plurality morphologically as in ‘mũndũ’ (person)- ‘andũ (many people) and users
start to mark it by introducing a word that shows plurality such as ‘mũndũ aingĩ’(many
people) which is not how the language forms the plural, there begins the process of
language death.

6. Loss of word formation productivity – a language can begin its death process by failing to
introduce new words by any process; say coinage, borrowing, semantic shift among others.
New words always excite the speakers of a language and they make the language feel alive
and productive. In Gĩkũyũ, there is a new word that has created a buzz and

28
 razzmatazz in the last two or so months. The word is ‘momo’ intended to signify ‘a
physically big woman who behaves like a spendthrift sugar mummy’ and every Gĩkũyũ
speaker is talking about it. The vernacular radio stations have been discussing the
word. There is even a song about that word. When this feature of productivity is lost
from a language, the process of language death begins.

7. Loss of style – the death process can be accelerated when language that is connected
with a tribe’s rituals is slowly lost. When the speakers of a certain language stop to use in
in proverbs, songs, poetry, riddles and such items, the language slowly begins to die.

8. Morphological levelling – this is when in the process of word formation such as

inflection and word formation, some morphemes are generalized beyond their range.
These could be plural markers or even past tense markers. In English, the speakers could
start to add the plural morpheme ‘s’ to mark plural for all words ignoring the others like
‘-es’, and ‘-ies’ and the irregular plural formation

e.g. in foot – foots

man – mans

ox – oxs

formula – formulas and so forth.

This could be in an attempt to reduce the complexity of the language.

Past tense markers could also be generalized where ‘become – becomed’, ‘see –
seed’, ‘take – taked’ among others.

In Gĩkũyũ, there is a common tendency in children to add the plural marker ‘ma’ to
all nouns in an effort to form the plural. For instance:

Mũndũ (person)– mamũndũ (persons)

Ngari (car) – makari (cars)

Metha (table) – mametha (tables)

29
 Activity

➢
Outline five language death processes
➢
Give three ways why language maintenance occurs

➢
Discuss ways in which language shift happens

Summary

In this lecture we have discussed the three concepts of language

contact. These are language maintenance, language shift and
language death as well as given the motivating factors of these
linguistic phenomena.

30
 LECTURE 5 - BILINGUALISM AND MULTI-LINGUALISM

Introduction
In this lecture we are going to learn about two linguistic concepts and these are bilingualism
and multilingualism. Both are motivated by the fact that many societies of the world use more
than one language in the linguistic transactions.

Objectives

By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

1. explain the concept of bilingualism
2. give various ways of looking at multilingualism
3. outline the advantages of bilingualism and multilingualism

BILINGUALISM
Bilingualism is the ability of a person to speak two languages or a community whose
members have the ability to speak two languages. It can also refer to the political or
institutional recognition of two languages. A person who is able to speak two languages is
called a bilingual person.
How People Become Bilingual
There are several ways in which people become bilinguals as illustrated below:
➢
By acquiring two languages at the same time in childhood or by learning a second
language sometimes after acquiring their first language.

31
 ➢
Children can also become bilingual if their parents speak more than one language to
them or if some other significant persons in their lives. (Such as a grandparent or
caretaker) speaks to them consistently in another language.

➢
Sometimes a child grows up in a household in which each parent speaks a different
language .In that case the child may learn to speak to each parent in that parent’s
language. It is possible to learn a second language sometimes after early childhood but
the older you get , the harder it is to learn to speak a new language. Critical period
during which a child can easily acquire any language is between birth until puberty.

Many bilingual people grow up speaking two languages .Often in America such people
are the children of immigrants. These children grow up speaking their parents’ native language
in their childhood home while speaking English at school. Types of bilingualism

a) Societal bilingualism – this is when a society uses two languages. The method of
employing these languages can however differ. There can be one situation where there
are two distinct groups speaking two different languages. There can also be all the
members of a certain society having the command of two languages. The last situation
is where there is one group being bilingual and the other being monolingual.
b) Individual bilingualism – this is when an individual speaks more than one language.
There is the category of those who have writing, speaking, listening and reading a
certain language. Bloomfield argues that a bilingual person should possess native-like
control of two or more languages. Weinreich states that a bilingual person should have
the capacity to alternately use two languages. MacNamara has the view that a bilingual
is someone who has some second language skills in one of the four modalities in
addition to his first language skills.

Importance of Bilingualism
i. It benefits the child’s cognitive development.

ii. If the child is an immigrant, the family may speak their native language at home
while the child is taught in English at school. This will promote cultural identity as
the child will still speak in his own native language.

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 iii. For people of any age or profession, knowing a second language encourages
cross-cultural awareness and under-standing.

iv. Job opportunities. Bilinguals have an advantage in the international job market.

Disadvantages
i. Bilingual education is very costly; it costs much more to educate minority
language students in bilingual classes than it does to teach dominant languages.

ii. Because bilingualism in the United States is often indexed with immigrants, the term
‘bilingual child’ may imply poor or uneducated.

Official bilingualism in Canada

Canada’s official languages are English and French which have equality of status, equal
rights and privileges as they are used in all institutions of parliament and the government of
Canada. According to Canada’s constitution, official bilingualism is the term used in Canada to
collectively describe the policies, constitutional provisions and laws which give English and
French a special legal status over other languages in Canada and courts parliament.

MULTILINGUALISM
This is the act of using or promoting the use of multiple languages either by an individual
speaker or by a community of speakers .Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers
in the world’s population.
Multilingualism is also referred to as polyglottism. Polyglots are people who speak
several languages. This has become a social phenomenon governed by the needs of
globalization and cultural openness.
A multilingual person in a broad sense or definition is one who can communicate in
more than one language, be it actively through speaking, writing, or signing or passively through
listening, reading or perceiving.
Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during
childhood i.e. first language (L1) or mother tongue .This is acquired without formal education.

33
Even if someone is highly proficient in two or more languages his or her so-called
communicative competence or ability may not be as balanced.

Types of Multilingual Competence

1. Compound bilinguals-to this group words and phrases in different languages are the
same concepts. For instance for a French English speaker of this type ‘dog’ and ‘chien’
are two words for the same concept

2. Coordinate bilinguals - to this group words and phrases in the speakers mind are all
related to their own unique concepts. Thus one has different associations for ‘dog’ and
‘chien’. In this speakers one language usually the first language is more dominant than
the others and the first language may be used to think through the second language.

3. Receptive multilingualism - These are those who have the ability to understand a second
language but do not speak it. It may occur when a child thinks that the community
language is more prestigious than the language spoken within the household and chooses
to speak to their parents in the community language only.

In multilingual societies, not all speakers need to be multilingual. Some states can
be multilingual policies and recognize several official languages, such as Canada (English
and French). In some states particular languages may be associated with particular regions
in the states e.g. in Canada or with particular ethnicities e.g. in Malaysia and Singapore.

When all speakers are multilingual linguists classify the community according to
the functional distribution of the languages involved.

Multilingual Countries and Regions

KENYA -English and Kiswahili (official language)other indigenous languages

ETHIOPIA –Amharic(official) and 100 other tribal languages.

ERITREA-no official language with two dominant language families i.e.

34
 1 .Semitic languages .e.g. Arabic, Tigrinya, Tigre and dahlik

2. Cushitic languages e.g Afar, Beja, Blin and Saho

There is the use of English Kunama,Nara,Amharic and Italian

DJIBOUTI –Arabic, French, Somali and Afar

SOUTH AFRICA-Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Sotho, Swana, Swat, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa
, Zulu , and other immigrant languages from Asia, Africa and Europe.

NIGERIA -English (official) ,Yoruba Hausa ,Ibo ,and other 100 ethnic languages.

Activity

➢
How does a person move from monolingualism to bilingualism?
➢
Give the importance of bilingualism to a person

➢
Describe the three types of multilingual competence

35
Summary

In this lecture, we have learnt the linguistic concepts of

bilingualism and multilingualism and the reasons and processes
that create an arena for the two concepts to happen.

36
 LECTURE 6 - INTERACTION OF LANGUAGE AND
SOCIETY; INTERACTION OF LANGUAGE AND
CULTURE; LANGUAGE AND HUMAN
INTERACTION

Introduction

In this lecture, we are going to learn how language interacts with society, how it interacts
with culture as well as language and human interaction.

Objectives

By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

1. Relate language with culture

2. Give reasons why language is an integral part of

human interaction

3. Describe the connection between language and society

Interaction of Language and Society

Sociolinguistics is the term used to talk about the interaction between language and
society. This is a broad area of investigation that developed through the interaction of linguistics
with a number of other academic disciplines. It has strong connections with anthropology
through the study of language and culture, and with sociology through the investigation of the
role language plays in the organization of social groups and institutions. It is also tied to social
psychology, particularly with regard to how attitudes and perceptions are expressed and how in-

37
group and out-group behaviors are identified. We use all these connections when we try
to analyze language from a social perspective.
Language is closely tied up with the social structure and value system of the society such
as in the area of dialects and accents. Different accents are evaluated differently. Some are
associated with more prestige than others. For instance, Standard English has more status than
other English dialects. Cultural aspects are also of concern such as multilingualism, language
and gender, kinship and its terms, language and sex and so forth.
Trudgill narrates what is supposed to happen when two Englishmen come face to face in
a railway compartment. The reason they talk about the weather and politics is because they both
find the topics interesting. Another reason is to avoid being silent with a stranger. These are
neutral topics that are convenient for breaking the ice. This is the social function of language;
that it can be used to establish and maintain relationships. One of the partakers of this
conversation might also have a subconscious need to know the other person’s social status. The
other person’s speech can be a pointer of the person’s background. Every time we talk, we give
clues about our nature.

Interaction of Language and Culture

We use the term culture to refer to all the ideas and assumptions about the nature of
things and people that we learn when we become members of social groups. It can be defined as
‘socially acquired knowledge’. This is the kind of knowledge that, like our first language, we
initially acquire without conscious awareness. We develop awareness of our knowledge, and
hence of our culture, only after having developed language.
The particular language we learn through the process of cultural transmission provides
us, at least initially, with a readymade system of categorizing the world around us and our
experience of it. With the words we acquire, we learn to recognize the types of category
distinctions that are relevant in our social world. Very young children may not initially think
of ‘dog’ and ‘horse’ as different types of entities and refer to both as bow-wow. As they
develop a more elaborated conceptual system along with English as their first language, they
learn to categorize distinct types of creatures as a dog or a horse.
In native cultures of the Pacific, there were no horses and, not surprisingly, there were no
words for them. In order to use words such as dog or horse, rain or snow, father or uncle, week

38
or weekend, we must have a conceptual system that includes these people, things and ideas as
distinct and identifiable categories. Although there is a lot of variation among all the individual
‘dogs’ in our experience, we can use the word dog to talk about any one of them as a member
of the category. A category is a group with certain features in common and we can think of the
vocabulary we learn as an inherited set of category labels. These are the words for referring to
concepts that people in our social world have typically needed to talk about. It is tempting to
believe that there is a fixed relationship between the set of words we have learned (our
categories) and the way external reality is organized.
However, evidence from the world’s languages would suggest that the organization of
external reality actually varies to some extent according to the language being used to talk
about it. Some languages may have lots of different words for types of ‘rain’ or kinds of
‘coconut’ and other languages may have only one or two. Although the Dani of New Guinea
can see all colors of the spectrum, they only use names for two of them, equivalents of ‘black’
and ‘white’. Eskimos have names for those two, plus red, green and yellow. English has names
for those five colors, plus blue, brown, purple, pink, orange and gray. It seems that languages
used by groups with more technology have more color terms.
Using this difference between the number of basic color terms in languages, we can say
that there are conceptual distinctions that are lexicalized (‘expressed as a single word’) in one
language and not in another. In some languages, the equivalent of the word father is used not
only for ‘male parent’, but also for ‘male parent’s brother’.
In English, we use the word uncle for this other type of individual. We have lexicalized the
distinction between the two concepts. Yet, we also use the same word (uncle) for ‘female parent’s
brother’, whereas other languages may use a separate word to capture that concept.
In Norwegian, the distinction between ‘male parent’s mother’ (farmor) and ‘female
parent’s mother’ (mormor) is lexicalized, but in English the word grandmother is generally
used for both. To take a more complex example, when we learn a word such as week or
weekend, we are inheriting a conceptual system that operates with amounts of time as common
categories. Having words for units of time such as ‘two days’ or ‘seven days’ shows that we can
think of time in amounts, using noun phrases, in the same way as ‘two people’ or ‘seven books’
(i.e. physical objects). In another world view, time may not be treated in this way.

39
 In the Hopi language, spoken in Arizona, time is not typically expressed in amounts. The
idea in We were there for two days is more likely to be expressed in a way that would be similar
to We left after the second day. In the conceptual system underlying the Hopi view of time, as
expressed in their language, events are more likely to be described as points at which things
change rather than as amounts of time. Traditionally, there was no word for ‘Saturday and
Sunday’ as a unit of time. There was no ‘weekend’.

Language and Human Interaction

Human language is unique in comparison to other forms of communication, such as those

used by non-human animals. Human language is based on a dual code, where a finite number of
meaningless elements such as sounds, letters or gestures can be combined to form units of
meaning (words and sentences). These symbols and grammatical rules of any particular language
are largely arbitrary, meaning that the system can only be acquired through social interaction.
Through speech, one person conveys information by inserting it into words and sending them
along a communicative channel. People receive the words at the other end and extract the
encoded thoughts and feelings from them.

Language is largely a vehicle whereby interactants make propositions about the world.
It can be said to be a site of social activity. One of the characteristics is cultural transmission.
This means that language is learned in a society through interaction with other members of the
society. These interactions with other human beings through language also give importance to
communicative events. As members of a society interact, it is usually with a purpose that can be
seen once the communicative even has been completed.

Language is also an avenue where through interaction; members exchange information

about their environment or the business of the day. Power, class, seniority, closeness, distance,
love, hate and other human emotions are sent and received through human interaction. This
can be through spoken language, written language, sign language as well as the use of space
(proxemics), colour, use of time (chronemics), use of touch (haptics), facial expressions,
gestures, body movements and so forth.

40
 There is no limit as to the number or amount of information that can be exchanged
through various forms of language among human beings. In conclusion, without language,
no interaction or contact can be made with other interactants.

Activity

➢
What is the relationship between language and culture?
➢
How does language aid human interaction?
➢
Why is language an important part of every society?

Summary

In this lecture, we have seen the ways in which language interacts with
the society, culture and how it is a central part of human interaction.

41
 LECTURE 7 - LANGUAGE IN DEVELOPING NATIONS

Introduction
In this lecture, we are going to discuss language in developing nations. We shall also look
at specific African countries and beyond and examine the state of language at present.

Objectives

By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

1. Show the linguistic influence of former colonizers on
developing countries
2. Explain how Britain has had a tremendous influence on
Kenya in terms of language
3. Outline the various commissions on the present state of
English in Kenya

Language in Developing Nations

In many developing countries of the world, there exists native ethnic languages that have
been there from the beginning of those societies. This can be a situation of monolingual,
bilingual or multilingual societies coupled with the presence of many dialects. It is a common
similarity in many of these countries than they were colonized by European countries and as a
result, European languages such as English, French, Italian, Spanish and such others became
part of the local language situation. Some of the developing countries adopted the newly
introduced languages as their official languages.
Foreign languages have even taken over as the lingua francas of many third world
countries. As a result of this language contact, many native languages have undergone language
death. Other societies have maintained their languages. Creoles and pidgins have also arisen due
to the contact between the European and local native languages.

42
Language in Kenya (The Sociolinguistic Geography of Kenya)
Language in Kenya cannot be addressed without taking a historical perspective. It has its
basis in the colonial language policy following the scramble for Africa by European powers,
which took place towards the end of the 19th Century. The boundaries of the continent were
defined by Europeans in the Berlin Conference on December 1884–January 1885. In 1886, a
joint commission comprising of representatives from powerful European nations like Britain,
Germany and France met to deliberate on the Zanzibar’s Sultan authority in the East African
Coast.
This led to the partitioning of African nations culminating in the European colonization. Kenya
became part of the British East Africa Protectorate. There were several issues that the British had
to consider in order to facilitate their rule in the colonies. Among these were language and
educational policies. The colonial language policy in Kenya is important putting into
consideration that it impacted greatly on post-colonial language policy.
Contrary to the long held postulation that it was the objective of the colonial government
to promote English language in the colony, the colonial language policy was always inchoate and
vacillating such that there were occasions that measures were put in place to promote or deter its
learning. However, such denial inadvertently provided a stimulus for Kenyans to learn English
considering that they had already taken cognizant of the fact that it was the launching pad for
white collar jobs. This can be said to have been the genesis of English’s hegemonic and
divisionary tendencies, between the elite (those who could use it) and the masses (those who
could not use it).
While barely a quarter of the Kenyan population can adequately use English, it remains the
advantaged official language and the medium of instruction in the education system, unlike
Kiswahili, the co-official language. However, while the leadership appears comfortable with this
linguistic situation and would wish to have the status quo maintained, the linguistic situation among
lay Kenyans demonstrates that not all is well on the ground. It is for this reason that they have
started both mediation and contestation of linguistic hegemony as perpetrated by both English and
Kiswahili, the regional lingua franca. Mediation and contestation took place through abrogation as
exemplified by Ngugi wa Thiongo’s shift to writing in Kikuyu instead of English;

43
appropriation in form of code-mixing, code-switching or laissez-faire use of non-standard
language; and in creation as is evident in the use of argots like Sheng’ and Engsh.
When Kenya attained self rule in 1963, English was declared the official language. It was
to be used in all important governmental sectors, education inclusive. This is no wonder putting
into consideration that this policy only re-emphasized what was already in place as a result of
the colonial language policy.
The language policy in Kenya has changed through the years over successive
commissions that have proposed recommendations that have changed the language situation in
Kenya from time to time.
The new constitution provision promulgated on August 27th 2010 came up with the
following language policies that are in effect in the present time:

1. The national language is Kiswahili

2. The official languages are now English and Swahili. Swahili has been elevated.

3. All other ethnic languages have national and constitutional protection.

4. The state shall promote the diversity of indigenous Kenyan languages and protect them
including the sign language. (chapter 2 section 7)

Activity

1. Show the linguistic influence of former colonizers

on developing countries
2. Explain how Britain has had a tremendous influence on
Kenya in terms of language
3. Outline the various commissions on the present state of English

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Summary

In this lecture, we have learnt how former colonizers affected the

status of language and language policy in many developing
countries. We have also learnt the phases and the stages that Kenya
has passed through to arrive at the present language policy in the
new constitution.

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 LECTURE 8 - STANDARD AND OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

Introduction

In this lecture, we are going to learn the linguistic concepts of standard language as well
as official language.

Objectives

By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

1. Define the term standard language

2. Give the meaning of the concept ‘official language’

3. Outline the various levels used to standardize a language

Standard Language

Standard language is a language which is often associated with specific sub-groups;

usually the educated people or those people with high status and authority in the society. It
normally has specific functions. It serves the community beyond the boundaries inhabited by its
native speakers. Though native to some community, it is the dialect beyond the community. It is
the dialect used in writing, education and the language of the media.

The form of the language that has been standardized is usually a codified language that
serves as a model to a larger speech community. Codified means existence of explicit statements
of the norms of a language. There are grammars written on it, such as dictionaries especially
where variation exists. Standardization occurs when a language is put to a wider range of use and
function than it was previously. It is used in literature, by the military and in politics. A standard

46
dialect does not make that language superior to others; it is merely the preferred language in
a certain area.

Certain factors lead to the emergence of standard and also a successful implementation:

a) if the language is spoken by a prestigious group ( prestige in terms of power and

education)

b) the language has a history of literacy especially written works by great authors

c) the variety is located in an area where there is a confluence of languages

d) a language that is central from an economic perspective

Once a variety has been identified to be standard, it can be developed at different levels
of language:

a) normalization of pronunciation

b) normalization of spelling

c) setting up of a dictionary

d) standardization of registers

e) description of certain documents and texts such as letters, reports, cards and such others

Official Language

An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a

particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a country's official language refers to the
language used within its government - its courts, parliament, administration, etc. - to run its
operations and conduct its business. Since "the means of expression of a people cannot be
changed by any law", the term "official language" does not typically refer to the language used
by a people or country, but by its government.

Official status can also be used to give a language (often indigenous) a legal status even if
that language is not widely spoken. For example, in New Zealand the Maori language has

47
official status under the Maori Language Act 1987 even though it is spoken by less than five
percent of the New Zealand population.

Official language status is often connected with wider political issues

of sovereignty, cultural nationalism, and the rights of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities,
including immigrant communities.

Activity

➢
Define the term standard language
➢
Give the meaning of the concept ‘official language’

➢
Outline the various levels used to standardize a language

Summary

In this lecture, we have learnt the linguistic concepts of standard

language as well as official language. We have also seen the ways
in which a language can be standardized.

48
 LECTURE 9 – LANGUAGE POLICY

Introduction

In this lecture, we shall learn how a language is shaped by law or the constitution to enable a
country or a region meet its objectives through language use.

Objectives

By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

1. Define the term language policy
2. Explain the meaning of regional language policy
3. Give ways in which language policy can encourage or
hinder national development

National Language Policy

This is what a government does, either officially through legislation or court decisions
to determine how languages are used to cultivate language skills needed to meet national
priorities or to establish the rights of individuals or groups to use and maintain languages. In
other words, it can be said to be the language policy of a certain country.
Many countries have a language policy designed to favour or discourage the use of a
particular language or set of languages. Although nations historically have used language
policies most often to promote one official language at the expense of others, many countries
now have policies designed to protect and promote regional and ethnic languages whose viability
is threatened. For instance, Kenya has formulated a policy in the new constitution that states that
the national language is Kiswahili; the official languages are now English and Swahili; all other

49
ethnic languages have national and constitutional protection and that the state shall promote
the diversity of indigenous Kenyan languages and protect them including the sign language.

Many factors affect the existence and usage of any given human language, including the size of
the native speaking population, its use in formal communication, and the geographical
dispersion and the socio-economic weight of its speakers. National language policies can either
mitigate or exacerbate the effects of some of these factors.

Regional Language Policy

This is what a geographical entity in a country or area does through legislation to use a
certain language/ languages in order to achieve regional objectives and promote development,
unity and cooperation. A regional language is spoken in an area of a nation state, whether it is a
small area, a federal state or province, or some wider area. In some cases, a regional language
may be closely related to the state's main language or official language. In other cases, a
regional language may be very different from the state's main language or official language.
Some regional languages of minority group have regional official status. The policy makers and
the government encourage the use of a certain language to achieve the regional objectives in that
particular region.

For example, France has one main official language that is French but it has several
regional languages such as Alsatian, Catalan, Corsican, Breton, Gallo, Occitan, Tahitian some
languages of New Caledonia Basque, Dutch(West Flemish dialect, Franco-Provençal , Lorraine
Franconian, French Guiana Creole, Guadeloupean Creole and Martiniquan Creole. The French
government gives official recognition to these regional languages.

On numerous occasions, UNESCO has been invited by its Member States to monitor
regional policies on language protection and language planning for building multilingual
societies. Regional language policy is seen as a powerful political instrument for the
promotion of the co-existence of multilingualism and language diversity.

Conventions, treaties or recommendations can be reinforced at the regional level if

comprehensive language policies are developed then concrete measures are introduced,
resources are allocated, and effective tools are used by all stakeholders concerned. A number of
factors are considered when formulating regional language policy. These include:

50
1. Absolute number of speakers
2. Proportion of speakers within the total population
3. Shifts in domains of language use
4. Response to new domains and media
5. Availability of materials for language education and literacy
6. Governmental and institutional language attitudes and policies including official
status and use
7. Community members’ attitudes toward their own language
8. Amount and quality of documentation
9. Intergenerational language transmission

Activity

➢
Define the term language policy
➢
Explain the meaning of regional language policy

➢
Give ways in which language policy can encourage or
hinder national development

51
Summary

In this lecture, we have learnt how a language is shaped by law or

the constitution to enable a country or a region meet its objectives
through language use.

52
 LECTURE 10 - SOCIOLINGUISTIC
IMPLICATIONS OF MULTI-LINGUALISM IN
EAST AFRICA

Introduction

In this lecture, we shall learn the effects and consequences brought about by the fact that East
African countries are multilingual. We shall also see the challenges therein.

Objectives

1. By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

2. Explain multilingualism from an African perspective
3. Give reasons why the Tanzanian model succeeded in
bringing national unity
4. Outline implications of multilingualism in East Africa

Sociolinguistic Implications of Multi-Lingualism in East Africa

The simultaneous coexistence of a large number of languages in a country has also

important cultural, economical, sanitary and political effects on the life of its inhabitants, who
will be crucially affected by the decisions taken by the government on language policy.
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including
cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of
language use on society. Multilingualism is the act of using polyglottism, or using multiple
languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers.

53
 Many countries in east Africa have multiple native languages. Kenya has an approximate
number of 42 local language while Tanzania talks of more than 120 native languages.

The problem presented by this case of multilingualism is that national unity may not
be achieved when there is no unifying language.

In Tanzania, perhaps a greater measure of thanks should be more explicitly given to the
Germans for initiating the use of Swahili as a national language. It is intriguing to speculate that
Tanzania's current political life might have been impossible. Swahili then became a language of
self-respect in the face of western cultural and political invasion. Swahili has hence been one of
the strongest pillars of unity and national cohesion has been achieved in Tanzania.

There are many linguistic handicaps which burden the contemporary Governments of
Kenya and Uganda since they do not have an effective unifying language such as the Swahili of
Tanzania.

In Tanzania, local and native languages have never achieved the prominence and
prestige that Swahili enjoys. These native languages have not been eliminated from the cultural
scene. They have only been relegated to cultural and tribal rituals and ceremonies and they
rarely come up to the language arena at a national level.

In Kenya, the multilingual situation is a bit different. English is largely used as an

official language and Swahili has also joined this domain with the promulgation of the new
constitution. Tribal and ethnic languages have not been suppressed since the country does not
have one unifying language like in the case of Tanzania. Tribalism and nepotism are rife in this
multilingual situation since the citizens can easily recognize their kinsmen on the fact that these
ethnic languages are widely used even in the workplace.

It is common to have code switching in Kenya due to the many languages that a
person can opt to use since most Kenyan citizens are multilingual.

The language of instruction in schools in English apart from the case of Swahili
where Swahili itself is used. This has uplifted the English language as a language of prestige
and scholarship.

54
 In Uganda there are many different ethnic groups, none of whom forms a majority of the
population. Around forty different languages are regularly and currently in use in the country.
English became the official language of Uganda after independence. Ugandan English is a local
variant dialect.

The most widely spoken local language in Uganda is Luganda, spoken predominantly by
the Ganda people (Baganda) in the urban concentrations of Kampala, the capital city, and in
towns and localities in the Buganda region of Uganda which encompasses Kampala.
The Lusoga and Runyankore-Rukiga languages follow, spoken predominantly in the
southeastern and southwestern parts of Uganda respectively.

Swahili, a widely used language throughout eastern and central East Africa, was approved as
the country's second official national language in 2005, though this is somewhat politically
sensitive. Though the language has not been favoured by the Bantu-speaking populations of the
south and southwest of the country, it is an important lingua franca in the northern regions. It is also
widely used in the police and military forces, which may be a historical result of the
disproportionate recruitment of northerners into the security forces during the colonial period. The
status of Swahili has thus alternated with the political group in power. For example, Amin, who
came from the northwest, declared Swahili to be the national language.

Implications

a) Problems of nationalism - difficulties within a country can act as an impediment to

commerce and industry and be socially disruptive. This is remedied by adoption and
development of a national language. For the case of Kenya, Kiswahili has been
propagated. The national language is promoted by ensuring its acceptance by those
who are not its native speakers and ensuring that the language serves the needs of a
modern state.

b) The choice between a local language and the colonial language - If a country
settles on the old colonial language as the national language, then the chance for a
local language serving as the national language is severely threatened.

c) Multiplicity of local and ethnic languages – the three east African nations have
multiple languages to choose from in the choice of a national and official language. In

55
 addition to the challenge posed by the dominance of the colonial language, promoting
one local or ethnic language over the other may bring forth a conflict in the sense that the
community owning that language is also elevated politically which can bring strife in the
country concerned.

d) Implications within the educational system:

i) A country may decide to use various ethnic group languages. These are already
known by children hence the subject matter can be introduced immediately
without waiting until children learn the national language

ii) it gives birth to dominance of some languages over others; almost bordering on
hierarchical grading in terms of superiority within the educational system. The result
is that majority of writers and readers operate within the framework of one language.

iii) There are serious implications relating to the issue of translation of literature from one
language to another with particular reference to the whole field of oral literature.

iv) There is also language interference which occurs when one language imposes itself on
another language especially during the process of language learning and usage. The
language an individual learns first as mother tongue or as a first language (L1) will
always affect the learning and usage of any other language subsequently learnt. This
interference is at phonological, grammatical, lexical and the semantic level.

e) Maintenance Of Diversity – using ethnic languages for initial language learning and
switching to a national language for more advanced education. This ensures the
maintenance of the ethnic group language.

f) Mixing Of The Linguistic Codes Of Different Languages

Multilingual situations may also have important linguistic effects on the languages in
contact. They may cause the mixing of the linguistic codes of different languages,
resulting in lexical borrowing and he spreading of some grammatical features among
those languages.

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 g) Code Switching
This is a dominant effect of multilingualism in East Africa. Code-switching is the use of
two or more codes in the same talk exchange (Scotton and Ury 1977). The speaker uses a
switch in code as a tool to negotiate the rights and obligations set which she/he wishes to
be in effect for the exchange. The addressee uses the switch as an index of the negotiation
in which the speaker is engaged. This hypothesis will be supported by data from natural.
In the Kenyan situation, speakers change between codes to imply formality, informality,
closeness, distance, kinship and also to define human relationships.

Activity

➢
Explain multilingualism from an African perspective
➢
Give reasons why the Tanzanian model succeeded
in bringing national unity
➢
Outline implications of multilingualism in East Africa

Summary

In this lecture, we have learnt the effects and consequences

brought about by the fact that East African countries are
multilingual. We have also seen the challenges therein.

57
References
1. Romaine, S. (1994); Language in Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics; Oxford:
Oxford University Press
2. Chaika, E. (1982); Language: The Social Mirror Rowley MA Newbury House
3. Hudson, R. A. (1980); Pidgin and Creole Languages London & New York Longman
4. Radford (2007); Linguistics: An Introduction; Foundation Books Private Limited
5. James J. (2005); Learning Another Language Actions; Sky Oaks Production
6. Fishman, J. (1972); Sociolinguistics: A Brief Introduction; Rowley, M.A. Newbury
House.

58
 MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LINGUISTICS
BLA1217 - SOCIOLINGUISTICS
CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT TEST – 30 MARKS

Instructions: Answer all questions

NAME: ________________________________ REG. NO.:_________
1. Describe the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis with examples. (10 marks)

2. Who is a bilingual? (3 marks)

3. Distinguish between dialect and idiolect (4 marks)

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4. State three causes of language death (3 marks)

5. Explain the term ‘speech community’. (5 marks)

6. Briefly discuss how the sociolinguistic variable of region impacts on language variation.
(5 marks)

60