LINGUISTIC VARIETIES

AND MULITILINGUAL NATIONS

By :
# Dewi Ratna Sari
171220001
Over half the world’s population is bilingual and many
people are multilingual. They acquire a number of
languages because they need them for different purpose in
their everyday interaction.

Example: like Balinese people have many languages or

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

The selection of discussion about:

VERNACULAR LANGUAGE

T h e term vernacular is used in numbers of ways. It

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

Ex: like a children are talking with their friends used

informal language from his places.
STANDARD
LANGUAGE
T h e term standard is even more slippery then vernacular
because it too is used in many deferent ways by linguists.
He re is one definition which can serve as a useful starting
point. A standard variety is generally one which is written,
and which has undergone some degree of regularization or
codification it is recognized as a prestigious variety by a
community.

Ex: Human in their places use standard language in their

places.
LINGUA FRANCA

Lingua franca can be describe as a language

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

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

people use Balinese language.
PIDGIN

Most people have a predictable reaction to pidgin

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

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

T o sum up, a pidgin language has three identifying

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

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

“ A national language is the language of a political,

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

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

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

1. Indigenous
2.N o t the language of one of the groups
competing for dominance
3. Widely known as a second language
4. Linguistically related to most of the
vernacular languages of the population
5.Historically used as language of basic
education and many government
functions
Planning For a National Official Language

Form, Function and Attitude

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

Language history
During the medieval times Norway was an independent kingdom. T h e spoken language was
Old Norse, which also was used by the Vikings who settled in Iceland and the Faroe Islands
where the Old Norse was maintained to a much larger degree than in mainland Scandinavia.
In 1349 the Black Deat h wiped out almost one half of the Norwegian population. A s there were
only a few literate persons left, no one was present to preserve the written Norwegian language in
years to come. In 1397 Norway entered a union with Denmark that lasted until 1814. Denmark
came to be the dominating part, and Danish came to be the primary language among the Norwegian
elite. In churches the Danish Bible was used along with Danish religious books after the
reformation in 1536, and
Danish clergymen held services in Norwegian churches. T h e law was written in Danish, and all
literature, prose and poetry in Norway was written in Danish. This had a crucial effect on the
written language.
Early in the 19th century educated Norwegians wrote Danish. T h e elite in towns spoke Danish
with a Norwegian accent. Norwegian dialects were spoken by 9 5  of the population. Dialects
had developed during the four hundred years under Danish rule. D u e to the Norwegian
topography, differences had developed and distinct local dialects had emerged.
Planning For a National Official Language

Form, Function and Attitude

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

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

Language planning is defined most simply as deliberate

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