Chapter 9
Change and Choice
Change and Choice
• All living languages change
– Affects all parts of language
• Phonology, morphology, semantics, orthography…
– Can come from within or from contact…
• Mechanisms of drift, borrowing, pidgins, creoles…
– Can be welcomed or resisted
• Multilingualism, diglossia, nationalism, endangered languages…
• Understanding change allows us to
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Discover relationships between languages...
Reconstruct ancient languages…
Address issues of language, dialect, and identity…
Help to protect endangered languages….
Diversification and Change
• As speakers of a language spread out
– The language diversifies into dialects
• Wash vs warsh, coffee vs cawfee, fourth vs fawth
– Eventually the dialects become different languages
• Two, deux, due, dos, dve, dva……
• As speakers of languages come into contact
– They may borrow from one another
• Safari, pajama, tomato, garage, beisbol, falasika….
– In special situations they may create new languages
• Pidgins.
Relationships Between Languages
• Languages descended from common ancestors
– Are considered ‘families’
• mother and daughter languages
– Family trees of languages
• show branches and sub-branches
• Language ‘isolates’
– Are considered sole survivors of ancient families
• Languages developed in contact situations
– Are considered unique
– Are difficult to classify.
Why Languages Change
• Prestige
– shifting to (r) in NY after WWII (Labov)
• Novelty
– bits, bytes, e-mail, mp3, imho, ‘sup
• Identity
– locals vs tourists - vowels in Cape Cod
• Contact
– Need to communicate for trade.
How Languages Change:
Sounds
• Assimilation: illegal, immoral, irresponsible
• Dissimilation: Febyuary, English vowel shift
– from [a:] to [o] (stone went from [sta:n] to [ston])
• Elision: [cloðz] to [kloz]
• Metathesis: [æsk] to [æks]
• Borrowing:
– American [] borrowed from French
– British English retained [ʤ]
How Languages Change:
Morphology/Syntax
• Misanalysis (redivision):
• an apron, a nother; -burger
• Regularization:
• dived; fishes; safaris, agendas, auditoriums
• Loss (and replacement):
• adverbs, cases, 2nd person singular pronouns
• Borrowing:
– Nudnik, chutzpah, schlep, final ‘not’ from Yiddish
• I kid you not.
How Languages Change: Words
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Narrowing: ‘deer’ once meant any small animal
Expansion: box meant specific wood box
Metaphorical shift: ‘uptight’ ‘bad’ ‘sick’ ‘gay’
Shortening: dorm, exam, prof, taxi, cab
Coining:
– acronyms: laser, snafu, phat; bff
– blending (portmanteau): slithy, brunch, smog, blog;
frenemy
• Borrowing
– tomato, potato, coyote, pajama, robot, safari, beisbol.
How Languages Change: Spelling
• Symbol shift:
– <Þ> [θ] and <đ> [ð] both replaced by <th>
• Spelling shift:
– <colour> changed to <color>
– <light> changing to <lite>
• Borrowed spellings:
– <debt> borrowed from Latin
• Old English spelling was <dette>.
Using Borrowed Words to Trace
Contact History in a Language
• Chinese word for ‘foreign’:
– Before 10th century: {hai-} (sea)
• {haitung} = crab apple
• {haizao} = date palm
– 10th century thru 16th century: {fan-} (foreign country)
• {fangie} = tomato
• {fanshiliu} = pomegranate
• {fansu} = sweet potato
– 17th century {yang-} (foreign country)
• {yangchong} = onion
• {yangjiang} = jerusalem artichoke.
How Fast Do Languages Change?
• glottochronology (lexicostatistics)
• (Swadesh 1950)
– uses “core vocabulary” lists
– assumes fixed rate of retention in each list
• 200 word list r=80%, 100 word list r=86%
– calculates when two languages separated
• (log of % of cognates times retention rate)
– often correlates with archaeological record.
Reconstructing Ancient Languages
• If languages split apart
– related languages will be similar to one another
• Irish ‘do’ Welsh ‘dau’ Greek ‘duo’ Latin ‘duo’
• Italian ‘due’ Spanish ‘dos’ French ‘deux’ German ‘zwei’
• Dutch ‘twee’ Swedish ‘tva’ Danish ‘to’ Old English
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‘twa’
Polish ‘dwie’ Russian ‘dva’ Bengal ‘dvi’ Persian ‘do’
Lithuanian ‘du’ Albanian ‘dy’…..
– [d], [t], [dv] [tv], and [dz]
– how to find the original sound?
– by using the daughter languages
– to reconstruct the mother language(s)….
Grimm’s Law
• IE [p, t, k]  Germanic [f, θ, h]
– pater  father, tres  three,
centum [kentum] hundred
• IE [b, d, g]  Germanic [p, t, k]
– labium  lip, duo  two, genus  kin
• IE [bh, dh, gh]  Germanic [b, d, g]
– bhrata  brother, rudhiras  red (etc.)
Steps in Reconstructing
(see W/R pp. 121-124)
• 1. Identify cognates (as opposed to borrowings)
– ‘words related by descent from the same language’
• will have similar meanings & sounds
– e.g. German ‘zwei’ and English ‘two’
– e.g. German ‘zehn’ and English ‘ten’
Example from Proto-Polynesian:
• Maori
• tapu
Hawaiian
kapu
Samoan
tapu
Fijian
tabu.
Reconstructing: Step 2
• 2. Develop a table of correspondence sets
M
H
S
F
t
a
p
u
k
a
p
u
t
a
p
u
t
a
b
u
Reconstructing: Step 3
• 3. Use the correspondence sets to reconstruct the
ancestral phonemes (proto-phonemes)
M
t
a
p
u
H
k
a
p
u
S
t
a
p
u
F
t
a
b
u
ancestral
*t
*a
*p
*u
Reconstructing: Step 4
• 4. Chart the ancestral sounds
consonants
vowels
stops
bilabial alveolar
*p
*t
*u
*a
You may need to go back and forth between steps
3 and 4 until the charts look right -- aim for good
balance, logical lines, in the charts.
Reconstructing: Step 5
• 5. Develop rules to explain sound changes
– from ancestral to modern sounds
Maori
Hawaiian
*t
k
Samoan
Fijian
*p
b
• Only create rules for sounds which change
• Create general rules from groups of similar rules.
Reconstructing: Step 6
• 6. Reconstruct likely ancestral words
– use the rules and the ancestral (proto) sounds
– how might each word sound in the protolanguage?
*tapu
(don’t forget the * ).
The Indo-European Family
www.zompist.com/languages.html
Other Language Families
Proto-Indo-European:
Language & Culture
• sounds
– *duwo, *treyes, *kwetores, *bhrater, *dhugeter
• morphology
– three genders: male - female - neuter
– three pronoun numbers: single, plural, dual
– eight cases
– complex tenses, modal verbs
• culture
– patrilocal residence.
Larger Groupings?
Nostratic (Shevoroshkin 1964)
• Aquitanian (Proto Basque)
• AfroAsiatic (HamitoSemitic)
– Semitic, Egyptian, Cushitic, Chadic, Berber
• KartveloEusian
– Kartvelian
– Eusian
• Sumerian
– EmeGir
– EmeSal
• Caspian
– BoreAltaic
 Altaic
 Boreal (Dravidian, Eskaleut, Yukaghir, Uralic
– IndoEtruscan
 IndeoEuropean
 EtruscoRhaetic (Etruscan, Rhaetian)
Other Possible Groupings?
• Amerind, Na-Dene, Eskimo-Aleut
– Greenberg & Ruhlen 1987
• Dene-Caucasian
– Shevoroshkin 1990.
Pidgins
• Develop in contact situations
– trading/colonization
• Are incomplete languages
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Simplified grammar
Reduced lexicon
Limited subject matter
Never used as a first language (mother tongue)
• Are hard to place on family trees
– host’s grammar
– intruder’s lexicon
• Rarely last beyond a generation or two.
Creoles
• Develop from pidgins
– Plantations, more stable speech communities
• Are complete languages
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Grammar is elaborated
Lexicon is expanded (using ‘dominant’ language)
Subject matter is broadened
Can be first language of community
• Often seen as bad version of ‘lexifier’ language
– Haitian Kreol seen as “bad” French
– African American English seen as “bad” English
• May persist long-term, become standardized
• Swahili, Haitian Kreol, AAE, Tok Pisin, (English?).
Other Ideas About Pidgins &
Creoles
• Theoretical (innatist) Linguistics:
– Develop from innate bioprogram
• Similarities to child language
• Reveal the universal grammar
• Historical Linguistics:
– Can be traced to Sabir
• 10c southern French dialect (the lingua franca)
• Was spread throughout Mediterranean by sailors
• Then spread further by European colonization.
How Ideas Can Affect Policy
• the Ebonics controversy
– Oakland school board decides AAE is a Creole
• a different language from English
• “genetically based and not a dialect of English”
– Make sure you understand what this means!
• descended from African languages
– i.e., through pidgnization-creolization process
• but treated as inferior variety of English in U.S.
– Board asks for bilingual approach in schools
• where teachers learn & use AAE to teach standard.
Bilingualism & Diglossia
• Bilingualism: using two different languages
– Who is expected to be bilingual (or multilingual)?
• Everyone? Immigrants? Minorities?
– Stable vs transitional bilingualism?
• Diglossia: using two varieties of one language
– ‘high’ and ‘low’ varieties
• formality of situation determines choice
– German & Swiss German
– Classical & Colloquial Arabic
– Marked & ‘Standard’ varieties of English?.
Code Switching
• Takes place at linguistic boundaries
– Segments are internally ‘correct’
• ‘let’s go to – la playa’
• ‘Do you want that with – au jus?’
• Also at social/cultural boundaries
– Public and private domains
– Formal and informal situations
– Can be used to mark identity, stance.
National and Ethnic Identity
• Language can be a source of division
– Basque & Spanish are two different languages
• Basque is linked to ethnic pride
• Language is used as an argument for independence
• Can language be a source of unity?
– Czechoslovakia: one language, different cultures
• Language not enough to keep country unified
– People now think in terms of Czech and Slovak languages
– China: many languages, all called Chinese
• Politics more important in keeping country unified.
Standard Languages
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Carry more social prestige
Are thought of as ‘more correct’
Are preferred for formal occasions
The choice is usually ‘arbitrary’
– the speech of an ‘upper’ class
– or a group seen as powerful, respected
• Note how the status of speakers can affect the status
of a variety
• English as a de-facto standard in the US.
Official Languages
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Recognized by the ‘state’
Are used in legal, political contexts
Are taught, used in schools
Possible to have more than one
– Switzerland has 4 official languages
– India has 2 official languages
• Does an official language create unity?…
– English-Only movements in the US
• Question: which variety of English?.
Geographic Variation:
American English Dialects
PBS: Do you speak American?
Mapping American English
Pop vs soda
The Current Situation
• 5,000-6,000 “languages” in the world
– depending on definition of language, dialect
• some still ‘undiscovered,’ undescribed
• some on the verge of extinction
• what do we lose when we lose a language?
• is English becoming a world language?
– Advantages, disadvantages?.