Language Choice in Multilingual
Speech Community
Abdulaziz Assanosi
Concepts
• Speech Community:
– A group of people who do not necessarily share
the same language, but share a set of norms and
rules for the use of language
• Linguistic Repertoire:
– The totality of linguistic varieties used in different
social contexts by a particular community of
speakers
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Speech Community can be:
• Monolingual
– Speaks one language.
• USA – France – Britain
• Bilingual
– Speaks two languages.
• Canada – Belgium
• Multilingual
– Speaks more than two languages
• Brazil – Morocco – Kenya
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Language Choice
• Language choice is about :
– How do people choose a variety or code in a
multilingual speech community?
• This depends on many factors.
• REMEMBER?
• Mention some.
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Domains of Language Use
• Domain DEFINITION
– Typical interactions between typical participants in
typical settings
• Participants
• Setting
• Topics
– The linguistic domain helps determine which
language (variety or code) you would use
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Factors of Language Choice
• Language Choice depends on
• Linguistic Repertoire
• Domain
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Domains of language use
(Fishman, 1972)
Domain
Participants Setting
Topic
Family
Parents
Home
Planning a
family
party
Friendship
Friends
Café
Education
Professors
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Language
Talking
about
weekend
plans
University Lecturing
linguistics
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Other Factors
• There are other factors that
influence language choice.
• Most of these factors are
social.
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Social factors affecting language choice
Participants
Setting
• In what context is the language used?
Topic
• What are the speakers talking about?
Social distance
Status
Social roles
Formality
Function/goal of the
interaction
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• Who are the speakers?
• How well do the speakers know each other?
• The social status
• Teacher-student; doctor-patient; father-son
• Formal vs. informal
• What is the language being used for?
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Checkpoint
• Define the following:
– Speech community / language choice / domain /
Linguistic Repertoire
• What are the main factors that affect language
choice?
• There are social factor that affect language
choice, name three?
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Modeling Code Choice?
• Speakers model their code choice depending
on the different factors (Domain, Participants
or Setting).
• We can draw a model for the norms of
language use in community.
• Ahmad, a teacher and Imam in Saudi Arabia
use the following Model
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A Model for the Norms of Language Use
Domain
Home/Family
Mosque
Work (School)
Café/ social gathering
(friends)
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Variety /Code
Colloquial Arabic
Standard Arabic
Standard Arabic
Colloquial Arabic
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Why Modeling Code Choice is Useful?
• 1) It forces us to be clear in what language to
use in each domain.
• 2) It Provides clear basis for comparing
patterns of code choice in different speech
community.
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Checkpoint
• How do speakers model their code choice?
• Why Modeling Code Choice is Useful?
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Diglossia
• DEFINITION
• Two distinct varieties of the
same language with one
regarded as high (or H) variety
and the other a low (or L)
variety.
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Diglossia
Two distinct
varieties of the
same language in a
speech community
High (H) variety
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Low (L) variety
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Diglossia
• Relationship between the varieties:
• H and L complement each other.
• No one uses H variety in everyday
conversation.
• It would be funny and ridiculous.
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Variation of Diglossia
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Diglossia
• Normally H variety is used in written discourse
where as L variety is used in speech.
• It is odd to use L variety in writing.
• Chat and social media made that possible
among many other changes.
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Example:
Latin
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Arabic
German
H=Classic
Latin
H=Classical
Arabic
H=high
German
L=Vulgar
Latin
L=Colloquial
Arabic
L=low
German
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Examples from English
•
•
•
•
•
•
I have finally dispatched the missive.
I have posted the letter at last.
Nobody don’t like a boss hardly
Hardy anybody likes a boss.
When ah wis a boy ma mither an faither died.
When I was a boy my mother and father died.
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Can you guess?
Situation
H or L
Literature
Public institution
Gossiping
Election campaign speech
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Conversational History In National Memorial
Examples
Nayan : oh ok .that’s great. What is your profession ? (High Variety )
Sojol : I am student in Dhamrai college and he is also same .(High
Variety )
Nayan :That’s well . now tell us something about national memorial.
(High Variety )
Masaduzzaman: That’s great this is most important place ,we should
memorized it for whole life. (High Variety )
Milon : Other things of this place , environment also awesome . (Low
variety )
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Can you think of diglossia examples in
Arabic?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Greetings?
Requests?
Apology?
Phone CALL?
Advising?
Instruction?
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Checkpoint
• What is diglossia?
• What are the two varieties of diglossia
situation?
• Describe the relationship between H and L
varieties.
• What are the domain of use of H and L?
• Give example of some language with diglossia
features?
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Attitudes towards Varieties
H variety
L variety
• Norm
• respect
• Prestigious
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• Below average
• Not very
respected
• Non-prestigious
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Attitudes towards Varieties
• People consider H variety a respectful and
admirable even if it is not understandable.
• That is because it can be described and
standardized.
• People disagree about L variety.
• Some respect it, other consider it humble or
bad and don’t deserve description.
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Diglossia & Bilingualism
• Bilingualism is a feature of individuals
(the ability to speak two Languages)
• Diglossia is a feature of speech
community, (the situation of using two
varieties of one language).
• Sometimes both features can be in one
speech community.
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Diglossia & Bilingualism
A Speech community can have:
1- Both diglossia and bilingualism
2. Bilingualism without diglossia
3. Diglossia without bilingualism
4. Neither diglossia nor
bilingualism
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Polyglossia
• Situations where two or more distinct codes
or varieties are used for clearly distinct
purposes.
• A Chinese Singaporean speaks
– English
– Chinese
• Mandarin Chinese
• Cantonese
• Hokkien
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Diglossia stability
• Diglossia is not always stable.
• H & L varieties can be stable for centuries
(Arabic).
• L may develop into H or vice versa.
• English was L variety in England while the
Norman control. They used French as the H
variety.
• This affects some English words as follows
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Diglossia stability
English
English
Sheep
Calf
Pig
Ox
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French
French
Mouton
Veau
Porc
Boeuf
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English
English
Mutton
Veal
Pork
Beef
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Checkpoint
• What are the attitudes towards diglossia
varieties?
• How do people consider H variety/L variety?
• How do diglossia affect language acquisition?
• What is polyglossia?
• Is diglossia stable? Discuss.
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End of lecture 2
•Thank You
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