Linguistic Anthropology
How Languages Change
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: 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
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> [ ] 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.
Reconstructing Ancient Languages
• When languages split apart
– related languages will be similar to one another
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Irish ‘do’ Welsh ‘dau’ Greek ‘duo’ Latin ‘duo’
Italian ‘due’ Spanish ‘dos’ French ‘deux’ German ‘zwei’
Dutch ‘twee’ Swedish ‘tva’ Danish ‘to’ Old English ‘twa’
Polish ‘dwie’ Russian ‘dva’ Bengal ‘dvi’ Persian ‘do’
» how to find the original sound?
– by using the daughter languages
– to reconstruct the mother language(s)….
Loanwords
• Borrowing begins with cultural contact
– Borrowed words more exactly express ideas
– Often involves a degree of bilinguality
• Word becomes used more often
– Recognized as a foreign word
With increased use, the word becomes
conventionalized
the word has become a loanword
Latin Loanwords in English
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Ancor - 'anchor‘
Butere -'butter' (L < Gr. butyros)
Cycene - 'kitchen‘
Mil - 'mile' (milia [passuum] 'a thousand paces')
Piper -‘ pepper‘
Pund - 'pound' (pondo 'a weight')
Straet - 'street' ([via] strata 'straight way' or
stone-paved road)
These and subsequent:
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words04/structure/borrowed.html
Old English Period (600-1100)
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Latin
ceaster - 'city' (castra
'camp')
Circul - 'circle‘
Cometa - 'comet' (cometa <
Greek)
maegester - 'master'
(magister)
paper - 'paper' (papyrus,
from Gr.)
tigle - 'tile' (tegula)
Celtic
• Brocc - 'badger‘
• Cumb - 'combe, valley‘
• Plus place names, such as
London, Dover, Thames,
Avon…
Middle English Period (1100-1500)
Scandanavian
• anger, blight, by-law, cake,
call, clumsy, doze, egg,
fellow, gear, get, give, hale,
hit, husband, kick, kill, kilt,
kindle, law, low, lump, rag,
raise, root, scathe, scorch,
score, scowl, scrape, scrub,
seat, skill, skin, skirt, sky, sly,
take, they, them, their,
thrall, thrust, ugly, want,
window, wing
French
• adventure, change, charge,
chart, courage, devout,
dignity, enamor, feign, fruit,
letter, literature, magic,
male, female, mirror,
pilgrimage, proud, question,
regard, special
Also from French
• Law and government - attorney, bailiff,
chancellor, chattel, country, court, crime,
defendent, evidence, government, jail, judge,
jury, larceny, noble, parliament, plaintiff, plea,
prison, revenue, state, tax, verdict
• Church - abbot, chaplain, chapter, clergy, friar,
prayer, preach, priest, religion, sacrament,
saint, sermon
Also from French
• Military - army, artillery, battle, captain,
company, corporal, defense, enemy, marine,
navy, sergeant, soldier, volunteer
• Cooking - beef, boil, broil, butcher, dine, fry,
mutton, pork, poultry, roast, salmon, stew, veal
• “Culture” and luxury goods - art, bracelet, claret,
clarinet, dance, diamond, fashion, fur, jewel,
oboe, painting, pendant, satin, ruby, sculpture
French Finesses English
• Nobility - baron,
baroness; count,
countess; duke,
duchess; marquis,
marquess; prince,
princess; viscount,
viscountess; noble,
royal
• native English words king, queen, earl, lord,
lady, knight, kingly,
queenly
Early Modern English Period (1500-1650)
• Latin - agile, abdomen, anatomy, area,
capsule, compensate, dexterity, excavate,
expensive, fictitious, gradual, habitual, insane,
janitor, meditate, notorious, orbit, peninsula,
physician, superintendent, ultimate, vindicate
• Greek - anonymous, atmosphere, autograph,
catastrophe, climax, comedy, critic, data,
ecstasy, history, ostracize, parasite,
pneumonia, skeleton, tonic, tragedy
Early Modern English Period (1500-1650)
• A new source: Arabic
• via Spanish - alcove, algebra, zenith,
algorithm, almanac, azimuth, alchemy,
admiral
• via other Romance languages - amber, cipher,
orange, saffron, sugar, zero, coffee
Modern English (1650-present)
• French
• High culture - ballet, bouillabaise, cabernet, cachet,
chaise longue, champagne, chic, cognac, corsage, faux
pas, nom de plume, quiche, rouge, sachet, salon,
saloon, sang froid, savoir faire
• War and Military - bastion, brigade, battalion, cavalry,
grenade, infantry, pallisade, rebuff, bayonet
• Other - bigot, chassis, clique, denim, garage, grotesque,
jean(s), niche, shock
• French Canadian - chowder
• Louisiana French (Cajun) - jambalaya
Modern English (1650-present)
Spanish
armada, adobe, alligator, alpaca, armadillo,
barricade, bravado, cannibal, canyon, coyote,
desperado, embargo, enchilada, guitar,
marijuana, mesa, mosquito, mustang, ranch,
taco, tornado, tortilla, vigilante
Modern English (1650-present)
Italian
alto, arsenal, balcony, broccoli, cameo, casino,
cupola, duo, fresco, fugue, gazette (via French),
ghetto, gondola, grotto, macaroni, madrigal, motto,
piano, opera, pantaloons, prima donna, regatta,
sequin, soprano, opera, stanza, stucco, studio,
tempo, torso, umbrella, viola, violin
from Italian American immigrants - cappuccino,
espresso, linguini, mafioso, pasta, pizza, ravioli,
spaghetti, spumante, zabaglione, zucchini
Modern English (1650-present)
Dutch, Flemish
Shipping, naval terms - avast, boom, bow, bowsprit,
buoy, commodore, cruise, dock, freight, keel,
keelhaul, leak, pump, reef, scoop, scour, skipper,
sloop, smuggle, splice, tackle, yawl, yacht
Food and drink - booze, brandy(wine), coleslaw,
cookie, cranberry, crullers, gin, hops, stockfish,
waffle
Other - bugger (orig. French), crap, curl, dollar,
scum, split (orig. nautical term), uproar
Modern English (1650-present)
• German
• bum, dunk, feldspar, quartz, hex, lager,
knackwurst, liverwurst, loafer, noodle, poodle,
dachshund, pretzel, pinochle, pumpernickel,
sauerkraut, schnitzel, zwieback, (beer)stein,
lederhosen, dirndl
• 20th century: blitzkrieg, zeppelin, strafe, U-boat,
delicatessen, hamburger, frankfurter, wiener,
hausfrau, kindergarten, Oktoberfest, schuss,
wunderkind, bundt (cake), spritz (cookies),
(apple) strudel
Modern English (1650-present)
• Yiddish
• bagel, Chanukkah (Hanukkah), chutzpah,
dreidel, kibbitzer, kosher, lox, pastrami (orig.
from Romanian), schlep, spiel, schlepp,
schlemiel, schlimazel, gefilte fish, goy, klutz,
knish, matzoh, oy vey, schmuck, schnook
• Scandanavian
• fjord, maelstrom, ombudsman, ski, slalom,
smorgasbord
Modern English (1650-present)
• Russian
• apparatchik, borscht, czar/tsar, glasnost, icon,
perestroika, vodka
• Sanskrit
• avatar, karma, mahatma, swastika, yoga
• Hindi
• bandanna, bangle, bungalow, chintz, cot,
cummerbund, dungaree, juggernaut, jungle, loot,
pajamas, punch (the drink), shampoo, thug,
jamboree
Modern English (1650-present)
• Dravidian - curry, mango, teak, pariah
• Persian (Farsi) - check, checkmate, chess
• Arabic - bedouin, emir, jakir, gazelle, giraffe,
harem, hashish, lute, minaret, mosque, myrrh,
salaam, sirocco, sultan, vizier, bazaar, caravan
• African languages - banana (via Portuguese),
banjo, boogie-woogie, goober, gorilla, gumbo,
jazz, jitterbug, jitters, juke(box), voodoo, yam,
zebra, zombie
Modern English (1650-present)
• Chinese - chop suey, chow mein, dim sum,
ketchup, tea, ginseng, kowtow, litchee
• Japanese - geisha, hara kiri, judo, jujitsu,
kamikaze, karaoke, kimono, samurai, soy,
sumo, sushi, tsunami
• Pacific Islands - bamboo, gingham, rattan,
taboo, tattoo, ukulele, boondocks
Modern English (1650-present)
• American Indian languages - avocado, cacao,
cannibal, canoe, chipmunk, chocolate, chili,
hammock, hurricane, maize, moccasin,
moose, pecan, possum, potato, skunk, squaw,
succotash, squash, tamale (via Spanish),
teepee, terrapin, tobacco, toboggan,
tomahawk, tomato, wigwam, woodchuck
• Australian Aboriginal languages - boomerang,
budgerigar, didgeridoo, kangaroo
We Can Say…
• English is a very “open”
language that
• readily adopts words
from a wide variety of
sources
• and about a wide
variety of topics,
• which can make it
difficult for outsiders to
learn…
On the Other Extreme…
Académie française
Académie française
"The primary function of
the Académie will be to
work, with all possible
care and diligence, to give
our language definite
rules and to make it pure,
eloquent, and capable of
dealing with art and
science." - Article 24
Cardinal Richelieu
(1585–1642)
Académie française
• Computer = ordinateur
• Computer screen = écran m d'ordinateur
• Computer software = logiciels
• e-mail = courriel (a contraction of courrier
électronique) - (émail is French for"enamel”)
• Video clip = vidéo clip
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?).
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?’
• ‘hasta la vista, baby’
• 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?.
Indian Rupee