Friday, September 2, 2011

02. Multilingual Communities


disglossia:
characteristic of speech communities -- rather than individuals. Therefore, there is a range of potential relationships between disglossia and bilingualism.




                                        disglossia 
                                  +                                                   -
   bilingualism.

                       +         1. both disglossia and bilingualism  2. bilingualism without disglossia
                       -           3. disglossia without bilingualism    4. neither disglossia nor bilingualism





metaphorical switching (also known as 'code-switching') rapid switching between two linguistic systems, including sounds, grammar and vocabulary

lexical borrowing -- single word switches triggered mainly by lack of vocabulary


Some sociolinguists believe there are universal rules . . .
  • linguistic constraints -- very general rules for code-switching which apply to all switching behavior regardless of the codes or varieties involved
  • equivalence constraint -- a switching rule where the grammars of both languages match each other
  • matrix language frame (MLF) -- the first language that imposes structural constraints on code-switched utterances
  • embedded language -- the second language which supplies some content words

intra-sentential switching (within sentences) and inter-sentential switching (at sentence boundaries)





Domain:
a grouping together of recurring situation types in such a way that one of the languages or varieties in a repertoire, as opposed to others, normally occurs in that class of situations. And members of the speech community judge that the use of that variety and not the others is appropriate to that domain

Different types of domains can be identified:

  • family/home
  • education
  • official
  • religion
  • intimate 
  • Employment 
  • Friendship, Etc.




Functional domains

Different languages in a multilingual community will typically be used in different domains. For instance, in the Mambila region of Cameroon, French is used in the domain of education and official business, and the local variety of Mambila is the language of the home and of intimacy.



Interview of Marie, a 16 year old young lady in Bafoussam, Cameroon.


CamFranglais 

Cameroon is a country divided by its colonial past. Once ruled by the United Kingdom, people in the north speak English. In the south, previously administered by France, most speak French. The country is striving towards bilingualism in a bid to promote national unity but the road is hard. The young people however have found a way -- speaking, and singing, both at the same time in a chaotic mix known as CamFranglais or francanglais.





Words of Life Mambila People
Language Movie Trailer


Other names for this language are:
Bang; Bea; Ble; Juli; Lagubi; Mambere; Mambila, 
Cameroon; Mambilla; Nor; Tagbo; Tongbo; Torbi





Instability of language use in different domains reflects the general instability of the  linguistic situation



Language as a property of the individual:
Every individual has his or her network of relationships which may involve different linguistic relationships.



Language contact and multilingualism
  • situations of language endangerment involve two (and often more) languages in contact (a multilingual situation)
  • this multilingual situation may ultimately lead to endangerment, language shift and the extinction of one or more of the languages

Multilingualism also varies across social groups
  • different groups show different patterns of language choice and use in different circumstances and for different occasions
  • groups may be relatively more or less homogeneous in their linguistic repertoires and patterns of linguistic behavior

No comments:

Post a Comment