Language Contact

Situations
Monolingual, Bilingual,
Multilingual

Language Contact
It occurs when speakers of different
languages interact and their
languages influence each other
The study of Language contact is
called contact Linguistics

Language Contact
A situation that arises when
two or more languages are spoken in the same or
adjoining regions

And
when there is a high degree of communication
between the people speaking them

Can result in
Language loss or even language death
Borrowing
Bi- / multilingualism
Language change

Situations of language
contact

mixed population and bilingualism

migration:
mixed marriage
refugees
trade
captives of war
multilingualism in the city
seasonal work
education
radio

Monolingualism
David Crystal defines a monolingual
is a person/community with only one
language, is also called unilingual
a person who has an active
knowledge of only one language,
though perhaps a passive knowledge
of others

Bilingualism
(Multilingualism)
The ability of societies or individuals to
engage on regular basis with more than one
language in their day to day lives
Individual Bilingualism the use of two (or
more) languages by an individual
E.g., an individual who speaks both English and
Spanish
Societal Bilingualism the use of two (or more)
languages within a given community
E.g., the bilingual setting in India, Canada,
Switzerland, Malaysia, etc.

 The term bilingualism may mean

different things to different people.
To the average person, bilingualism can
be loosely defined as:
the use of two languages or
the native-like control of two
languages.

75% of the worlds population speak

two or more languages.
Not all bilinguals speak two
languages at the same level.
By the age of 2.5, a bilingual child
begins to make choices in language
use, usually the majority language.

Degree of Bilingualism - Definitions

Bloomfield (1933): native-like control
of two languages
Mackey (1962): the ability to use more
than one language
Weinriech (1953): the practice of
alternately using two languages
Haugen (1953): the point where a
speaker can first produce complete
meaningful utterances in the other
language

 Bilinguals may be
Balanced bilinguals- Individuals fully
competent in both languages
Dominant bilinguals-Individuals who
are dominant in one language.
Less dominant language = subordinate.
Dominance does not apply to all
domains.

 Passive bilinguals-Individuals who are

gradually losing competence in one
language, usually because of disuse.
common among immigrant groups
often loose productive skills while
retaining receptive skills

Semi bilinguals- Individuals who

appear to have limited proficiency in
both languages.

Multilingual
The ability of an individual speaker or
a community of speakers to use
multiple languages. Contrast with
monolingualism, the ability to use
only one language.
A person who can speak multiple
languages is known as a polyglot or a
multilingual.

 Multilingualism has various advantages:

a) Accessibility to knowledge of other
cultures;
b) Communication between different
linguistic and cultural groups become
easier;
c) Increases job opportunities;
d) High cognitive development of a child;
e) A broader world view, etc.

reasons for multilingualism can be:

a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)

Migration or labour mobility.

Cultural contact
Annexation and colonialism
Commercial
Scientific
Technological
Territorial conquest, etc.

Degrees of Multilingualism
If a person has native like command
in all the languages he knows, then
it is known as
Ambilingualism.
if a person has equal degree of
competence in the languages he
uses, is known as Equilingualism.

 Individual Multilingualism: The ability

of an individual to have competence
in two or more languages is known as
Individual multilingualism.
Societal Multilingualism: The
linguistic diversity present in a
society is known as Societal
Multilingualism.

Interference
The term interference refers to the influence
of one language (or variety) on another in the
speech of bilinguals who use both languages.
"Those instances of deviation from the norms
of either language which occur in the speech
of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with
more than one language, i.e. as a result of
language contact, will be referred to as
INTERFERENCE phenomena." (Weinreich
1953:1)

 It refers to speakers or writers applying

knowledge from their native language to
a second language
The effect can be on any aspect of
language: grammar, vocabulary, accent,
spelling and so on.
Interference can take place at all levels of
the linguistic system, i.e. in phonology,
morphology, syntax, lexicon etc.

Phonological
interference
Phonological interference is a common type of interference, its
most prominent manifestation being a foreign accent.
Incorrect learner English: Finger (*/f/ )
Correct R.P.: Finger (/fg/ )
Words including the combination ng may be pronounced
incorrectly in English, since they are realized as [] in Dutch.
In that case, the [] pronounced by a native speaker of Dutch
would be transferred to the learner language English, where
[] would be the correct pronunciation. Therefore, the
realization of ng as [] in the native language would
interfere with the pronunciation of the learner language, e.g.
the ng-combination in Finger: Dutch: [] vs. Received
Pronunciation: [] .

 Voiced and aspirated features are

resulted Malayalam due to the
contact with Sanskrit.

 Loan words from Indo- Aryan

languages have integrated into
Malayalam. Following are the
prosodic phonological changes
observed:
(i) Deaspiration of stop and loss of /h/
and replacement of /h/ by -am:
Ma.takam lake <Skt. tagah
Ma. ntam calm < Skt. ntah
Ma. sgaram sea < Skt. sgarah

Syntactic interference

German: Gestern habe ich Ball gespielt.

Incorrect Learner English: *I have played ball yesterday.
Correct Received Pronunciation: I played ball yesterday.
Since the German Perfect (habe gespielt) is not used in
the same way as the English Present Perfect, it may
come to interference at the syntactic level (cf. the
learner English-example). Speakers of German apply the
Perfect in similar contexts (here: a narrative use) as the
German Imperfect (the German equivalent of the Past
Tense), whereas this is different with the English Present
Perfect and the English Past Tense. Here, reference to
definite moments in the past requires the Past Tense.

 entaanu ningalute problems

What is your problem-s

Lexical interference

English: He wrote the letter on the blackboard.

Incorrect Learner German: Er schrieb den *Brief an die Tafel.
Correct German: Er schrieb den Buchstaben an die Tafel.
In English, letter carries various meanings. This example
illustrates especially the following ones:
i) the letter that one can mail by post and
ii) the letter as an element of the alphabet. Since each of
the two meanings has its particular counterpart in German,
interference at a lexical level could arise. Therefore, a strict
word-by-word translation (i.e. with the help of a dictionary)
could result in the incorrect choice of Brief although the
context of the English letter implied the German Buchstabe.

Code
A code is a system that is used by people to
communicate with each other. When people want
to talk each other they have to choose a particular
code to express their feeling
According to Stock Well a code is a symbol of
nationalism that is used by people to speak or
communicate in a particular language, dialect or
register or accent or style in different occasions
and for different purpose
the code is a form of the language variation that is
used by a society make communication with other
people

Code Mixing
Code mixing refers to any admixture of linguistic elements
of two or more language systems in the same utterance at
various levels:
phonological, lexical, grammatical and orthographical.
Code-mixing is the change of one language to another
within the same utterance or in the same oral/ written text.
It is a common phenomenon in societies in which two or
more languages are used. Studies of code-mixing enhance
our understanding of the nature, processes and constraints
of language and of the relationship between language use
and individual values, communicative strategies, language
attitudes and functions within particular socio-cultural
contexts.

Code mixing
1. Speakers use more than one
language in a discourse unit ( a
sentence, a paragraph).
2. Code mixing suggests that the
speaker is mixing up codes
indiscriminately, perhaps because of
incompetence, whereas code
switching refers to a more active
manipulation of the symbolic and
social meanings of a language choice.

1.In situational switching, speakers

code switch according to factors
(topics, situations, participants).
2.More rarely, a skillful code switch can
operate like a metaphor to enrich
communication without any change in
the situation (no change of topic, no
new participants, no change of scene).

Code switching
Switching may be :
Inter-sentential switching: is switching outside the sentence or clause level,
for example at sentence or clause boundaries.
Example, He came here because n vilccu. [He came because I called
him ]
Intra-sentential switching : is switching within a sentence or clause.
Example, Listen dayavaayi call him [dayavaayi is please in malayalam)
Tag-switching : is switching a tag phrase or word from language B into
language A. (This is a common intra-sentential switch.)
Example, He will came alle? (alle isnt it)
Intra-word switching is switching within a word itself, such as at
a morpheme boundary. Example, God is imirimious [imirimi in Igbo means
mysterious, deep or complex but the suffix ous is English and helps in
giving the word imirimi an English status

Codeswitching
Code switching: The juxtaposition within
the same speech exchange of passages
belonging to two different grammatical
systems or subsystems (Gumperz 1982)
Lexical borrowing: Words from one
system adapted phonologically and
morph-syntactically and used regularly
in another system and