Code-switching and borrowing in Mixe: friend or foe for language maintenance?

C A R M E N J A N Y

C A L I F O R N I A S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

S A N B E R N A R D I N O , U S A

C J A N Y @ C S U S B . E D U

Introduction Several studies examined language contact phenomena involving Spanish and indigenous languages in Mesoamerica (Dakin et al. 2017; Lastra 1992; Karttunen 2000)

But there are no detailed studies of code-switching, or of the distinction between code-switching and borrowing (Bakker et al. 2008)

Most studies examine the phonological and grammatical adaptation of lexical borrowings or focus on aspects of lexical acculturation within the context of cultural and linguistic penetration (Parodi 2006, 2009)

This paper: examines code-switches and borrowings in Chuxnabán Mixe and discusses its relevance for language documentation and maintenance

IntroductionThis talk: Language and data examined Definitions of code-switching and borrowing Borrowing in Chuxnabán Mixe (historical vs. bilingual) Nonce borrowing in Chuxnabán Mixe: Code-switching vs. borrowing Code-switching in Chuxnabán Mixe Relevance for language documentation and maintenance Conclusions

LanguageChuxnabán Mixe (Mixe-Zoquean) Spoken by 900 people in S. J. Bosco Chuxnabán, Oaxaca, Mexico

Typological profile: Polysynthetic + head-marking with a hierarchical/inverse alignment system Noun incorporation + frequent nominal compounding Dependent and independent verb inflection (for person + tense/aspect/mood) Locative case marking and optional number marking on animatesWord order is flexible, but generally verb-final (SOV)

Compare to Spanish word order: SVO (can be VSO for emphasis)

San Juan Bosco Chuxnabán

DataData for this work Data collected: field work in 2008 and 2011 & transcription 2008-2018 Two dinner-table conversations (30 + 50 minutes in length) with 6-7 people Family (mother, father, three sons 10-19 years) + myself (+ visitor) 11 transcribed oral narratives (monologues) (from 60 collected narratives)

Data was examined with respect to borrowings from Spanish and instances of code-switching

SpeakersDios kujuuyëp! – Thank you!

TranscriberDios kujuuyëp! – Thank you!

Definitions: Borrowing and Code-switchingBorrowing “is the incorporation of foreign features into a group’s native language

by speakers of that language: the native language is maintained but is changed by the addition of the incorporated features” (Thomason and Kaufmann 1988)

Code-switching “[…] the mixing by bilinguals (or multilinguals) of two or more

languages in discourse” (Poplack 2001) “[…] the use of more than one language during a single communicative

event” (Muysken 2011)

Definitions: Borrowing and Code-switchingBorrowing This talk focuses on lexical borrowing (as opposed to structural

borrowing) Muysken (2011) and others distinguish between historical borrowing = a language gradually adopts words and structures from

another language over time bilingual borrowing = nonce borrowing = borrowed words and structures used

freely (mostly) by bilinguals; generally, these are structurally adapted to the recipient language

A major issue, widely discussed in the literature, has been to distinguish bilingual or nonce borrowing from code-switching

Definitions: Borrowing and Code-switchingPotential diagnostic criteria for distinction between borrowing and code-switching (Poplack 2001, Lipski 2005, Muysken 1995)

Definitions: Borrowing and Code-switchingPotential diagnostic criteria for distinction between borrowing and code-switching continued (Poplack 2001, Lipski 2005, Muysken 1995)

Definitions: Borrowing and Code-switchingPotential diagnostic criteria for distinction between borrowing and code-switching continued (Poplack 2001, Lipski 2005, Muysken 1995)

Borrowing in Chuxnabán Mixe Examined narratives: only historical borrowings occurTable 1: Some examples of historical borrowings from the narratives

Historical borrowings also occur in the conversations

Mixe word Meaning Spanish word Meaningcebu ‘type of bull’ cebú ‘type of bull’cruts ‘cross’ cruz ‘cross’lugaarë ‘place’ lugar ‘place’Dios ‘God’ Dios ‘God’

Borrowing in Chuxnabán Mixe Historical borrowings also occur in the examined conversationsTable 2: Some examples of historical borrowings from the conversations

Historical borrowings are generally content words (mostly nouns and adjectives)

Mixe word Meaning Spanish word Meaningeskwelë ‘school’ escuela ‘school’kwee ‘coffee’ café ‘coffee’sindikë ‘town official’ síndico ‘syndic’Dios ‘God’ Dios ‘God’

Borrowing in Chuxnabán MixeThere are also many borrowed function words in both types of data

Borrowed function words include coordinators, subordinators, and prepositions They often change the language creating clause-combining

structures similar to those found in Spanish (e.g. complement, relative, and adverbial clauses) (see example 1 on handout) Some are phonologically assimilated and some are not Borrowed discourse markers are often included in this group (e.g.

Spanish pues ‘well’ and entonces ‘then’) (see example 2 on handout)

Borrowing in Chuxnabán Mixe Borrowed function words have been reported for many other indigenous languages in contact with Spanish (Bakker et al 2008, Lipski 2005, Hekking and Baker 1998, Karttunen 2000)

They occur in monolingual and in bilingual speech (and in this data in both the narratives and conversations)

Lipski (2005) states that these borrowed function words, especially if non-assimilated, share features with code-switching, and he adds that “if such insertion becomes frequent, full grammaticalization of the

borrowed functional items may be the end result” (Lipski 2005:2)

Borrowing in Chuxnabán Mixe Lipski (2005:3): borrowed function words all share these features:(1) None represents a grammatical configuration already present in the indigenous language

(2) They do not normally replace an already existent element in the indigenous language

(3) They become fully integrated syntactically and morphologically into the receptor languages, often diverging from their semantic and syntactic content within Spanish

(4) They are used consistently and also by monolinguals in the indigenous languages

(5) They are not specific to code-switching discourse and are equally common among monolingual speakers or when no Spanish is being used

Borrowed function words are different from code-switching and different from nonce borrowings

Borrowing in Chuxnabán Mixe Nonce borrowing (Poplack 2001) Tend to be lone lexical items, generally major-class content words Tend to assume the morphological, syntactic, and often phonological identity of

the recipient language They are neither recurrent nor widespread (the same as code-switches) They require a certain level of bilingual competence (the same as code-switches) Distinguishing nonce borrowings from single-word code-switches is difficult

Nonce borrowings occur only in the conversations in Chuxnabán Mixe(see example 3 on handout)

Summary: Borrowing in Chuxnabán Mixe Poplack (2001) notes that lone other-language single items (esp. major class words) are most frequent in bilingual discourse “This is evidence that most lone items are borrowed, even if only for nonce,

despite the lack, in some cases, of dictionary attestation or diffusion within the community.” (2001:2064) The same is true for Chuxnabán Mixe Narratives: Historical and function word borrowing Conversations: Historical, function word, nonce borrowing

Generally, borrowings show phonological adaptation which clearly distinguishes them from code-switches, except for nonce borrowings

Code-switching in Chuxnabán Mixe Code-switches (CS) occur only in the conversations; they are categorized based on the grammatical conditions and the reasons for the code-switch Grammatical conditions/constraints discussed in the literature Type: inter-sentential, intra-sentential, tag-switching, intra-word Typologies/grammar of switched languages need to be aligned/compatible (esp.

word order) (Poplack 1980, 2001; Muysken 1995, 2011) Alternation or insertion (one base language or equal representation)

Reasons for code-switching (CS more frequent into dominant language!) Bilingual identity + bilingual competence required Different functions for each language and conversational implicatures Pragmatic reasons: foregrounding, ethnic solidarity, persuasion, crutching,

quotation, narrative frame brakes, etc.

Code-switching in Chuxnabán MixeCode-switching from Mixe conversations into Spanish (see example 4) The data exhibit all four major types of code-switches inter-sentential/inter-clausal (between sentences/clauses): example 4a intra-sentential (within a sentence/clause): example 4b tag-switching (switching of tag phrase/word): example 4c intra-word switching (uncommon): example 4d Code-switches range from smaller to larger constituents, to fully mixed segments, even though the languages are typologically very different Some instances present counterexamples to structural constraints posited in the literature (e.g. in Poplack 1980)

Relevance for Language DocumentationWhat does this all mean for language documentation?

Main purpose is to document LANGUAGE which “encompasses conscious and unconscious knowledge, ideation and cognitive ability, as well as overt social behavior” (Woodbury 2011:159)

Ethnography of speaking (communication): analysis of speech within the wider context of the social and cultural practices

Endangered language documentation = documentation of ancestral code debate over documenting the ancestral code (nostalgic) versus documenting

contemporary communicative ecologies (emergent code) (Woodbury 2011:177-80) the latter may fit community ideologies (as with Span/Engl CS in the US)

Relevance for Language Documentation The documentation of current communicative practices “can be relevant and even essential to the study of so-called semi-speakers and of the variation in communities undergoing rapid language shift” (Woodbury 2011: 180) Vallejos (2016:161) studies fluent-, latent-, and neo- Kukama-Kukamiria speakers in contact with Spanish in Peru and concludes: “Recording variation is essential for both revitalization initiatives and linguistic

research. Speakers are generally aware and sometimes concerned about changes instigated by language decay and language revitalization; however, it seems that, in the end, the structural differences can be overlooked if the creation of new speakers and the preservation of their heritage language for communication is the ultimate goal.”

Relevance for Language DocumentationWhat does this all mean for Chuxnabán Mixe? Nonce borrowings and code-switching is common in everyday Mixe

speech (mostly among bilinguals)

Similar as in Vallejos,but in Mixethese are not

‘latent speakers’

(from Vallejos 2016)

Relevance for Language DocumentationWhat does this all mean for Chuxnabán Mixe? (con’t) “In immigrant communities, frequent switchers are often second generation bilinguals, and more generally, they are generally of the age 12–25. Switching is most frequent in in-group informal conversations, without outsiders present, and concerning ordinary topics” (Muysken 2011:311-12) Different in Chuxnabán Mixe: not an immigrant community, occurs with all

ages, occurs regardless of the presence of outsiders The same as with Kukama-Kukamiria, the documentation of borrowing and

CS in Mixe “can make crucial contributions to the discussion about the extent to which the structural changes that occur in dying languages are unique or similar to other kinds of contact-induced phenomena” (Vallejos 2016)

Relevance for Language DocumentationMyers-Scotton (1982) argues that “speakers maintain and promote multilingualism in order to

maintain a set of code choice options which is then available as a device to negotiate interpersonal relationships” (1982:433) code-switching exchanges function “primarily as a means of

negotiating social relationships” (1982:441)

While this may or may not apply to all language contact situations, it is useful to document the full linguistic repertoire of speakers, including the total range of speech styles and varieties which speakers, monolingual and bilingual, control

Conclusions Different types language contact phenomena observed in Mixe Historical loans (integrated, used by monolinguals/bilinguals) Borrowed function words and discourse markers (class of its own) Nonce borrowing (only in conversation data, similar/undistinguishable

from to CS) Code-switching (only bilinguals, smaller and larger chunks)

The documentation and study of these phenomena allows for a more complete record of current speech practices in the community (as opposed to limiting documentation to the ancestral code)

ConclusionsMore broadly, with this work I would like to: Encourage others to document these kinds of phenomena as they

represent an important part of bilingual speech, latent-speakers, etc. Contribute to the development of best practices in documenting

code-switching and other language contact phenomena Argue that nonce borrowings and code-switching could be beneficial

tools aligned with language maintenance and revitalization goals

Language preservation frequently rests upon the younger and bilingual generation; in Chuxnabán Mixe, the younger generation uses their language in social media and often tends to incorporate Spanish

Dios kujuuyëp!