LANGUAGE Chapter 6. Belgium Language has been a divisive issue in Belgium for years Flemish,...

LANGUAGEChapter 6

Belgium

Language has been a divisive issue in Belgium for years

Flemish, (Germanic language, similar to Dutch)

Flanders: North

85% of locals speak

French, Wallonia

Southern ½ of Belgium

Brussels – capital city, located in Flanders (officially bilingual)

19th cent. French-speaking elite in Brussels – “Frenchification” : promoted French when dealing with other countries, French speakers controlled economy and government

Those who opposed Frenchification of Flanders sought linguistic rights – right to use their language in public

1920s Flemish leaders called for partition of the country

In general (all countries, places) Those in power often endorse their language or dialect as the correct one

Belgium1960s – fixed partition went into effect, Flemish / Flanders & French / Wallonia

- gov’t in Brussels is a distinct region, bilingual but there is a strict limit on the use of French in the rest of the North

- the process strengthened the sense of Flemish identity, fueled counter movement among the French Walloons

As heavy industry became less competitive, economy shifted to high tech, light industry, and service – led power to shift to North

- Currently most of the power and decision making takes place in the individual gov’ts of Flanders and Wallonia

- No parties operate on a national scale – only regionally

- Brussels is the seat of the EU Council and Commission

- Will prevent Wallonia and Flanders from splitting

What Are Languages, and What Role Do Languages Play in Culture?

Language: A set of sounds, combinations of sounds, and symbols used for communication

Standard language: A language that is published, widely distributed, and purposefully taught

Role of government in standardizing a language


Cornerstone of culture: laterally shapes our very thoughts

Who we are is shaped, reinforced, and defined by language

Reflect where we have been, what a culture values even our thought process and the way we

experience things is shaped by language

Colonization Led to loss of language under pressure from others

Forced the colonized to speak the language of the colonizer

Enforced by government(public) and church(mission) schools


Forced assimilation

Includes: indigenous peoples to speak native languages

Ex: US native American policies

Shared Language

- Makes people in a culture visible to each other

- Binds their identity together as a culture

- Language is also personal: our thoughts and dreams are articulated in our language

Some African languages have no term for the concept of god

Greek language has no term for homosexuality


Forced assimilation

Countermovement's opposed to Spanish speakers in US

“Official English” policies

English would be the official language of the government

1980s over 30 different states considered legislation declaring English the State’s official language

A few have passed English-plus laws, encouraging bilingualism for non-English speakers

Others are officially bilingual

New Mexico and Hawai’i


Quebec, Canada (Quebecois)

Focused on passing laws to promote the province’s distinct version of the French language

Canada is officially bilingual Reflects colonial divisions

Majority of people in Quebec speak French at home

Quebecois have on several occasions pushed for independence

A majority has never voted for succession

The provincial government has passed several laws requiring and promoting the use of French in the province

1977 Quebec government required business to demonstrate they functioned in French

Many businesses moved out of the province to Ontario


Quebec law requires French advertising to be twice as large as English

Not all Quebecois identify as French English, indigenous people

New immigrants must learn French under Quebec law

The province of Quebec even has an embassy in France

What is language? Mutual intelligibility – means that two people can understand

each other when speaking Two dialects of one language for example

Linguists reject this criterion

They say mutual intelligibility is almost impossible to measure

Scandinavia: Danes and Norwegians will be able to understand one another but we think of the Danish and Norwegian as distinct languages

Other languages that are recognized as separate but mutually intelligible include: Spanish/Portugese, Hindi/Urdu, Navajo/Apache, Serbian/Croatian

Mutual Intelligibility Isogloss: A geographic boundary within which a

particular linguistic feature occurs Criterion for a language: Speakers can understand each

other Problems

Measuring “mutual intelligibility” Standard languages and government impact on

what is a “language” and what is a “dialect” Dialect: variant of standard language by ethnicity or

region Vocabulary Syntax Cadence, pace Pronunciation

Example of Dialect


Standardized Language

Published, widely distributed, purposefully taught

Government sustains it via Teachers examinations and civil service exams

Ireland….. Promotes the use of Irish (Celtic) requiring all government employees to pass

“Kings English” spoken by well-educated people in London

BRP – British Received Pronunciation English … the standard

Who decides – the key question ? Those with the power in government make the decision


Isogloss: geographic boundary within which a particular linguistic feature occurs, rarely a simple line

Fuzzy isoglosses – may signify the dialect has expanded or contacted

Linguists studying dialects : examine pronunciations, vocabularies, use of colloquial phrases and syntax to determine isoglosses

Hans Kurath – linguistic geographer --- drew distinctions between Northern, Southern, Midland (eastern US)

Bert Vaux – used 122 question survey to map US dialects

Soda, pop, coke questions

Hero, po-boy, sub

Why Are Languages Distributed The Way They Are?

Language families- like species, some related & some aren’t Classify languages into families

Within a family languages have a shared but fairly distant origin

Sub-families: commonalities are more definite and the origin is more recent

Individual languages cover smaller extent of territory, and dialects, cover the smallest extent

20 major language families in the world

Indo-European – stretches across the greatest extent of territory and also claims the greatest number of speakers

Within it English is the most widely spoken

Result of colonization


Austro-Asiatic- survives in the interior of India and in Cambodia and Laos

Austronesian – numerous and diverse Includes Madagascar: must have been settled

by SE Asian seafarers long before Africans came to the Island

Amerindian – remote locations have helped this family to survive


Language Formation

Linkages among languages marked by sound shifts, slight changes in a word across languages over time

Milk = lacte in Latin leche in Spanish

lait in French latta in Italian Language divergence: Breakup of a language into

dialects and then new languages from lack of interaction among speakers

Language convergence: When peoples with different languages have consistent interaction and their languages blend into one

Language extinction: no longer has native speakers

Language Formation One way to find and chart similarities would be to use sound shifts

Linkages among languages marked by sound shifts, slight changes in a word across languages over time

Milk = lacte in Latin leche in Spanish

lait in French latta in Italian

Proto-Indo-European

Ancestral language of Indo-European

If found it would give us the hearth of ancient Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit

To do so…..

- The vocabulary would have to be reconstructed

- The hearth would have to be located

- Routes of diffusion needed to be traced

The Study of Historical LanguagesBackward reconstruction: Tracking sound shifts and the hardening of

consonants backward to reveal an “original” language

• Can deduce the vocabulary of an extinct language

• Deep Reconstruction - Can recreate ancient languages

Reconstruct an inventory of several hundred words

Nostratic Language

No name for domesticated plants or animals existed – therefore they were hunter gatherers

Words for dog and wolf were the same – suggests domestication of wolves occurring at this time

Fossil record indicates 14,000 years ago, before Agricult Rev.

Not only believed to be ancestral language of Proto-Indo-European but also of the Karvelian languages of the Caucasus region, the Uralic-Altaic languages, the Dravidian Languages of India, and the Afro-Asiatic language family,

Locating the Hearth of Proto-Indo-European

Language divergence: Breakup of a language into dialects and then new languages from lack of interaction among speakers Spanish & Portuguese Quebecois & French

Language convergence: When peoples with different languages have consistent interaction and their languages blend into one

Linguist hypothesize the hearth of Proto-Indo Black Sea to East Central Europe

speakers dispersed, vocabularies grew, linguistic divergence occurred, spurring new languages

Proto-Indo dates back to people who used horses, had the wheel, traded widely


Renfrew Hypothesis : claims Proto-Indo from the Anatolia (Turkey) Diffused to Europe’s Indo-European languages Western arc of the Fertile Crescent came the

languages of N. Africa and Arabia Fertile Crescent's eastern arc ancient languages

spread into present day Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India Later replaced by Indo-European languages

Alternative theories: Oppenheimer argues people came out of Central

Africa, moved through Arabia and into India (80 K years ago)

Then migrated out of India (50K) into Europe

Historical Linkages among Languages

Indo-European language family

Proto-Indo-European language

Nostratic Language (ancient ancestor of Proto-Indo-European Language)


Tracing the Routes of Diffusion of Proto-Indo-European Why focus on Europe?

Clear the language diffused into Europe over time Significant body of historical research and archaeology

focus on the early peopling of Europe

How did the language arrive? Conquest Theory: early speakers of Proto-Indo-European

spread for east to west on horseback, overpowering original inhabitants

Led to diffusion and differentiation of Indo-Euro tongues

Agricultural Theory: spread westward through Europe with the diffusion of agriculture

@ 18 kilometers per generation farmers would have complete penetrated the Euro frontier in 1500 years

Close to what the archeological record suggests


Dispersal hypothesis Indo-European languages arose fro Proto-Indo-

European 1st carried eastward into SW Asia Next to Caspian Sea region Then across Russian Ukrainian plains to the

Balkans

We still do not know where Proto-Indo-European language was born, or the location of the hearth

Some propose that Nostratic is a direct successor of proto-world language going back to the dawn of human history……..

Considered highly speculative


Euskera (the Basques) survives to this day as a direct link to Europe’s pre-farming era It is no way related to any other language

family in Europe Survived for thousands of years w/o blending

with other languages or diffusing Basques have a strong identity tied to their

language Treated horribly by Franco Post Franco, Spanish gov’t recognized

Basque autonomy in its 1979, own parliament and official recognition of their language

The Case of Euskera

Spoken by the Basque and in no way related to any other language family in Europe

European Language Families Romance languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese,

Italian, & Romanian ----- Latin based….. Spread by the Roman Empire

Germanic languages: German, English, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish Expansion of peoples out of northerner Europe to the

west and south Mixed in some areas that were part of the Roman

Empire

Early English absorb words from other languages and people:

Vikings, Saxons, Angles, French

Slavic languages: Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian

Revived languages revived language is one that, having experienced near or

complete extinction as either a spoken or written language, has been intentionally revived and has regained some of its former status.

The most frequent reason for extinction is the marginalization of local languages within a wider dominant nation state, which might at times amount to outright political oppression.

This process normally works alongside economic and cultural pressures for greater centralization and assimilation.

Once a language has become marginalized in this way, it is often perceived as being "useless" by its remaining speakers, who associate it with low social status and poverty, and consequently fail to pass it on to the next generation.

Examples: Ainu, Belarusian, Hawaiian, Cornish, Hebrew, Latin, Maori, Sanskrit, Wampanoag

The Internet: Globalization of Language

Language and Politics

Non-English Speakers

Political issue of speakers of Spanish and other languages vs. those desiring English only

Agriculture Theory

With increased food supply and population, migration of speakers from the hearth of

Indo-European languages into Europe

Dispersal Hypothesis From the hearth eastward into present-day

Iran Around the Caspian Into Europe

Languages of Subsaharan Africa

Dominant language family: Niger-Congo

Relatively recent migration

Continued recognizable similarities among subfamilies

Displacement of Khoisan family, now in Southwestern Africa

One of the oldest languages

Bushmen of the Kalahari (include clicking sounds)

Bushmen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c246fZ-7z1w

Nigeria

More than 500 languages

3 most prominent

Hausa – N 35M

Yoruba – SW 25M

Ibo – SE 25M

Vast majority of lang. spoken by fewer than 1M

Nigeria a colonial creation

Nigeria

Minor languages have survived b/c daily survival, community, and culture are tied closely to the local scale in Nigeria

Would be no Nigeria w/o British colonialism

Borders ignore cultural divide

True of most of Africa

1962 after Independence - choice of English as “official” language rather than any indigenous language

Has helped to avoid some conflicts based on langue

Problems – students spend much time during primary school learning English, leads to less time spent on other subjects

For many English is irrelevant when they leave school

The country is having doubts about its relationship with English as the official language

Spanglish & Franglais

Franglais means a mangled combination of English and French, produced either by poor knowledge of one or the other language or for humorous effect.

Franglais usually consists of either filling in gaps in one's knowledge of French with English words, using false friends with their incorrect meaning or speaking French in such a manner that (although ostensibly "French") would be incomprehensible to a French-speaker who does not also have a knowledge of English (for example, by using a literal translation of English idiomatic phrases). Some examples of Franglais are:

Longtemps, pas voir. – Long time, no see.

Je vais driver downtown. – I'm going to drive downtown. (Je vais aller en voiture au centre-ville)

Je suis tired. – I am tired. (Je suis fatigué)

Je ne care pas. – I don't care. (Ça m'est égal OR Je m'en fiche)

Spanglish & Franglais

Spanglish refers to the blend (at different degrees) of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The term Spanglish was first brought into literature by the Puerto Rican Salvador Tio.

Despite its widespread use among the Hispanic population, Spanglish is not an actual language. Linguists commonly refer to a phenomenon like Spanglish as a pidgin, which is a language based on a simplified syntax and grammar that acts as an intermediary between people who don't have a common language.

How Do Languages Diffuse?

Human interaction

Print distribution Migration Trade Rise of nation-

states Colonialism

Elizabeth J. Leppman

Effects of Spatial Interaction

Roman Empire

Han Empire

Guttenberg – printing press

Allowed the bible to be printed in other languages besides Latin, helped to standardize European languages

Mercantilism and colonialism then spread language

Lingua franca: A language used among speakers of different languages for trade and commerce Lingua franc : commercial language of the Franks (southern France) in

Mediterranean (mixed w/ Italian, Greek, Spanish, Arabic)

Can be a single language, or a mixture of two or more languages

English is now considered the linguistic common denominator that binds together multilingual India

Swahili is the lingua franca of most of Africa (combination of Bantu, Arabic, Persian) 100 million speakers


Pidgin language: A language created when people combine parts of two or more languages into a simplified structure and vocabulary Has a limited vocabulary Very few grammatical rules Is not the first language of any person


Creole language: A pidgin language that has developed a more complex structure and vocabulary and has become the native language of a group of people Examples:

Afrikaans (West German, S. Africa, Namibia, Batswana, Zimbabwe, Dutch, Malay, Portuguese, Bantu)

Swahili Bazaar Malay (Malaysian & Chinese traders)

spoken from Philippines to Malaysia Haitian Creole

Multilingualism

Monolingual state: A country in which only one language is spoken Japan, Venezuela, Iceland No country is truly

Multilingual state: A country in which more than one language is in use Can, Belg.

Official language: Government-selected language or languages to try to enhance communication in a multilingual state Attempt to tie the nation

together Often the language of the

colonizer The powerful elite and

education

Problem with multi-lingual states

Increased cost of printing government signs and literature

Confusion, as some place names are identified differently in different languages

Antagonism between different language speakers

Global Language

English as lingua franca for Commerce Science Travel Business Popular culture

Differences between American and British English

Different pronunciation of words, spelling of words (civilization/civilisation) , vocabulary for some objects (football/soccer)

(approx. 40 countries use English as an official language)

Continued use of native languages for day-to-day activities

What Role Does Language Play in Making Places?

Place: The uniqueness of a location, what people do in a location, what they create, how they impart a certain character, a certain imprint on the location

Toponym: A place name Imparts a certain character on a place

Reflects the social processes in a place

Can give a glimpse of the history of a place

Changing Toponyms

Major reasons people change toponyms

After decolonization

After a political revolution

Descriptive - rocky mountains

Associative - mill valley, CA

Commemorative - San Francisco

Commendatory - Paradise Valley, Ar

Incidents - Battle Creek, MI

Possession- Johnson City, Texas

Folk culture - Plains, Georgia

Manufactured - Truth and Consequences, NM

Mistakes - Lasker, NC (named after Alaska)

Shift names - relocated names …… Lancaster PA, Lancaster England, Rome, GA…… Cairo, GA

Changing Toponyms

Commodification

- pop culture, common to by, sell and trade toponyms for the purpose of profiting from names

- Disney Corp.

-Euro Disney, Japan

- branding of places

- Coors field, FedEx Field, MCI Center, Fleet Center

- THAT’S ALL FOLKS………………….

LANGUAGE Chapter 6. Belgium Language has been a divisive issue in Belgium for years Flemish,...

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