scholarly journals Redefining Forro as a marker of identity: Language contact as a driving force for language maintenance among Santomeans in Portugal

Multilingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Eve Bouchard

AbstractIn São Tomé and Príncipe, the language shift toward Portuguese is resulting in the endangerment of the native creoles of the island. These languages have been considered of low value in Santomean society since the mid-twentieth century. But when Santomeans are members of a diaspora, their perceptions of these languages, especially Forro, change in terms of value and identity-marking. It is possible to observe such changes among the Santomeans who learn Forro when they are abroad, who use it as an in-group code, and start to value it more. In this article, I address the role of language contact in the maintenance and expansion of Forro. I investigate the mechanisms of language maintenance by focusing on the shifts in community members’ attitudes and beliefs regarding their languages, as a result of contact. The changing attitudes and beliefs have led to a redefinition of the role of Forro in the speech community. This qualitative study is based on semistructured interviews conducted on São Tomé Island and in Portugal. Findings suggest that the change in value attributed to Forro by Santomeans as a result of contact contribute to the valorization of the language.

Slovene ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria S. Morozova ◽  
Alexander Yu. Rusakov

The article aims to clarify the notion of “balanced language contact” and to model the situation of a language contact (in the present and the past) in one of the ethnically and linguistically mixed regions of the Montenegrin-Albanian linguistic border. The study focuses on the situation in the bilingual community of thevillageofVelja Gorana, located in the area of Mrkovići inSouthern Montenegro. The community of the village, as it seems at a first glance, provides a good example of a “balanced contact” situation. The language situation in Velja Gorana is described in the article as a set of micro-situations, or scenarios, developing on family and individual levels. Attention is paid not only to the communication in the family domain, but also to the external relations of the community members. Following on from this material, the authors attempt to develop a methodology for assessing the role of both languages in such communities in general, showing which factors influence individual linguistic behavior; how this behavior may change during an individual lifetime; how the different speakers’ strategies amalgamate in what can be considered as behavior of a multilingual speech community. Analyzing the information on the history of Velia Gorana, in particular, conducting a detailed examination of the origins, genealogies and marriage strategies of its families, allows the authors to reconstruct the mechanisms for the development of “linguistic exogamy” in the community of Velja Gorana and to make assumptions about the nature of the contact situation in this region in the past.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1567-1574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tryphosa Siweya ◽  
Tholene Sodi ◽  
Mbuyiselo Douglas

Traditional male circumcision (TMC) is a cultural ritual that involves the removal of the penile foreskin of a male person undertaken as part of a rite of passage from childhood into adulthood. The aim of the study was to determine the notions of manhood in TMC by African adolescent boys in Ngove Village, Limpopo Province. This was a qualitative study that sampled a total of 20 adolescent boys through purposive sampling. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and analyzed through interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). Five main themes emerged from this study, namely: (a) TMC as a passage to manhood, (b) the role of TMC in role modeling, (C) fearlessness and aggressiveness as qualities of manhood in TMC, (d) TMC as indicating readiness for heterosexual relationships, and (e) the decline in the practice of TMC. The study concludes with discussion and recommendation of integration of both traditional male circumcision and medical male circumcision (MMC) with specific tactfulness and respect of the notion of manhood value embedment in the process to gain cooperation of the local community members affected.


Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Judit Vari ◽  
Marco Tamburelli

Language maintenance efforts aim to bolster attitudes towards endangered languages by providing them with a standard variety as a means to raise their status and prestige. However, the introduced variety can vary in its degrees of standardisation. This paper investigates whether varying degrees of standardisation surface in explicit attitudes towards standard varieties in endangered vernacular speech communities. Following sociolinguistic models of standardisation, we suggest that explicit attitudes towards the standard variety indicate its acceptance in vernacular speech communities, reflecting its overall degree of standardisation. We use the standardised Attitudes towards Language (AtoL) questionnaire to investigate explicit attitudes towards the respective standard varieties in two related vernacular speech communities—the Belgische Eifel in Belgium and the Éislek in Luxembourg. The vernacular of these speech communities, Moselle Franconian, is considered generally vulnerable (UNESCO), and the two speech communities have opted to introduce different standard varieties: Standard Luxembourgish in Luxembourg shows lower degrees of standardisation and is only partially implemented. In contrast, Standard German in the Belgian speech community is highly standardised and completely implemented. Results show that degrees of standardisation surface in speakers’ explicit attitudes. Our findings have important implications for the role of standardisation in language maintenance efforts.


Author(s):  
Xavier Castelló ◽  
Lucía Loureiro-Porto ◽  
Maxi San Miguel

AbstractThis article uses computer simulations as a means of assessing two different models for the competition between two languages from the interdisciplinary perspective of complex systems. These models allow for the analysis of the role of bilingual speakers and they consider two of the basic factors determining the use of each language: their relative prestige and the language loyalty of their speakers. Here we assess the effect of these parameters in different social networks, with the aim of contributing to the understanding of the role of bilingualism and social networks in processes of language contact. We first present a qualitative analysis based on a simulation tool that we have designed, in order to visualize the dynamics of the models. Secondly, we consider a qualitative analysis of the role of complex networks, identifying mechanisms for the rapid extinction of a language and for situations of language segregation. Finally, we present a quantitative analysis which shows, counter-intuitively, a transition from a final scenario of language maintenance to one of language shift as language loyalty increases. Other findings are: (i) that the scenario of language coexistence is reduced in the presence of bilingual agents; and (ii) that networks which allow for local effects reduce further the situations for which language maintenance is possible.


2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 237
Author(s):  
Maitena Etxebarria

The main goal of the research presented here is to study the Inga speech community. Inga is a Quechuan language, and its community is spread around the south of Colombia; the study tackles the features of language contact, Spanish/Inga or amongst any other languages known and used by the members of the community. We shall pay special attention to those communities around Sibundoy Valley (Putumayo), Atante (Nariño), Bota Caucana (Cauca), as well as to those already settled in the large Colombian urban areas such as Bogotá and Cali. Our main goal is to render an adequate characterization of this indigenous community: its territorial situation, its sociolinguistic characteristics, the degree and type of bilingualism amongst its members, the survival of the community members and of the language itself, the use and distribution of the language across communicative fields, especially in a context of diglosia, multilingualism and multiculturality typical of and intrinsic to Colombia, and the study of language awareness and sociolinguistic attitudes of this community.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1056-1069
Author(s):  
Nisar Ahmad Koka ◽  
Mohammad Nurul Islam ◽  
Mohammad Osman Abdul Wahab ◽  
Javed Ahmad

Studying the predominant occurrence and existence of English lexicon in other languages in contact with English has emerged out to be of immense interest among the researchers of sociolinguistics and theoretical linguistics. The present study is devoted to demonstrate various English-Kashmiri language contact situations and the subsequent diffusion/ flow of English words into the Kashmiri language. The study attempts to explore the significant role of media in its different forms in enhancing and determining the transport of English words into the speech of Kashmiri speakers. The study seeks to address the motivation and inspiration of Kashmiri speakers behind the English-Kashmiri linguistic shift, and the influence of the prevailing circumstances on this English-Kashmiri linguistic diffusion. The liberality of the English language in handing over such an enormously huge amount of word treasure to the Kashmiri language, and the receptivity of the Kashmiri language in accepting this vocabulary treasure from English at a very large scale has been thrown light on in the study. In the present study, an attempt has been made to display a comprehensive list of English words used in various domains of social life of the Kashmiri speech community.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yenita Uswar ◽  
Amrin Saragih ◽  
Tina Mariany Arifin

The objectives of this qualitative research were (1) to identify the factors that affect the Minangkabau language (ML) maintenance in Medan, (2) to discover the parents’ efforts in maintaining ML in Medan and (3) to find out the reason why the speakers have to maintain ML. The souree of data is the nembers of the Association of Sei Jaring Community (Ikatan Warga Sei Jaring: IWS) in Medan. The sample was 10 families including 10 parents and their children. The instruments of this study are a questionnaire and an interview. The questionnaire was used to answer the factors affected the maintenance of ML and how factors affected the maintenance of ML. The interview was used to discover the influence why Minangkabau’s people have to maintain ML. There are four factors in ML maintenance, the parents’ role, the role of family, the intramarriage and homeland visits. After distributing questionnaire and did some interviews it is found that IWS especially for the third generation (children) has the danger level in ML when they communicate to each other. Meanwhile, the data analysis also shows that both fathers and mothers communicate to each other with ML. This condition occurred because of the influence of the environment. Parents have to keep communication and teaching Minangkabau language continuously to their children. so, the young generation can keep the existence of ML for their future. Keywords: Minangkabau Language Maintenance, parents’ efforts, the young generation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Elvira Junita ◽  
Yuli Handayani ◽  
Lufita Nur Alfiah

AbstrakPermasalahan kesehatan yang timbul saat ini merupakan akibat dari perilaku hidup yang tidak sehat. Gaya hidup yang kurang baik mengakibatkan tingginya angka kejadian Penyakit Tidak Menular, Di Desa Rambah Hilir kunjungan penderita hipertensi dan diabetes di Puskesmas Rambah Hilir I di tahun 2018 ini sampai bulan Juni 66 kasus Hipertensi 27 Kasus Diabetes. Gerakan Masyarakat Hidup Sehat (GERMAS) merupakan progam Pemerintah untuk mengajak masyarakat hidup sehat dengan focus pada 3 kegiatan utama yaitu melakukan aktifitas fisik, makan buah sayur dan cek kesehatan secara rutin minimal enam bulan sekali.Dalam Program Kemitraan Masyarakat ini upaya yang dilakukan adalah meningkatkan gaya hidup sehat yakni meningkatnya aktifitas fisik yang dilakukan dengan melaksanakan kegiatan rutin senam bersama setiap hari minggu dan meningkatkan konsumsi buah dan sayur dengan memanfaatkan lahan perkarangan rumah warga dengan menanam buah dan sayur dihalaman rumah untuk memenuhi kebutuhan konsumsi buah dan sayur. Upaya Peningkatan peran masyarakat dalam memeriksakan kesehatannya dengan mendirikan posko kesehatan untuk memudahkan masyarakat dalam memeriksa kesehatannya. Luaran yang telah dicapai adalah Adanya kegiatan senam rutin, meningkatnya konsumsi buah dan sayur dengan Adanya tanaman buah dan sayur disetiap rumah warga, makan buah dan sayur bersama setiap hari minggu, Adanya pemeriksaan kesehatan secara berkala.Abstract.Health problems that currently emergeare resulted from unhealthy living behaviours. A bad lifestyle causes an increase innon-communicable diseases cases. According to patient visit data until June 2018 at the community health centre (Puskesmas) Rambah Hilir I, Rambah Hilir Village, Rokan Hulu, Riau, it shows that there were 66 cases of hypertension and 27 cases of diabetes.The Healthy Life Society Movement (GERMAS) is a government program to encourage people to live a healthy lifestyle focusing on 3 main activities namely physical activities, eating vegetables, together with regular health check-upsat least once every 6 months. This community partnership program attempts to enhance the healthy lifestyle by intensifying physical activitiesthrough a routine collective exercise on every Sunday and increasing fruits and vegetables consumption. The community members’ yards are used as land to grow fruits and vegetables for meeting the community’s needs. Regarding the effort to improve the role of the community members to check their health, it was carried out by establishing a health post to facilitate them in checking-up their health. Outputs that have been achieved are the routine exercise; an increase in fruits and vegetables consumptionasthere are fruit and vegetable plants in every resident's houses; eating fruits and vegetables collectively on every Sunday; as well as regular health check-ups.


Author(s):  
Nancy Farriss

Language and translation governed the creation of Mexican Christianity during the first centuries of colonial rule. Spanish missionaries collaborated with indigenous intellectuals to communicate the gospel in dozens of local languages that had previously lacked grammars, dictionaries, or alphabetic script. The major challenge to translators, more serious than the absence of written aids or the great diversity of languages and their phonetic and syntactical complexity, was the vast cultural difference between the two worlds. The lexical gaps that frustrated the search for equivalence in conveying fundamental Christian doctrines derived from cultural gaps that separated European experiences and concepts from those of the Indians. This study focuses on the Otomangue languages of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, especially Zapotec, and relates their role in the Dominican evangelizing program to the larger frame of culture contact in postconquest Mesoamerica. Fine-grained analysis of translated texts is used to reveal the rhetorical strategies of missionary discourse and combines with an examination of language contact in different social contexts. A major aim is to spotlight the role of the native elites in shaping what emerged as a new form of Christianity. As translators, chief catechists, and parish administrators they made evangelization in many respects an indigenous enterprise and the Mexican church it created an indigenous church.


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