scholarly journals Aboriginal linguistic exchange in an Australian city

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Mansfield
Keyword(s):  
Resource Sharing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Social Connections ◽  
Urban Mobility ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Australian City ◽  
Multiple Languages ◽  
Permanent Residents

Tropical northern Australia is a region of high linguistic diversity, with dozens of language varieties each spoken by a small number of people. Traditionally, this level of diversity has been supported by egalitarian linguistic ecologies, where Aboriginal people use multiple languages alongside one another in each local region. In this study, I explore new types of multilingual practices that are emerging in Darwin, the only major city in the area. Aboriginal people from the homelands often visit Darwin, and some become permanent residents, which provides the context for new types of multilingual encounters. Kriol and English are also used as a ‘fall-back’ languages to mitigate gaps in understanding, which allows linguistic exchange to occur between people who have only partial knowledge of each others’ languages. I characterise these practices as ‘linguistic exchange’, used by speakers to establish their links to kin and country, while also showing respect for their interlocutor’s social connections. Linguistic exchange also supports the distinctive Aboriginal mode of demand-driven resource sharing. Aboriginal language use in Darwin suggests that urban mobility is not necessarily detrimental to the future vitality of the region’s rich linguistic heritage.

scholarly journals “My Language is Like My Mother”: Aspects of Language Attitudes in a Bilingual Farsi-Azerbaijani Context in Iran

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini ◽  
Parisa Abazari
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Questionnaire Data ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Semistructured Interviews

AbstractThe consequence of globalization in many bilingual and multilingual communities appears to be the increased endangerment of language varieties and the speeding erosion of linguistic diversity. Understanding this concern and its associated issues of language contact, conflict, and maintenance may be considerably enhanced by exploring attitudes of communities towards the language varieties they live with. In this exploratory study we investigate attitudes of a group of bilingual Farsi-Azerbaijani speakers in the Iranian city of Tabriz towards the Azerbaijani language. Based on questionnaire data and semistructured interviews, the study explores the participants’ emotional attitudes towards Azerbaijani as well as their position regarding its application in some domains of language use. The study depicts the participants’ positive emotions and feelings towards their local language but at the same time reveals their hesitation and reservations in approving of its use in some domains of language use, education and new media in particular. On this basis, we argue that the safe status of a language even with the magnitude of Azerbaijani in Iran cannot be taken for granted and further comprehensive and in-depth research may be needed in this regard.

First grammar books in the Habsburg Monarchy: individual initiative and regulatory interference by the state (1760s–1770s)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 (2 (11)) ◽  
pp. 137-157
Author(s):  
Olga V. Khavanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
German Language ◽  
Habsburg Monarchy ◽  
Private Initiative ◽  
The One

The second half of the eighteenth century in the lands under the sceptre of the House of Austria was a period of development of a language policy addressing the ethno-linguistic diversity of the monarchy’s subjects. On the one hand, the sphere of use of the German language was becoming wider, embracing more and more segments of administration, education, and culture. On the other hand, the authorities were perfectly aware of the fact that communication in the languages and vernaculars of the nationalities living in the Austrian Monarchy was one of the principal instruments of spreading decrees and announcements from the central and local authorities to the less-educated strata of the population. Consequently, a large-scale reform of primary education was launched, aimed at making the whole population literate, regardless of social status, nationality (mother tongue), or confession. In parallel with the centrally coordinated state policy of education and language-use, subjects-both language experts and amateur polyglots-joined the process of writing grammar books, which were intended to ease communication between the different nationalities of the Habsburg lands. This article considers some examples of such editions with primary attention given to the correlation between private initiative and governmental policies, mechanisms of verifying the textbooks to be published, their content, and their potential readers. This paper demonstrates that for grammar-book authors, it was very important to be integrated into the patronage networks at the court and in administrative bodies and stresses that the Vienna court controlled the process of selection and financing of grammar books to be published depending on their quality and ability to satisfy the aims and goals of state policy.

Gay (White) Male Speech and the E(race)sure of Identity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianna R. Cornelius
Keyword(s):  
Racial Identity ◽  
Language Use ◽  
White Male ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gay Identity ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Gay Male ◽  
Men Of Color ◽  
African American Language

Although a notable body of work has emerged describing gay male speech (GMS), its overlap with African American language (AAL) remains comparatively understudied. This chapter explores the assumption of whiteness that has informed research on gay identity and precluded intersectional considerations in sociolinguistic research. Examining the importance of racial identity, particularly Blackness, to the construction of gay identity in the United States, the chapter investigates the treatment of GMS as white by default, with the voices of gay men of color considered additive. The desire vs. identity debate in language and sexuality studies contributed to an understanding of gay identity as community-based practice, thereby laying a necessary framework for the study of GMS. However, this framework led to a virtually exclusive focus on white men’s language use. Although efforts to bring a community-based understanding to gay identity have been groundbreaking, the lack of consideration of intersectionality has erased contributions to GMS from racially based language varieties, such as AAL.

scholarly journals Language Ideologies and Transnational Migration: A Study of Cape Verdeans in Galicia

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Nicola Bermingham
Keyword(s):  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Peripheral Region ◽  
Cape Verde ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Cape Verdean ◽  
Language Identity ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Symbolic Resource

Changes to the global infrastructure have contributed to the growing (linguistic) diversity of large metropolises. However, there have been calls from scholars to explore “emerging superdiversity” (DePalma and Pérez-Caramés 2018) in peripheral regions in order to fully understand the complexities and nuances of the sociolinguistics of globalisation (Wang et al. 2014; Pietikäinen et al. 2016). This article, therefore, explores language ideologies among a purposive sample of five young adults of Cape Verdean origin living in the peripheral region of Galicia, Spain, and draws on interview data to examine the ways in which multilingual migrants engage with the language varieties in their linguistic repertoire. In studying immigration from a former African colony to a bilingual European context, we can see how language ideologies from the migrant community are reflected in local ones. The sociolinguistic dynamics of Cape Verde and Galicia share many similarities: both contexts are officially bilingual (Galician and Spanish in Galicia, Kriolu and Portuguese in Cape Verde), and questions regarding the hierarchisation of languages remain pertinent in both cases. The ideologies about the value and prestige of (minority) languages that Cape Verdean migrants arrive with are thus accommodated by local linguistic ideologies in Galicia, a region which has a history of linguistic minoritisation. This has important implications for the ways in which language, as a symbolic resource, is mobilised by migrants in contexts of transnational migration. The findings of this study show how migrants are key actors in (re)shaping the linguistic dynamics of their host society and how, through their practices and discourses, they challenge long-standing assumptions about language, identity and linguistic legitimacy, and call into question ethno-linguistic boundaries.

Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: Inherent Translanguaging in the Linguistic Landscape of Sarajevo

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Tankosić ◽  
Jason Litzenberg
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Common Core ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Primary Language ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Southeastern Europe ◽  
Linguistic Identity ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Balkan Region ◽  
Town Center

Abstract Language in the Balkan region of Southeastern Europe has a complex and turbulent history, acutely embodied in the tripartite and trilingual state of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in which Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs all make claim to their own mutually-intelligible varieties of local “languages”. This study utilizes a linguistic landscape methodology to consider language use in Sarajevo, the capital of BiH, approximately 20 years after a brutal war that led to the establishment of the country. Data originate from three municipalities within the Sarajevo Canton – namely, Old Town, Center, and Ilidža – because of their representation of the region’s diversity and history. Signs were classified according to the three primary language varieties, i.e., Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian; BCS, representing a common core among the three varieties, as well as English, other languages, and mixed languages. The application of BCS uniquely positions the present research in comparison to other studies of language use in the region and allows for a more nuanced, less politically and ethnolinguistically fraught analysis of the communicative tendencies of users. More specifically, data indicate that actors in the linguistic landscape transcend the boundaries of their national, ethnic, and religious identities by tending towards the more neutral BCS, suggesting an orientation towards more translingual dispositions than previous variety-bound approaches have indicated. Thus, instead of the divisiveness of linguistic identity politics, the linguistic landscape of Sarajevo indicates a tendency toward inclusion and linguistic egalitarianism.

scholarly journals LANGUAGE VARIATIONS IN DEPOK: A STUDY OF LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE AND DIALECTOLOGY

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sri Munawarah ◽  
Frans Asisi Datang
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Public Landscapes

Written languages are present in various media in public landscapes, such as notice boards, banners, or bumper stickers. Studying these simple signs is the starting point in observing how a language variety exists and interacts with other languages. It is interesting to study how the instances of written texts found in public landscapes can be an indicator of what language variety is actually used by the inhabitants of Depok. Based on its history and its geography, a hypothesis states that many speakers of Betawi language and Sundanese reside in Depok. The study is aimed at demonstrating the written language varieties found in Depok public landscapes based on written evidence which are compared with language varieties based on the regional variation (dialectology). This qualitative study used the sociogeolinguistic approach combining sociolinguistics, linguistic landscape, and dialectology (geolinguistics). The results show there are two language use distributions in Depok, the Sundanese and the Betawi language. From the landscapes, Betawi language is used in billboards, restaurant signboards, and local government banners. The study is useful for the local government in their efforts to confirm the identity of Depok people.

scholarly journals Linking Norms, Ratings, and Relations of Words and Concepts Across Multiple Language Varieties

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annika Tjuka ◽  
Robert Forkel ◽  
Johann-Mattis List
Keyword(s):  
Web Application ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Data Curation ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Types ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Diverse Data ◽  
Multiple Languages ◽  
Word Frequencies

Psychologists and linguists have collected a great diversity of data for word and concept properties. In psychology, many studies accumulate norms and ratings such as word frequencies or age-of-acquisition often for a large number of words. Linguistics, on the other hand, provides valuable insights into relations of word meanings. We present a collection of those data sets for norms, ratings, and relations that cover different languages: ‘NoRaRe.’ To enable a comparison between the diverse data types, we established workflows that facilitate the expansion of the database. A web application allows convenient access to the data (https://digling.org/norare/). Furthermore, a software API ensures consistent data curation by providing tests to validate the data sets. The NoRaRe collection is linked to the database curated by the Concepticon project (https://concepticon.clld.org) which offers a reference catalog of unified concept sets. The link between words in the data sets and the Concepticon concept sets makes a cross-linguistic comparison possible. In three case studies, we test the validity of our approach, the accuracy of our workflow, and the applicability of our database. The results indicate that the NoRaRe database can be applied for the study of word properties across multiple languages. The data can be used by psychologists and linguists to benefit from the knowledge rooted in both research disciplines.

Language Education Policy and Sociolinguistics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Jaspers
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Language Education Policy ◽  
Reform Initiatives ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Nation States

Language education policies are pivotal in nation-states’ negotiation of a globalizing economy and a diversifying population. But certainly in urban, non-elite schools, where pupils’ linguistic diversity is pronounced, the fixation on language separation and multi-monolingualism produces salient sites of linguistic friction. Much scholarly work has successfully problematized this friction, producing an avalanche of criticism and ample calls for changes in schools’ approach to pupils’ primary linguistic skills and mixed language use. This chapter argues that while such calls are pedagogically exciting and justified on principle, a significant number of them reproduce some of the main assumptions behind the policies that they denounce, or invite problems of their own. Consequently, many calls for change may underestimate the difficulties of policy implementation, exaggerate their own effects, and overstate their critical character. This necessitates a reconsideration of the received relation between sociolinguistics and language education policy, and a revision of reform initiatives.

Linguistic Diversity in India’s Polity and Economy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selma K. Sonntag
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Economic Liberalization ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Linguistic Dimension ◽  
Regional Languages

This chapter examines the linguistic dimension of the tension between India’s democratic politics and its liberalized economy. I argue that there is a divergence between languages used in the polity and languages used in the economy. In the polity, characterized by a semblance of empowerment through the electoral participation of the weaker sections of society, vernacular languages predominate. In contrast, the language of the economy in India, particularly since economic liberalization in 1991, tends to be English. It is in the economy that India’s class and caste chasm manifests itself linguistically: between the English-speaking elite and the vernacular-speaking masses. While the noted Indian economist, Deepak Nayyar, warns of an impending clash between the democratically empowered masses and the economically privileged elite, I suggest that in terms of language use India’s robust democracy may well trump market forces. And while linguists have warned that English as the language of the globalized marketplace can have dire consequences for linguistic diversity, I argue that India’s linguistic diversity, at least in terms of its major regional languages, remains impressive. In the case of India, I conclude, the spread of the language of globalization, English, as the language of the economy, is mediated by the languages used in India’s vibrant democracy.

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