Chinese urban language in historical perspective

Three contemporaneous descriptions of Guānhuà from the beginning of the 19th century collectively provide a rich and evocative representation that contains a trove of details regarding the nature of that koine and its relationship to Mandarin and local dialects in the urban linguistic milieu of the late Qīng. The descriptions are those of Gāo Jìngtíng (fl. 1800–1810), Lǐ Rǔzhēn (c. 1763–1830), and Robert Morrison (1782–1834). We find that all three note the existence of two forms of Guānhuà, a northern type, and a southern type. The three authors all present a mix of northern and southern types in their descriptions, though each also gives greater prominence to the southern type. This southern type has a close connection to the southern Jiāng-Huái Mandarin dialects, and takes the dialect of Nánjīng as a primary representative. In overall perspective, these three authors’ descriptions also reveal there was widespread acceptance of, and social accommodation for, linguistic diversity in Qīng China, within which Guānhuà served as the lingua franca that promoted easy communication across China’s vast territory.

How to commentate a soccer match in Shipibo-Konibo (Pano)?

The present paper lists and illustrates eleven strategies that are systematically used by Shipibo-Konibo speakers in order to comment live soccer matches in the context of an indigenous soccer cup informally called “Mundialito Shipibo”. We argue that these lexical, morphosyntactic and discursive strategies can be classified into three types according to their function: iconic strategies, which attempt to present the information more vividly (onomatopoeic forms and ideophones, reduplications, parallel structures and hearsay-quotatives); emotional strategies, which are used by soccer commentators to express their emotions and their feelings (interjections, player-directed speech and diminutives); and proximity strategies, which bring the speech closer to the Shipibo-Konibo audience (lexical Shipibo-Konibo innovations, vocatives, evidential access configurations and code alternations). These various strategies are crucial for understanding the new social dynamics that the Shipibo-Konibo language is getting into as a consequence of becoming an urban language, and are clearly creating a new speech genre. The new social uses that the Shipibo-Konibo people are giving to their language and the features that the language is developing in this new social context are crucial to understand the future of Shipibo-Konibo and other minority languages in Peru.

Ergonyms of Educational and Cultural spheres in two of Baltic States cities

Daugavpils (Latvia) and Narva (Estonia) are cities in the Baltic States and signifi cant cultural and economic centres of their respective countries. These cities are characterized by a minority of nationals (19.8% of residents of Daugavpils are Latvian, 4% of residents of Narva are Estonian) and a similar linguistic situation: there is a dominance of Russian in the press, television and radio, but the state language prevails in the urban language signs.The aim of the study is to analyse the linguistic and extralinguistic means used for the creation of ergonyms of educational and cultural spheres. The main criteria for the analysis are: language choice, grammatical structures, sources of precedent and semantic groups. The data for this study were collected in city websites. Some conclusions: 1) Mixed proper names (the direct name and symbolical name) prevail: in Daugavpils there are more mixed names in the fi eld of education, while in Narva there are more mixed names in the culture sphere. Onymization of nomenclature names can be observed. 2) Ergonyms are mostly created in the offi cial language. In Narva, there is explicit use of Russian (directly as the fi rst/second or third language and indirectly – in transliteration). 3) In symbolical names, there are more lexemes representing or characterizing wildlife, while in Narva also the potential of mythology, literature and cinema is used. Denotative precedent is more often found in the names of informal educational institutions and the cultural sphere, connotative precedent – in the names of kindergartens. 4) In general, it must be concluded that the specifi c things characteristic to the local environment are used more often in Narva, while respecting the unique experience of minorities.

Soziolinguistische Determinanten der Danziger Stadtsprache

Sociolinguistic determinants of Gdańsk's urban language. Summary: This paper describes the pre-1945 language of the city of Gdańsk, which was a peripheral variety of Standard German. Gdańsk was the lingusitic Tower of Babel since its beginnings. Such a multilingual melting pot necessitated cooperation and acceptance for linguistic and cultural diversity, which led to linguistic accommodation and assimilation. A clash of various related and unrelated language systems created favourable conditions for the emergance and development of a language continuum (Danziger Missingsch), which with time became the characteristic colloquial urban language used by Gdańsk's speech community. It was also used outside of the city borders as a way of demonstrating one's belonging to Gdańsk's cultural and language community. Streszczenie: Artykuł poświęcony został potocznemu językowi miejskiemu, używanemu w Gdańsku do roku 1945, stanowiącemu peryferyjną odmianę niemieckiego języka narodowego. Gdańsk był od zawsze językową wieżą Babel. W tym multietnicznym tyglu konieczna była współpraca i akceptacja odmienności kulturowej i językowej, co prowadziło siłą rzeczy do językowej akomodacji i asymilacji. Zderzanie się różnych, spokrewnionych i niespokrewnionych systemów językowych stworzyło warunki dla powstania i rozwoju kontinuum językowego (Danziger Missingsch), które z czasem stało się charakterystycznym, potocznym językiem miejskim, używanym w obrębie gdańskiej wspólnoty komunikacyjnej, funkcjonujcym nie tylko w codziennej komunikacji lecz także poza granicami wspólnoty w celu demonstrowania przynależności do gdańskiej wspólnoty kulturowej i językowej.

Se débrouiller à Dakar : langue(s) et culture(s) urbaines dans la bande dessinée Goorgoorlou de T.T. Fons

In his successful comics series Goorgoorlou, the Senegalese journalist and cartoonist T.T. Fons depicts the difficulties of the day-to-day life in Dakar through the tragicomic adventures of the hero Goor, a symbol of the Senegalese everyman struggling with debts, political unrest, social distress and cultural paradoxes. This article introduces the economic, political and cultural context before discussing the linguistic features and the Italian translation of the series. Through vibrant images and a shared urban language, T.T. Fons shapes a national conscience out of a satirical publication and offers the readers a window into the dynamic linguistic landscape of Dakar. Goor speaks to all those who feel abandoned and deceived by the government in a way that truly reflects the multi-faceted linguistic system of urban Senegal: a skilful and authentic blend of French, Wolof, humoristic distortions and local idioms. Because its linguistic configuration acts as a de facto legitimation of an emerging urban culture between the late 1980s and the early 2000s, providing a suitable translation of the comics series into Italian has proved to be a challenging endeavour.

Urban Syntax

The article puts forward the hypothesis of the possible existence of direct and reverse communication between the subject of "city resident" and the object of "urban structure". The features of "urban Language" are considered. The theme of everyday "urban slang" development through the spatial compilation of the city forms is also raised. Some chronological features of the urban Language model formation (archaism and neologism in the context of "urban Language") are revealed. The author introduced new terms describing the phenomena of archetypaLization of urban syntactic forms. The author stresses that the city shouLd be perceived as a deveLoping LinguaL-urban model, a professionaL anaLysis of which provides an opportunity to unveiL current trends in urban development This kind of monitoring wiLL aLLow architects to design reLevant modeLs regarding the existing status of urban deveLopment.