“Présenter aux lecteurs français la littérature orale telle qu’elle sortait de la bouche des paysans”

The study of the language of publication of folklore offers a unique perspective on the sociolinguistic history of regional languages in 19th century France as well as on the wider cultural context of contemporary folklore collection. Regional languages had a subordinate sociolinguistic status vis-à-vis French, yet they had preserved a richer folklore heritage, which, during the golden age of folklore collection, was also considered to be a valuable part of French national cultural heritage. The fact that the folktales of regional languages were often published first or only in French translation reflects both the hegemonic position of French and the prevailing contemporary perception of folktales primarily as a universal human cultural inheritance rather than as the literary heritage of specific cultures; folktale publications were typically aimed at a wider national readership and the perceived universal content – tale types and motifs – was considered more important than the linguistic form and cultural context. However, the fact that folktale and above all folksong collections were also published in the original regional languages shows that there was a genuine choice of language of publication. The publication of folktales only in translation was controversial because the lack of original texts – as well as a lack of transparency concerning the collection process – potentially undermined the authenticity of the published folklore. The publication of folklore only in translation also resulted in the loss of an important part of the cultural heritage of the regional languages and its effective appropriation as French national and French language cultural heritage.

A Robust Approach to Variation in Carpathian Rusyn: Resampling-Based Methods for Small Data Sets

Quantitative, corpus based research on spontaneous spoken Carpathian Rusyn language can cause several data-related problems: Speakers are using ambivalent forms in different quantities, resulting in a biased data set – while a stricter data-cleaning process would lead to a large scale data loss. On top of that, polytomous categorical dependent variables are hard to analyze due to methodological limitations. This paper provides several approaches to face unbalanced and biased data sets containing variation of conjugational forms of the verb maty ‘to have’ and (po-)znaty ‘to know’ in Carpathian Rusyn language. Using resampling based methods like Cross-Validation, Bootstrapping and Random Forests, we provide a strategy for circumventing possible methodological pitfalls and gaining the most information from our precious data, without trying to p-hack the results. Calculating the predictive power of several sociolinguistic factors on linguistic variation, we can make valid statements about the (sociolinguistic) status of Rusyn and the stability of the old dialect continuum of Rusyn varieties.

Cultural Dominance and Language Endangerment: The case of Efut in Cross River State, Nigeria

The Efut culture, and by extension language, seems to have been mortally threatened after their speakers’ migration to Nigeria from Cameroun in the 16th Century. The linguistic situation resulting in language shift was especially exacerbated in the last seven decades, largely due to the dominant cultural influence of Efik, Ibibio and English. The most ostensive vestige of the language manifests in the Ekpe ‘Leopard’ secret society songs, rituals and proverbs (performed by, and intelligible mostly to octogenarians). The Efut language sociolinguistic status is between post moribund and dead stage(s). This paper attempts, therefore, to x-ray ways to revitalize and revive it. Two such revival strategies are the use of digital communication technology and Efut in Nollywood movies. Data for this work came mainly from songs, proverbs, interviews, wordlist and available historical literature. The prognosis for reviving Efut appears realistically poor, at present. However, with appropriate input and pragmatic will from all stakeholders, it would be hasty, uncharitable, to consign the language to irreversible extinction. This optimism is sustainable only if language engineers, policymakers and the Efut nation do not continue to sit on the fence.

The Sociolinguistic Status Quo of the English Language Departments in Jordan: A Language Planning Perspective

This study aims at investigating the missions and visions of the English departments in Jordan from a language planning perspective. To this end, a questionnaire was developed following Tollefson's model (1989) with a modified version of the instruments used in the previous studies conducted by Al-Abed Al-Haq and Smadi (1996) and Abu Dalbouh (2002). The items of the questionnaire targeted the five main elements of the study: the adequacy of the current objectives of the English departments, the adequacy of the English language courses, the sociolinguistic relation between students and English language, the English department policies, and the potential stakeholders involved in formulating a language planning policy. The questionnaire was distributed to 150 English language majors in three public universities in Jordan. The study concluded that the objectives of the English language departments are theoretical rather than practical, revealing a mismatch between the objectives and plans on the one hand and the outcomes of these departments, on the other. The findings also indicated that the objectives of the English departments are too ambitious and far beyond the needs of the students and the needs of the market; thus, a reconsideration of the policy followed by these departments is urgently needed. Keywords: Language planning and policy, Sociolinguistics, English departments, Missions, Visions, Objectives.

Nakh-Dagestanian Languages

The chapter is a survey of the Nakh-Daghestanian family (also known as East Caucasian), one of the indigenous language families spoken in the Caucasus. The family comprises more than 30 languages, some of which are spoken by only a few hundred people and remain unwritten and/or underdescribed. The chapter provides general information about the sociolinguistic status of Nakh-Daghestanian languages and the history of their research as well as their phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. The languages of the family have rich consonant systems and are morphologically ergative, head-final, with rich case systems, complex verbal paradigms, and pervasive gender-number agreement. Alongside the major transitive and intransitive lexical verb classes, verbs of perception and cognition with the dative experiencer subject usually comprise one or more minor valency classes with non-canonically marked subjects. Among valency-increasing derivations, the causative is the most prominent. The most typical subordination strategies are non-finite, making use of participles, converbs, infinitives and verbal nouns.

Ways to determine the sociolinguistic status of migrant children as potential Russian school students

В статье анализируется построение социолингвистического портрета, выступающего в качестве основания, позволяющего уточнить статус детей мигрантов – потенциальных учеников российской школы, которых относят к особому типу учащихся. Представлены результаты изучения вопроса на основе: а) анализа отечественной и зарубежной научно-методической литературы по данной проблематике; б) мониторинга статистических данных об итогах тестирования трудящихся мигрантов, т.е. взрослых – потенциальных родителей (данные собраны МЦТ ФПКП РКИ РУДН за три года); в) масштабирования выявленной картины применительно к детям мигрантов. Сделаны выводы, дополняю-щие социолингвистический портрет детей мигрантов (с учетом типичности Центра тестирования для России, а также экстраполяции выводов о взрослой аудитории на детскую). The article focuses on building a sociolinguistic portrait as for clarifying the status of migrant children – the potential students of Russian school, who are classified as special kind of students in terms of school linguodidactics. Research goal is to identify and test another way of determining sociolinguistic status of migrant children. The presented study on the issue results are based: a) on the analysis of domestic and foreign scientific and methodical literature on this issue; b) on monitoring statistics on the results of testing migrant workers, adults – potential parents (data collected by the ICT FPKP RCT PFUR for three years); c) on scaling the identified picture as applied to the children of migrants. Thus, conclusions made complement the sociolinguistic portrait of migrant children (taking into account the typicality of the Testing Center for Russia, as well as extrapolating conclusions about an adult audience to child).

Analysis of the Sociolinguistic Status of Saudi Female Personal Names

Names are more likely to be considered as cultural tags used to signify some deep-rooted aspects within the culture of a given speech community. In Saudi Arabia, naming is linked with religion, traditions, values, beliefs, and events in people's lives. This paper aims at investigating Saudi female personal names from a sociolinguistic perspective and it suggests that these names are not mere arbitrary tags, but socio-cultural labels that occupy socio-cultural meanings and functions. For this reason, the current study draws on a stratified sample size of 280 Saudi female personal names collected by the researcher qualitatively by means of oral interviews as the tool for data collection. The analysis takes the form of a typology of Saudi female personal names and they were classified into different categories such as names relating to religious backgrounds, Bedouin-bound names, kinship names, family names, circumstantial names, foreign names, etc. As a result, the study will be a valuable contribution to the body of Arabic anthroponomy as it shows how the selection of Saudi female personal names is influenced by the ideology, culture, religion, attitudes, and social values of Saudi communities. The study concludes that that (delete) the spread of foreign names may constitute a threat to the cultural identity of Saudis, an argument that calls for further investigation to either confirm or disconfirm it.

Effects of language dominance on home reading practices of bilingual families

Aims and objectives: Many children grow up in bilingual families; however, little is known about how these families use their two languages in their home reading practices. The goal of this study was to examine the effect of language proficiency on the shared storybook reading practices of bilingual families. Methodology: We gathered questionnaire data about home reading activities in French–English bilingual families with 5-year-old children ( n = 66) who had different proficiency levels in each language. Data and analyses: We compared home reading environment, parent reading practices, and child learning and interest in books across the families’ dominant and non-dominant languages using a series of 2-way mixed analyses of variance. Findings: Families gave more emphasis to reading practices in the family’s dominant language: they owned more books, read more often, spent more time, and started reading to the child at an earlier age in the dominant than in the non-dominant language. Dominance also affected parent reading behaviors: parents reported more often translating words and switching from their non-dominant to their dominant language. Parents reported that children enjoyed being read to and readily learned new words in both languages, but ratings were higher for the dominant language. Effects of dominance were strongest in families with less balanced language dominance. Originality: This study compares bilingual families’ home reading practices in both of their languages, providing a clearer picture of how families navigate early dual-language literacy in a bilingual community where both languages are spoken in everyday life and have similar sociolinguistic status. Significance: Results suggest that even in bilingual communities, family home reading practices may exacerbate uneven development across children’s two languages. These findings highlight the importance of identifying strategies to support enriched home reading practices in bilingual families’ non-dominant language.

Khoisan

This chapter presents a brief historical survey of research on languages grouped under the name Khoisan, consisting of three distinct language families: !Ui (also known as Northern Khoisan), Khoe (also known as Central Khoisan), and Tuu (also known as Southern Khoisan), Kwadi in Angola, as well as two languages spoken in Tanzania, Hadza and Sandawe. All extant members of this areal grouping have clicks. Many Khoisan languages have become extinct over the centuries, and in modern times, due to the more prestigious status of other languages, in particular in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. A brief survey is presented of the phonetic and phonological features of these languages as well as of their sociolinguistic status. Also, the digitization of recently collected language materials as well as materials from the past is discussed.