Current Sociolinguistic Situation Research Articles

Ukrainian dialects of Northern Pidlasie: historical and cultural context

The article deals with the current sociolinguistic situation in the autochthonous Ukrainian dialects of Northern Podlasie (the territory of Poland) against the background of historical and cultural circumstances in which they have existed, especially in ХХ and early ХХI century. Particular attention is paid to the triad of “confessional – ethnic – linguistic affiliation”; the inculcation of the idea of “Belarusianness” to the population of this dialectal area, which has influenced the modern linguistic and ethnic consciousness of dialect speakers. The peculiarities of language education in Northern Podlasie are also analyzed. The factors that led to the preservation of Northern Podlasie dialects in multicultural conditions and, in fact, in the absence of direct contacts with Ukrainian dialects of the metropolis are identified; and on the other hand, the leveling of ethnic consciousness while preserving the specific language code. The current linguistic situation in the Northern Podlasie dialects is determined by the following main factors: age group of respondents, social status, occupation, family traditions, and, to a large extent, the size of the society, which determines the vitality of the dialect or, conversely, the loss of its prestige. The features of linguistic self-identification by modern speakers of Northern Podlasie dialects are investigated. The role of the idiolect in forming the portrait of the lateral dialect is studied. The tendency to the stability of idiolects in the context of the tangible dynamics of the dialect space is emphasized. The article also examines the written tradition of Northern Podlasie in the dialect, texts in the dialect of various functional styles, and different views on the status of Northern Podlasie dialects, including an attempt to establish a “Podlasie literary micro-language”. Dialectal features in the onomasticon and written microtexts of some other types are analyzed. Keywords: Ukrainian North Podlasie dialects, Ukrainian dialects in a foreign language environment, preservation of lateral dialects, language enclave, Ukrainian dialects of the borderlands.

Dialects in the Current Sociolinguistic Situation in Ukraine

The article attempts to consider Ukrainian dialects from a sociolinguistic perspective. In particular, the article describes the factors which influence attitudes to dialects and determine its level of prestige. The main factors described are Ukraine’s language policy and teachers' approaches to students' language competence. The article gives examples of statements by scholars, writers, and dialect speakers about the place of dialect in literary language and in everyday communication, as well as the phenomenon of switching codes from dialect to literary language or from dialect to another language, which often causes discomfort for dialect speakers and provokes intolerance in their peers. Ways to form a positive image of dialects are proposed, which could help improve the image of the Ukrainian language. Important measures which could be taken to achieve this aim are an increase interest in the publication of dialect texts and the creation of literary works in dialect.

Non eta nola mintzo den euskaraz, hizkuntza ofiziala ez den espazio batetan. Diglosiaren kontu : Iparraldetik ikuspegi bat.

This article analyses the socio-economic situation of Basque in the French Basque country. Basque's lack of official status is closely related to the means and conditions for starting up a range of organisational and formal initiatives, not to mention the current sociolinguistic situation. Apart from legal peculiarities, some of the challenges faced by Basque in Iparralde (the French Basque country), especially on the Lapurdi coast, are directly reflected in the employment sphere. This article also describes the response to these challenges in Iparralde, giving a kind of stakeholder map and outlining the evolution of the process of language revival. Faced with this challenge, the firm GOGAIDE was set up to work on this situation, and the article explains the origins and development of this initiative, describing four specific cases and sharing their learning results for the revival of the Basque language. • Key words: Northern Basque Country; advice; case study; socio-economics; sociolinguistics.

El concepto de la comunidad de práctica en el contexto de un grupo determinado de hablantes de a Fala de Xálima

The concept of community of practice in the context of a selected group of speakers of a Fala de Xálima The purpose of this paper is to study the current sociolinguistic situation of the language community of Xálima through the prism of the theory of community of practice. We define the community of practice as an aggregate of people who come together around mutual engagement in an endeavour of preserving and promoting their vernacular language. The empirical material will be a series of anthropological observations and comments on the semi-directed interviews, made in situ by the authors, in which we will analyse the efforts towards the orthographic standardization and their possible effects. We aim to demonstrate that the methodological principle of community of practice is applicable and suitable to shed new light over sociolinguistic minorized contexts, especially when conducting research in the field of the so-called third wave of sociolinguistics.

Vers une écologie linguistique des anciens chasseurs-cueilleurs du bassin central congolais

The article attempts to provide some sociolinguistic information about the former Hunter-Gatherers of the Central Congo Basin in the hope that they could arouse the same scientific interest as that which was carried out on the Bambuti Pygmies of Ituri and Aka of the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and Southern Cameroon. It emerges that all the questions raised and discussed so far in relation to the status of the languages spoken by these latter Pygmy tribes, their structure and their genetic affiliation also apply to the Pygmies of the Central Congo Basin. Thus, the article addresses, first and foremost, the problem of their near and distant origins and their current sociolinguistic situation, before going on to review the current state of linguistic research. A subclassification is then sketched based on common phonetic, morphosyntactic, and lexical characteristics to their languages as well as the traditions collected by the colonial administration.

On the Concepts of Imported Language and Newspeakerism in the Sociolinguistic Context of Lithuania

This article outlines the advantages of introducing some new terms to describe the current sociolinguistic situation in Lithuania. Its essential components are the heterogeneity of the country’s ethno-linguistic landscape, intensive internal and external migration and the different types of language practices within the country, which are the result of the first two factors. The term “imported language” proposed by the author of the article and the term “newspeakerism”, which has recently become established in European sociolinguistics, have not yet been used in the works of Lithuanian sociolinguists. However, these terms can be important for describing the linguistic specifics of some regions of Lithuania. The first term seems appropriate to denote the language of immigrants, which is used relatively widely in the host country, not only in family, but also in the everyday and official communication, and the second – for the sociolinguistic categorization of such immigrants. Most immigrants are residents of post-Soviet countries with native or well-mastered Russian language, therefore, in the article, it is Russian that is defined as an imported language.
 The paper examines the theoretical prerequisites for the introduction of new terms for a more accurate description of the current linguistic situation in Lithuania and the designation of its participants. Statistical data on migration processes in Lithuania and fragments of interviews with immigrants of chronologically different arrival streams are used.

Language use and intergenerational transmission of heritage Veneto in the rural area of Santa Teresa, Brazil

Abstract This article examines the current sociolinguistic situation of Veneto in Santa Teresa, a small municipality located in the highlands of the state of Espirito Santo, in Southeastern Brazil. Santa Teresa was founded in 1874 by a group of about 300 Italian immigrants from Veneto-speaking towns in Northern Italy. The study is based on a survey conducted in 2016, which compares three distinct age groups of descendants of Veneto heritage residing in the rural area of Santa Teresa by examining self-rated language abilities in both Veneto and Portuguese, language use, and attitudes. The 98 informants that participated in this study belong to the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth generations of Veneto descendants. At the conclusion of this preliminary study, the results of the self-evaluations show that Veneto continues to be spoken and used at home, at work, and with neighbors and friends by respondents of all of these generations, which means that the rural community of Santa Teresa surpassed the typical three-generation shift to the majority language observed in heritage language families in the United States. However, findings also indicate that language shift towards Portuguese is taking place in Santa Teresa, and that the heritage language runs the risk of disappearing in the near future if nothing is done to stop the ongoing language shift.

A story at the periphery: Documenting, standardising and reviving Cypriot Arabic

AbstractThe aim of this article is to present the current sociolinguistic situation of the Cypriot Maronite community and report on recent efforts to revitalize its language, Cypriot Arabic or Sanna. After a brief historical account, the article focuses on the sociodemographic and sociolinguistic characteristics of the community, which has steadily declined ever since its establishment on the island of Cyprus in the seventh to eighth century AD. Finally, the article discusses the revitalization efforts undertaken since 2007 as well as recent political and social developments that (de)favour the process of revitalization.

ТРАНСФОРМАЦИЯ СЕМАНТИЧЕСКОГО ЗНАЧЕНИЯ ТОПОНИМА “ESPAÑA” В ИСТОРИЧЕСКОМ КОНТЕКСТЕ

The article analyzes semantic transformation of the toponym “España” in diachrony and synchrony. The paper justifies the thesis that the conception of Spain as a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural state undergoes essential transformations. Analyzing the historical and current socio-linguistic situation on the Iberian Peninsula, the authors trace how re-interpretation of the very conception “Spain” leads to semantic transformation of the corresponding linguistic unit. The findings are illustrated by the examples taken from scientific and publicistic literature and Internet sources.

Exploring the spread of English language learning in South Korea and reflections of the diversifying sociolinguistic context for future English language teaching practices

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this article is to provide an understanding of why traditional English language teaching (ELT) which focuses on native speaker models has become obsolete in South Korea (henceforth Korea). Korea has been known as a linguistically and ethnically homogeneous nation throughout its history. However, the current sociolinguistic situation of Korea tells a different story. Various patterns of migration have emerged around the world and Korea has been no exception. This article explores the widespread passion for English language learning in Korea and the role of English on the individual and nationwide levels. Then, it argues that monolingual and standard language ideologies do not fit into this globalized era. Given the steadily diversifying demographics in Korea and the spread of global English, ELT in Korea ought to reflect English used in the ‘real world’.

Kanauji of Kanpur: A brief overview

Hindi, in its totality, refers to a dialect continuum spoken mainly across northern India. This continuum is usually divided into two forms: Eastern and Western Hindi. Eastern Hindi is mainly made up of Awadhi, Chhattisgarhi and Bagheli dialects, while Western Hindi consists of Hindostani, Banagru, Braj Bhaka, Bundeli and Kanauji dialects.After Linguistic survey of India (1894-1928) by George A. Grierson – there has been little or no work which specifically focuses on Kanauji. Trivedi (1993, 2005) and Mishra and Bali (2010, 2011) report some secondary data from Kanauji in their works, their focus of inquiry is not Kanauji though. Lewis, Simons & Fennig (2013) refers Kanauji as a language with very low identity.This paper attempts to study the current sociolinguistic situation of Kanauji spoken in the Kanpur district of Uttar Pradesh (India). Some other goals of the paper are following: 1) to feel the pulse of language attitude, with reference to standard Hindi, of the people in Kanpur 2) to present basic linguistic information and 3) to direct attention of the other linguists to Kanauji, which unfortunately has not been the case so far despite of it being mother tongue of millions.This study is result of eighteen days of a fieldtrip to Kanpur district and subsequent preparation of a small speech database of Kanauji. Importance of the work lies in the fact that no previous work, which specifically focuses on Kanauji, has been published so far. This is true at least in the open literature.

Indigenous Languages, Identity and Legal Framework in Latin America: An Ecolinguistic Approach

The globalization process in which we are immersed endangers diversity, as we understand it in its broad context, on the planet. It therefore not only threatens biological plenitude but also cultural and linguistic wealth, which is decreasing rapidly (García, 2011: 506). That is why now more than ever it is essential to defend the right of all people to be different and to possess an identity, language being the most significant element of identification.The trend towards homogenization is a global reality and its effects can be seen in different areas or regions, including Latin America, the subject of this present study. The current Hispanic linguistic landscape is characterized by the coexistence of Spanish and a number of indigenous languages (Palacios, 2010: 503); however, such coexistence does not imply a de facto equality between Spanish —as the dominant language— and the minority ones. This linguistic imbalance causes many of these languages to be in danger of extinction, not due to linguistic reasons but as a result of different types of alterations which in turn cause disorder in society (Nette & Romaine, 2000: 79).This research addresses the situation of indigenous languages in three Latin American countries chosen as being representative of different multilingualism management models that exist in that region: Bolivia, Panama and Paraguay. This is a descriptive-analytical study whose main objective from a synchronic perspective is the enhancement of multilingualism in Latin America; i.e. the presentation of the region's indigenous languages as key elements of the identity and culture of indigenous peoples, and the transmission of a worldview and set of unique skills that could be lost forever, causing havoc to the planet's diversity and affecting not only their speech community, but in addition all humankind (Moure, 2012: 79).To achieve this objective, a comparative study of the legal framework of indigenous languages and their current sociolinguistic situation will be carried out, on the premise that the recognition of minority linguistic rights is the first step towards the preservation of multilingualism both in Latin America and at a global level, which implies the preservation and development by minorities of their own, genuine ways of understanding and communicating their reality.

Pseudotitles in Bahamian English

This study investigates the use of so-called pseudotitles, that is, determiner-less structures providing descriptive information in front of name noun phrases, as in linguist Allan Bell, in Bahamian newspaper language. Pseudotitles originated in American journalistic writing, but they have spread to numerous varieties of English worldwide and even to British English. A corpus of pre-independence and contemporary press news reports is analyzed quantitatively with a view to establishing not only the frequency of pseudotitles but also the constraints that govern their usage in Bahamian English. The study also considers the position and structure of equivalent appositives and their relationships with pseudotitles. It will be shown that, at least with regard to the feature investigated here, Bahamian journalists followed American norms even in British colonial times, which may be accounted for by the social history and current sociolinguistic situation of the country. At the same time, these norms have been modified and adapted to local linguistic realities, which presents another piece of evidence in favor of a nuanced view of linguistic Americanization.

Losing Chinese as the First Language in Thailand

Much of the classical sociolinguistic literature on the issue of language maintenance amongst Sino-Siamese communities rely on language-use data on a sample of third-fifth generation Thais with Chinese ethnic roots, the majority of whose great grandparents immigrated to Thailand during the nineteenth and early decades of the twentieth century. As such, in this literature, are excluded the large sample of first-generation overseas Chinese and second-fifth generation ethnic Chinese immigrated to Thailand more roughly between 1970 and 2000. Thus, the linkage between factors governing language maintenance are to be interpreted with due caution in view of limitations in the samples discussed in the extant literature. The current study includes an assessment of the language-usage patterns and present perceptions of the vitality and sustainability of Chinese variants amongst not only the older generations, but also amongst those who have more recently immigrated, thereby rounding out a much fuller picture of the current sociolinguistic situation of those of Chinese descent domiciled in Thailand. Additionally, this study aims to examine the full range of sociological factors that contribute to the maintenance and extensive shift away from Chinese variants toward Thai and Mandarin. It accordingly complements the earlier research of Morita, but not lending support to the Skinnerian paradigm of assimilation. The sample gathered consisted of eight dialect groups. Three types of instruments of research-a questionnaire, observations, and semi-structured interviews-were utilized in collecting data. The data suggest that language-usage patterns, perceptions of vitality and sustainability of ethnic languages are strongly linked to generational changes in ethnic-linguistic identities and discursive practices governing social inclusion/exclusion, amongst other factors.

Language emancipation and attitudes towards languages in the case of Guadeloupe

This paper deals with the importance of attitudes towards languages for the process of language emancipation in the case of Guadeloupe, where two languages are spoken, French and Creole. The history of the settlement of Guadeloupe and the current sociolinguistic situation explain the links between the two languages. Today, we observe that French remains the H-language, and Creole the L-language. In this study, the question of Creole emancipation in Guadeloupe focuses on the educational system and includes a discussion of young teachers’ and pupils’ opinions, which show ambiguous feelings about the use of the Creole, especially at school. The analysis concludes that, despite the fact that Creole has already seen emancipatory development, one can state that attitudes towards this language act as a brake on its complete emancipation. The last part of the paper consists of a few proposals intended to change speakers’ views of Creole.

Interpreting and minority language planning and policy

With potential applications for other minority languages, this paper discusses the implications of interpreting to and from Galician, starting with an overview of the current sociolinguistic situation, and the interpreting and translation market in Galicia in the light of political changes. After highlighting the similarities and differences between written translation and oral interpretation, the article examines the role played specifically by interpretation as a prestige-raising activity within the framework of language planning. Finally, the paper also discusses interpreting using minority languages as a tool enabling citizens to exercise their linguistic rights to the full.

Language-in-education policy development in Tanzania: An overview

Tanzania is a multilingual country with 150 ethnic languages spoken within its borders. The current sociolinguistic situation in Tanzania necessitates the continued use of Kiswahili as a unifying language. The majority of urban children now actually acquire it as their first language. It is also the language most frequently used in government offices, as well as in everyday activities countrywide. Despite the adoption of one of Africa's largest languages as an official language, the government has constantly insisted that English should remain the only medium of instruction at post-primary level, because of its tremendous power and prestige in the global market. The government's stance reveals a limited understanding of what a system for promoting bilingualism and biliteracy in education should involve. This article therefore investigates language policy development in education in Tanzania in terms of the sociolinguistic framework of bilingual education.

Language policy in Slovenia

The historical background, political changes, migration processes, EU membership and the current socio-linguistic situation have all influenced language policy and language planning in Slovenia. This article presents the most important aspects of language policy in Slovenia with a focus on the concept of linguistic diversity. The ethnic make-up of Slovenia, including the differing statuses and rights of specific groups, is described in order to facilitate an understanding of language policy. The role of language within education is explored, in particular in relation to bilingual education in ethnically mixed areas. Two models of bilingual education (involving Slovene plus Italian or Hungarian) are presented and finally pupils’ attitudes towards these models and the minority language involved, obtained through an empirical research project, are discussed.

Bahamian Standard English

This article presents both quantitative and qualitative information on the orthography, lexis, and morphosyntax of Bahamian Standard English. Employing a press corpus of over 100 000 words, it aims not only at a descriptive account but also at initial answers to two research questions. First, is Standard English as spoken in the Bahamas still following the traditional British norm or has it shifted toward an American orientation; and second, what role does the local creole play in shaping the variety? An overview of the current sociolinguistic situation obtaining in the Bahamas complements the analysis.

Język jako czynnik zakorzenienia w tożsamości narodowej na przykładzie białoruskojęzycznej inteligencji na Białorusi

Belarus is a typical borderline country featuring multi-ethnicity, including various cultures, denominations and languages co-existing one near the other. Current socio-linguistic situation in Belarus may be defined as socially conditioned diglossia. Russian is the language of the governing elites, all-level education, popular culture and massmedia. Urban inhabitants speak almost entirely Russian, and the majority of village inhabitants speak Belarusian dialects. When, during Lukaszenka’s rule, Belarusian language fell once again in disgrace, it once again became a symbol of national revival and a fighting tool of opposition. Representatives of democratic elites speak Belarusian, but only when they hold informal meetings or political events. Based on biographic interviews held with the representatives of the Belarusian intelligentsia in Belarus, the Author has revealed a process of the narrators’ discovering an importance of a mother tongue as a sign of national identity. The process of realizing the importance of the Belarusian language in the life of an individual, as well as ethnic community, as well as a process of conscious learning of the language is, for contemporary Belarusians, one of the stages of shaping national identity. Learning the language is followed by participating in Belarusian symbolic culture and remembering history and reviving common memory, which finally leads to conscious identity with a mother land in a symbolic sense, which is broader than purely territorial reference.