Linguistic varieties and

multilingual nations

D r . P h u o n g N g u y e n
It is important to define and categorize languages
according to their status and function!
2.3.1. Vernacular languages
2.3.2. Standard languages
2.3.3. Lingua franca
2.3.4. Pidgins and creoles
 2.3.1. Vernacular languages
• Three components need to be recognized:
• (1) an uncodified or unstandardized variety
• (2) acquired in the home
• (3) typically used for informal colloquial interaction
with family and friends.
• Definition:
• the language of a regional speech community, or to a
language used in a monolingual community,
especially when there is no written form.
• the most colloquial variety in a person’s verbal
repertoire; the variety used in the home and with
close friends
• the use of swear words.
2.3.2. Standard languages
• Standard English
• emerged “naturally” in the 15th century from a
variety of regional English
• The area
• The largest proportion of the English population lived at that
time was in a neat triangle containing London, where the
Court was based, and the two universities, Oxford and
Cambridge.
• An important agricultural and business area, the center of
political, social and intellectual life in England.
• Prestigious - used in Court.
• Influential - used by the economically powerful
merchant class.
• The codification process was accelerated in by the
introduction of printing.
2.3.2. Standard languages
• A standard variety
• is written and has undergone some degree of regularization or codification (for example, in a grammar
and a dictionary)
• is recognized as a prestigious variety or code by a community
• is used for H functions alongside a diversity of L varieties
• Codification:
• developing grammars
• developing dictionaries
• Elaboration:
• Use of the codified language (in administration, education, literature..).
• Standardization is not a property of any language: not all languages have a standard variety!

THE IDEAL GOALS OF A STANDARD

LANGUAGE:
Codification → minimal variation in form
2.3.2. Standard languages
2.3.2.1 World English

• Standard English -- a language with a

status of prestige variety of English -- is
spoken in many countries.
• “World Englishes” / New Englishes
may be identified as Inner, Outer, and
Expanding circles of English.
• inner- circle varieties: used by people as a
first language or mother tongue
• outer- circle varieties: typically used by
those for whom English is a second
language
• expanding circle varieties: those who
acquired English as an additional, adjunct
or foreign language, serving no crucial
communication functions within a country.
 • distinctions between the circles are very difficult to maintain
2.3.2.1 World • An alternative approach
English • identifying people with different degrees of proficiency
• range of functions English serves
2.3.3. Lingua franca
• A Lingua franca
• a language serving as a regular means of communication between different
linguistic groups in a multilingual speech community.
• a language used for communication between people whose first languages
differ
• In a country, the most useful and widely used lingua franca is an official
language or the national language.
• In multilingual communities, lingua francas may eventually displace the
vernaculars.
• Lingua francas often develop initially as trade languages – illustrating
the influence of economic factors on language change.
2.3.3. Lingua franca

• the term “Lingua Franca”

• does not mean the French
language
• it means the language of Catholic
Europeans ( who were also called
Latins, Franks and Latins was a
synonym in medieval times ).
2.3.3. Lingua franca

relevant factors are almost entirely nonlinguistic.

2.3.4. Pidgins and creoles
2.3.4.1-2 Pidgin - Why do
pidgins develop?
• A pidgin is a language which has
no native speakers.
• Pidgins
• develop as a means of
communication between
people who do not have a
common language.
• likely to arise when groups
with different languages are
communicating in a
situation where there is
another dominant language
Source: Link
2.3.4.1-2 Pidgin - Why do pidgins
develop?
• have a restricted function in a
restricted number of domains.
• an addition to their linguistic
repertoire used for a specific purpose
2.3.4.1-2 Pidgin - Why do pidgins develop?
• Possible origins of the term “pidgin”:
• (i) Chinese pronunciation of the English word
business
• (ii) Chinese pronunciation of the Portugese word
ocupação ‘business’
• (iii) Hebrew pidjom ‘exchange, trade’
• (iv) Yayo (a South American Indian language,
colonized by Britain): pidians ‘people’
• (v) South Seas pronunciation of the English word
beach (the location where the language was
typically used).
2.3.4.3 What kind of linguistic structure
does a pidgin language have?
• All languages involved may contribute to the sounds, the vocabulary and the
grammatical features, but to different extents, and some additional features may
emerge which are unique to the new variety.
• the prestige language - supply more of the vocabulary = Lexifier/ superstrate
• vernacular languages - more influence on the grammar = substrate
• The grammatical structure is not as complex as that of the fully-developed languages
• most have only five vowels, they do not have consonant clusters
• vocabulary is not large, none (or very few) inflection
2.3.4.3 What kind of linguistic structure
does a pidgin language have?

Development of Stable
Jargon
pidgins: pidgin

• coherent grammatical
pre-pidgin; structure of its own
multilingual • relatively little
idiolect; weakly variation among
conventionalized speakers
2.3.4.4 Attitudes to pidgins
• do not have high status or prestige
• been described as mongrel jargons and macaroni lingos
• given negative labels such as Broken English and
Kitchen Kaffir (i.e. Fanagalo, a South African pidgin)

Confuse simplification (=greater grammatical regularity) with

impoverishment (=lack of referential and non-referential
power).
2.3.4.5 Lifecycle and
origins of pidgins
• A pidgin language has three identifying
characteristics:
• it is used in restricted domains and
functions
• it has a simplified structure
compared to the source languages
• it generally has low prestige and
attracts negative attitudes –
especially from outsiders.
2.3.4.5 Lifecycle and origins of pidgins

Often have a short life

• disappear when the function being developed for disappears.

• generally lead to at least one side learning the other’s language
• go on to develop into fully- fledged languages or creoles

Have many sources of input, with words coming from a range of

languages, but also that pidgins can themselves contribute to other
pidgins
 2.3.4.5 Creoles
• Most creoles derive from
pidgin languages.
• A creole
• is a pidgin which has
acquired native speakers.
• is a pidgin which has
expanded in structure
and vocabulary to
express the range of
meanings and serve the
range of functions
required of a first
language.
• Differ from pidgins in their
range of functions, in their
structure, and in some cases
in the attitudes expressed Link
towards them.
2.3.4.5 Creoles

Pidgin Creole
No native speakers Native speaker
No language First language
Simple structure Complex Structure
No identification Have identification
Unstable Stable
2.3.4.6 Structural features
• Creole languages- develop ways of systematically signaling meanings
such as verb tenses, and these may develop into inflections or affixes
over time.
•.
 • The meaning is expressed more concisely but also less
obviously – a common outcome.
2.3.4.6 • The substrate is another source of structural complexity
for a creole.
Structural • Pidgins become more structurally regular as they
features undergo creolization.
• Creolization – the process by which a pidgin becomes a
creole.
 3.4.6
Structural
features
2.3.4.6 Structural
features
• Paraphrases become more compact and
concise, often at the cost of semantic
“transparency”.
• When concise compounds develop from
longer phrases, they become less
transparent
• provide laboratories of language change
in progress and for testing hypotheses
about universal linguistic features and
processes.
2.3.4.6 Structural features
• study of pidgins and creoles - crucial role of social factors in language
development
• express more complex meanings which motivates structural changes, and the
functional demands which lead to linguistic elaboration.
2.3.4.7 Functions
• Pidgin can become so useful as a lingua franca ->
Creoles
• Creoles - can be used for all the functions of any
language – politics, education, administration, original
literature
• Creoles – have become accepted standard and even
national and official languages
• Once developed - no evidence in their linguistic
structure to reveal their pidgin origins.
• English has been described by some as a latter-day
creole, with French vocabulary superimposed on a
Celtic/ Old English base
3.4.7 Functions
• The processes of pidginization and creolization may be universal
processes that reveal the origins of language and the ways in which
languages develop.

Parent’s Input Universal Knowledge

Parent’s PIDGIN Language acquisition

Children’s output
CREOLE
 2.3.4.8 Attitudes
• Outsiders- often as negative
• Those who speak the language
• Tok Pisin has status and prestige for
people in Papua New Guinea
• Haitian Creole - L language alongside
prestigious French in Haiti - the majority
of the people who are monolingual in
the creole express strong loyalty to it as
the language which best expresses their
feelings.
2.3.4.9 Origins and endings
• Origins
• many similarities
• Lexifier language for most (about 85) 1/7 European languages: English
(35), French (15), Portuguese (14), Spanish (7), German (6), Dutch (5) and
Italian (3).
• Argued that
• all had a common origin - a single 15th century Portuguese pidgin, and
perhaps further to a Mediterranean lingua franca, Sabir.
• each pidgin arises and develops independently. Similarities explained:
• arise in different contexts but for the same kinds of basic functions
• universal structural processes of language development
2.3.4.9 Origins and endings
• What happens to a creole
• rigid social divisions - may remain as a stable L variety
alongside an officially sanctioned H variety.
• Fluid social barriers - may develop towards the
standard language from which it has derived large
amounts of vocabulary.
• Decreolization
• process where features of a creole language change to
resemble more closely the standard variety – when a
creole is used side- by- side with the standard variety in
a community where superable social barriers
3.4.9 Origins and endings
• a continuum of varieties between the standard language and the
creole – sometimes described as a post- creole continuum.
• acrolect (acro means high) - the variety closest to the standard often mutually
• basilect or “deep” creole - the variety closest to the creole unintelligible
• mesolects or intermediate varieties - varieties in between these two
extremes
• Overtime
• may be engulfed by the standard language
• may be standardized and adopted as an official language
2.3.4.9 Origins and endings
 Discussion 4

• Write a fictional scenario in which two chosen

languages of your choice merge to form a
unique hybrid language. Point out what are
• the Lexifier/ superstrate language
• the substrate language
• Come up with a list of 5 phrases or sentences
in your newly created hybrid language.
Class Discussion 4

1 2 3
Go to your class Write a fictional scenario in
which two chosen languages
Don’t forget to include
your name and student
Voice Thread merge to form a unique hybrid
language. Point out what are : id.
• 12:00 -15:00 +the Lexifier/ superstrate
language
You can choose to share
in any means you like –
+ the substrate language
• 15:10-17:40 Come up with a list of 5 phrases
or sentences in your newly
Text, photo, video, audio
created hybrid language.
Homework

Complete Class
Read Chapter 5
Discussion 4
THANK YOU