Languages in Contact - Australian National

Reconstructing sociolinguistic
situations: Test case East Africa
Maarten Mous
Leiden University, RCLT, La Trobe
Credo: historical linguistics
• contact linguistics presumes the comparative method
and does not aim at questioning it
• contact linguistics adds to a fuller understanding of
the linguistics history; comparative method shows
only part of the story and may give wrong impression
of neat split
• scientific robustness of regular sound change in
comparative method is absent in contact linguistics
Situations of language contact
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
mixed population and bilingualism
migration:
expansion in small jumps
expulsion (ostracism as punishment)
economic links (group and individual)
client groups
growing up in other area (Cameroon)
generational language (Bonek)
Situations of language contact
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
mixed marriage (Gorwaa)
marriage pattern (e.g. women from outside),
temporary emigration
refugees
trade
captives of war
charismatic founder of group (Saygilo doo
Magena)
Situations of language contact
• registers and special languages
– register of respect,
– initiation language
– argot of hippo-hunters
– spirit-possession language
– taboo
Situations of language contact
•
•
•
•
•
re-settlements
multilingualism in the city
seasonal work
education
radio
Patterns (stable?) of language policy
•
•
•
•
•
•
mono-lingualism (Maasai)
interpreters
dominant language
neutral lingua franca
maximal multilingualism
shift
contact <> change testcases
•
•
•
•
•
comparable sociolinguistic
linguistically comparable
economically comparable
culturally comparable
different results
East Africa
• 4/5 language families. A lot of contact is
across language family.
• extreme geographical differences
• language density/diversity is not extremely
high; enough to have plenty of contact, not so
much that it becomes unmanagable
• economic differences
Test cases
•
•
•
•
Ma’á <> Taita
Aasáx <> Akiek
Iraqw <> Alagwa
Datooga <> Maasai
Southern Cushitic
Eastern Bantu
Southern Nilotic
Northern Tanzania
Ma’á <> Taita
• Usambara and Taita mountains: Two mountain
areas not far from each other.
• Once a Cushitic language was spoken.
• In Taita, now only Bantu;
• in Usambara a mixed language Ma’á.
Taita
• Two Bantu languages Saghala, Davida
• Two former occupants: W-asi, Bisha
• several hunter-gatherer groups around:
Degere, Vuna, (A)Laa, (A)Langulu, Waata.
• Bisha agriculturalists; burial sites
• Massive sets of Cushitic loans
• some common with Cushitic lexemes in Ma’a
• Saghala had a lateral fricative
Lateral fricative
• Wray (1894) used a trigraph tly in Sagala
• now it is an implosive (palatalised?) voiced
velar stop written as g (Philippson)
• Harris (1978) about Mbale-Davida: voiced
lateral fricative in positions where other
dialects have a voiced alveolar fricative
• Williamson (1943) writes 
• Philippson: lateral realisation of r
• some correspond with ɬ in Ma’a
Ma’á
• Mbugu or Ma’á in the Usambara mountains
• they speak two languages.
• these two languages share one grammar the
vocabulary is parallel.
• “normal” Mbugu language is very similar to the Bantu
language Pare both in grammar and in lexicon.
• “inner” Mbugu language (or Ma’á) has a lot of
deviant lexical material which is partly Southern
Cushitic in origin
• it does not differ in grammar from “normal” Mbugu;
• it is a parasite of Normal Mbugu (Mixed Language)
History scenario
• Pare mountains there was once an (Old
Kenyan) Cushitic speaking group
• shifted to Pare (Chasu)
• some left the Pare mountains for the Maasai
plains.
• other remained and completed the shift fully
• some went to the Usambara mountains later
History scenario
• Mbugu formed a servant group among the
Maasai
• expansion of the parallel lexicon of language
death situation
• considerable influx of Gorwaa people
• fled to Usambara mountains
• reconstitution of one single ethnic group with
(other) Mbugu
• norm: cattle culture
• initiation language in Vudee "Maasai"-Mbugu
Differences Taita/Pare - Ma’á
• two groups fused into one
• extra (Maasai, Gorwaa) foreign input
• influx from deviant culture, looks
Aasáx <> Akiek
• Two “dorobo” groups, i.e. subservient huntergatherer or people without cattle among the
Maasai.
• One lost their language (Aasáx)
• the other retained their language (Akiek).
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Akiek
In the middle of the Maasai plains
about 50?
honey specialists
beehives are made by the Cushitic Burunge
a Southern Nilotic language
very close/identical to the Okiek in Kenya
a bee hunting dorobo group.
no knowledge about their “brothers”.
contact with the Maasai in Maasai
no language death
homogeneous
Aasáx (Winter 1979)
Hunter-gatherers; dorobo among Maasai
Story of the loss of their language:
• Rinderpest
• Maasai join Aasax as survival option
• Maasai daytime village language
• Aasáx acquired cattle
• dominant language in settlement had changed
• cultural identity had changed
• when Maasai left the village; so did the others.
dorobo
• such groups attract drop-outs, adventurers
and criminals
• can be ethnically very heterogeneous
Difference
• Shift cultural goal and economy
Alagwa <> Iraqw
•
•
•
•
10-20.000 vs >500.000
Iraqw come from Alagwa area
no dramatic linguistic changes
recent bilingualism in Swahili
Alagwa
• widespread bilingualism in Bantu Rangi but
not in interior
• Rangi neighbours
• once dominant political power (really?)
• slowly decreasing
• influx of Burunge women few centuries ago
• some admixture of Datooga
Lexical influence
•
•
•
•
•
Burunge > Alagwa (double reflexes)
Rangi > Alagwa
Alagwa > Rangi
Alagwa > Sandawe (economic influence)
pre-Alagwa <> pre-Sandawe
Structural transfer
• word order influence: Rangi > Alagwa
• no pronunciation influence on Alagwa
• morphology: loss of final suffixes (Burunge)
Iraqw
• from 3 to 27 clans: immigrant society
• linguistically and culturally: history of Iraqw-Datooga
contact
• several Bantu clans > Iraqw,
• Alagwa > Iraqw
• Sandawe > Iraqw,
• + Suule: What did the Suule speak? No recollection
• shift without trace
history of Iraqw-Datooga contact
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
highland plains were once Datooga
but Iraqw before Datooga
Iraqw-Datooga conflicts
Hegemony: Iraqw, Datooga, Iraqw
Iraqw bilingualism in Datooga in certain area
More Datooga bilingualism in Iraqw now
Datooga become farmers and Iraqw
Iraqw
• little dialect differentiation, no central
organisation, migration within
• no neighbours
• some non-recent Bantu borrowings
• chupa > tupa > chupa
Datooga > Iraqw
•
•
•
•
•
cultural vocabulary
sentence connector
indirectly, shape of “selectors”
prepositions of space
structural conditions > morphophonological
reductions
Pre-Datooga > Pre-Iraqw lexicon
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
warfare <cry to gather people to fight>,
leather work ‘leather bag for meat or honey’,
metal work ‘pair of metal spiral earrings’,
cow colours ‘brownish’,
cattle disabilities, ‘barren cow’, ‘cow without a womb’,
flora ‘acacia sp.’, ‘Acacia nilotica’, ‘tree sp.’,
fauna ‘tape worm’, ‘mythical giant snake’, ‘ostrich’,
body parts ‘beard’, ‘vagina’, ‘mane of lion’.
Datooga > Iraqw
• warship and acquisition of glory: ‘sing songs to
acquire glory’, leather garments and decoration
• metal and iron work: ‘neck ring of brass’
• cattle colours and cattle terminology: of shining
colour’, ‘multicoloured cow with white sides’, ‘cow
with a head of a different colour than the rest of the
body’, ‘cow with huge black and white spots’
• cattle diseases: ‘cattle disease that involves
immobility’, ‘rinderpest’
• cattle names: ‘cow acquired by ivory’, ‘cow acquired
by a donkey’, ‘cow acquired during war’, ‘cow found
on the road’, ‘cow with white tail’, ‘cow acquired to
settle a debt’
• flora, fauna
• body parts: ‘front of upper leg’, ‘collarbone’
• culture: ‘dance in a circle’
Iraqw > Datooga
• cultural vocabulary
• reinterpretation of vowels and vowel harmony
• phonological contrast of two voiceless dorsal
obstruents as reanalysis of ATR vowel
harmony
• development of preverbal clitic cluster: transfer
of structure, not of form
pre-Iraqw > pre-Datooga lexicon
• agriculture ‘beans’, ‘sweet potatoes’; ‘flower
on the top of the maize plant’, ‘pestle’
• furniture and utensils in the house, ‘mat’;
‘bed’; ‘beer filter’
• cultural practices such as seclusion
• psychological concepts: ‘intelligence, soul’,
‘worry, grieve’
• communication: ‘greet’
Datooga and Maasai
In common
• two cattle complex people
• transhumance
• age sets
• Profound influence of Datooga on farming
communities without economic shift: Iraqw,
Nyaturu cattle acquired from Datooga
• Maasai no influence on farming communities
• Maasai: war, hatred, fear, disrespect
• Maasai more radical cattle people
• Southern Nilotes cattle+farming
• Prehistory: Sirikwa, Engaruka
Sprachbund Abflussloses Gebiet
P re -W e st-R ift
P S N / P O D : le x ic o n , s u f f ix e s o f n o m in a l d e riv a t io n
P r o t o -E a s t - A f r ic a n K h o is a n : le x ic o n
P r o t o -E a s t - A f r ic a n B a n t u : le x ic o n , s u f f ix e s o f n o m in a l d e riv a t io n ,
P ro to -W e st-R ift
P r e -D a t o o g a : le x ic o n
P ro to -N o rth -W e st-R ift
e t e r o g e n e o u s g ro u p s o f P re -D a t o o g a
n d B a n t u : p h o n o lo g y ,
m o rp h o lo g ic a l re d u c t io n a n d f u s io n
P re -A la g w a
P r o t o -E a s t - A f r ic a n B a n t u : le x ic o n , s y n t a x , m o rp h o s e m a n t ic s
P ro to -S o u th -W e st-R ift
r e -D a t o o g a : le x ic o n ,
m o rp h o p h o n o lo g y ,
s y n t a x , s e m a n t ic s
P r o t o -E a s t - A f r ic a n B a n t u : le x ic o n , n o m in a l a n
P ro to -Ira q w o id
P re -B u ru n g e
S a n d a w e : le x ic o n
L a n g i: le x ic o n
o o g a : le x ic o n , m o rp h o p h o n o lo g Ira
y qw
S w a h ili: le x ic o n
G o rw a a A la g w a
c o n v e rg e n c e :
le x ic o n
(A L d o u b le t s ? )
X a tso o A la g w a ?
B u ru n g e
c o n v e rg e n c e :
le x ic o n ,
p h o n o lo g y ,
v e rb a l in f le c t io n a l m o rp h o lo g y ,
s y n t a x , s e m a n t ic s
S w a h ili: le x ic o n
Period Contact
contact
linguistic scenario
phenomena with whom
and in
which
domain
relations of
power and
prestige
pwr >
pswr
pswr > Bantu
loans from
Bantu:
Bantu;
marriages
syntax, and
morphosemantics from
Bantu
language shift Bantu >
pswr
pwr >
pnwr
few loans from
Pre-Datooga
pnwr > pal loans from pswr
into pal;
pal phonology,
morphology,
syntax and
semantics from
pswr
Pre-Datooga:
trade
Some multilingualism
pnwr and
Pre-Datooga
PreDatooga >
pnwr
pswr-women:
marriages with
pal men
language
pal > pswr
shift of pswrwomen to pal
pnwr > preiraqw
Pre-irqaqw >
iraqw
Loans from PreDatooga
Reduction and
fusion in
morphophonology
(Datooga
restrictions)
Semantics and
syntax of spatial
preposition from
Pre-Datooga
Pre-irq as lingua
franca in mixed
marriages with preDatooga
loans from Datooga,
Swahili
Datooga: marriages
with Iraqw
Incomplete
language shift
Bantu and PreDatooga to pirq
pirq > PreDatooga >
Bantu
Pre-Barabaiga
> pirq
language shift
Swahili >
Datooga to
Iraqw >
Iraqw
Datooga
multi-lingualism
Iraqw and
Swahili; as well
as Datooga
pal > al
loans from
Langi and
Swahili
Langi:
trade, religion
(Islam),
marriages
Swahili:
administration,
education
multilingualism
al-lan-swa
language
shift al to lan
Swahili >
Langi >
Alagwa
pswr > pbu nominal and
verbal
inflectional
morphology
from Bantu
Bantu: marriages incomplete
pbu > Bantu
with Prelanguage shift
Burunge
Bantu to pbu
pbu > bu
Langi: trade,
marriages.
loans from
Langi, Swahili
and Sandawe
Swahili:
education and
administration
multilingualism
bu-lan-swa
language shift
bu to lan
swa > lan >
bu
Tanzanian Rift Valley Sprachbund
Bantu
Southern
Cushitic
Southern Nilotic
Sandawe / Hadza
P1 lateral
fricative
-
*PWR
*PSN > /ʃ/
Sandawe
Hadza
P2 ejective
obstruents
-
*PWR
-
Sandawe
Hadza
P3 contrast of
/k/ vs. /q/
> Nyaturu
(<PreDatooga)
*PWR
< WR
Sandawe
Hadza
P4 no voiced
fricatives
-
*PWR
Pre-Datooga
Sandawe
Hadza
(P5 7-vowel
system
Bantu (F zone)
-
> Datooga
-)
Tanzanian Rift Valley Sprachbund
G1 preverbal
clitic complex
>
Nyaturu
*PWR
> Datooga
Hadza
G2 verbal
plurality
?
> *PWR
> Datooga
Sandawe
G3 applicative
*EAB
> *PWR
Pre-Datooga
?
G4 ventive
*EAB
> *PWR
Pre-Datooga
Sandawe
G5 ≥ 2 past
tense
*EAB
> *PWR
> *PNWR
> Datooga
?
G6 ≥ 1 future
*EAB
> PreBurunge
> Pre-Datooga
?
Tanzanian Rift Valley Sprachbund
G7 subjunctive -ee
*EAB
> *PWR
-
Sandawe
G8 laa for irrealis
*EAB
(future)
*PSWR
(optative)
-
?
G9 infinitive +
auxiliary order
> Rangi, *PWR
Mbugwe
-
?
G10 head initial NPs *EAB
> *PWR
Pre-Datooga
Hadza
G11 prepositions
> *PIRQ
< Pre-Datooga
Pre-Datooga
?
*EAB
Tanzanian Rift Valley Sprachbund
G12 SVO
*EAB
> *PSWR
-
Hadza
G13 body part
nouns >
prepositions
?
> *PIRQ
Pre-Datooga
?
G14 polysemy ‘in’
and ‘under’
?
< PIRQ
Pre-Datooga
?
G15 “belly” in emotional concepts
?
< PIRQ
Pre-Datooga
?
Linguistic manipulation in the area
• respect registers: Datooga, Nyakyusa
• other taboo: limited
• initiation/secret society languages: unknown
reconstructing past contact situations
• Assumption: contact situations in the past are
not different from those now
• If all things equal the simplest wins
• Propose scenario to explain present outcome
problems with the scenario game
• limits of imagination
• never are all other things equal
Language contact change
• transfer without shift (borrowing)
• transfer with shift (imposition)
(bilingualism)
• code-switching
• language manipulation (emblematic/respect)
• lexicon transfer
Examples of contact
•
•
•
•
•
Borrowing: Datooga > Iraqw
Shift: Iraqw > Datooga
Code-Switching: Sheng
Identity: Ma’a
Respect: Khoi-San > Nguni
Contact no change
•
•
•
•
•
shift without change
borrowing undone
code-switching with no lasting effect
argot disappears
taboo recycles
End result
Contact
change
Sociolinguist Historical
ic event
event
Mixed
language
Ma’a
Growth of
Iraqw
“Replacive”
borrowing in
core vocab
Complete
shift
Creation of
ethnic
identity
migration
Contact change in lexicon
• “Additive” borrowing: Taita Bantu, Iraqw,
Datooga, Algawa: Complete shift
• “Replacive” borrowing in core vocabulary:
Ma’a (Khoisan>Nguni): lexical manipulation for
identity / respect (possibly distinguishable)
Contact change in phonology
• lateral fricative in Taita (but disappeared):
carry over of pronunciation in transferred
lexicon: stage in shift
• lateral fricative in Ma’a: replacement as
manipulation: identity formation
• split in Datooga k/q and vowel reduction:
reinterpretation of phonetic
differences/adaptation to old language habits:
shift with trace
• Morphophonological reductions in Iraqw:
restrictions of old language: shift with trace
Structural changes
spatial preposition in Iraqw: carry over of
concept and structure from old language (D):
shift with trace
etc
structural changes in shift
• Bilingualism of e.g. Datooga in Iraqw.
• Iraqw dominant language
1. Pronunciation habits and surface syntax of
Datooga in Iraqw speech
2. Categorisation, meaning, structure of
Datooga in Iraqw speech
3. Categorisation, meaning, structure of in
Iraqw Datooga speech
Which changes materialize
• 3 often disappears because these speakers
shift to Iraqw. But if they don’t and influence
rest of Datooga or if their speech becomes a
new language, it may look the opposite (shift
Iraqw to Datooga) (Ma’a)
• 1,2 whether these changes spread to all
speakers depends on linguistic and nonlinguistic factors
Factors
• linguistic complications, simplifications,
advantages in the receiving language
• prestige shifters
• number of shifters
• are they mothers
• do they remain an ethnic entity
Proposed correlations socio-history
language change
• Guy-Ross based on Van Coetsem
dominant
language of
bilinguals
Agents of
change
Social
motivation to
adopt change
to resist
change
Structural
domains
borrowing
imposition
recipient
language
source
language
I
native
speakers
prestige
II
nonnative
emblema
-ticity
emblema...
ticity
words,
words
morphemes
I
non-native
II
native
communicat communicativ
ive need
e simplicity
...
emblematicity
phonology
syntax
borrowing
dominant language of recipient language
bilinguals
I
native
II
non-native
Social motivation to
adopt change
prestige
emblematicity
to resist change
emblematicity
...
Structural domains
unstable
first
words, morphemes
words
Agents of change
dominant language of
bilinguals
imposition
source
language
I
II
Agents of change
non-native
native
Social motivation to
adopt change
communicative communicative
need
simplicity
...
emblematicity
to resist change
Structural domains
stable
first
phonology
syntax
Van Coetsem frame
van Coetsem 1988,2001, Winford 2003
• Differences in stability across language
components (grammar more stable than
lexicon)
• Recipient language agentivity (borrowing)
• Source language agentivity (imposition)
• Linguistic dominance (not social) in
bilingualism
contact situations
1. Recipient L agentivity AB
2. Source L agentivity AB
Agents / Agentivity
imitation / adaptation
1: borrowing
2: imposition
processes in individual
Examples
• RecL activity, borrowing, extreme case Media
Lengua Quechua with every lexeme borrowed
from Spanish
• SourceL activity: structures of dominant
language in recipient language. Dominant
language can be the new language influencing
the language which is in process of being
abandoned in cognitive and grammatical
structure. Asia Minor Greek (RL): Turkish (SL)
dominant. (and RL activity when speaking T)
Additions by Reh
If only migration as cause for contact
Added factors
• Intensity of contact
• Linguistic heterogeneity of community
Other factors
•
•
•
•
•
identifiable group after “migration”
degree of bilingualism
language attitude
size of group
prestige
Individual – Community
• Model refers to the mind of the individual
• Essential is language as social construct:
establishment of the norm
Shift
• complete shift (common ?)
• shift with effect of original language on
recognizable community; with effect on
language as a whole
• shift with carry over of vocabulary (e.g. pygmy
technical vocabulary)
• arrested shift, u-turn when too late, reborrowing of original vocabulary
How common is shift without a trace
•
•
•
•
Nyaturu > Sandawe
Many Iraqw clans
Datooga among Alagwa
Mbugu-Pare speakers
Shift with trace
•
•
•
•
•
Bisha > Saghala
X > Pare (Ma’á)
Iraqw > Datooga
Datooga > Iraqw
Burunge > Alagwa
Other Comparable situations
•
•
•
•
•
Northern Songhay
Mozambican Swahili
Pygmies
Creole studies
etc
languages of pygmies
Duke, Daniel 2001 Aka as a contact language: sociolinguistic and grammatical evidence. MA University of Texas at Arlington.
• speak different languages
• which probably were once language of their
patron
• also speak language of patron
• pygmy special vocabulary
• patrons and their language are link and
obstacle to outside world (forest pygmies have
better knowledge of languages of wider
communication)
Creole languages
• study link socio-history and outcome of
language change
• similar sociolinguistic situations for a number
of them
• similar outcome
• imcomplete second language acquisition
Mixed Languages
Bakker
• grammar and (basic) lexicon not from the same
source
• originate in new communities of systematic
mixed marriage: mother’s grammar with
father’s lexicon
• originate as extended argot of itinerant and
other groups who maintain identity under
pressure: grammar of dominant language,
deviant lexicon
• note the genetic difference for the two
scenario’s
prospects of multidisciplinary
• need for chronology, time depth
• need for quantative approach
• indication for some factors from archeology,
genetics, not for language attitude,
communication policy

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