Languages in Society

revisited
ALDS 2704A
September 30, 2016

Review and clarification from

last class
ALDS 1001 is not a prerequisite for
this course!
You do not need to learn the history
of the Norman conquest of England.

Is Haiti a diglossia?

Official languages:
French (42% of
population)
Haitian Creole
(100% of
population)

Some Haitian history

Discovered by Columbus in 1492
By 1548, the indigenous Taino population had
declined to fewer than 500

Ruled by Spain until 17th century (1600s)

Ceded to France in 1697
Sugar cane plantations

Haitian Revolution (1791-1804)

Established Haiti as the first independent
sovereign nation of Latin America and the
Caribbean
4

Haitian Creole
A creole is a complete language that has evolved from more
basic pidgin languages.
In a language contact (pidgin) situation, the superstrate
language is spoken by the politically and socioeconomically
dominant group.
The substrate language is spoken by less powerful speakers.
Every creole has a superstrate and substrate. The superstrate
provides the vocabulary, and the substrate provides the
grammar.
Haitian Creoles vocabulary derives mainly from French, and its
grammar from West African, Taino (the language of Haitian
indigenous peoples killed by Spanish colonizers), Spanish, and
Portuguese languages.
5

Diglossia Redefined
Ferguson (1959): co-existence of two
dialectal varieties of a language side
by side throughout the community
with each having a definite role to play
(with functional compartmentalization).
Fishman (1967): co-existence of two
dialectal varieties of a language or
two languages side by side within a
geographical area with functional
compartmentalization.

Diglossia is a relative
concept
In a situation of language contact:
The more the two languages (or
varieties) are used
interchangeably, the less diglossic
the situation is.
The more the two languages (or
varieties) are used for different
functions (high vs. low), the more
diglossic the situation is.

Diglossia & Bilingualism

(Fishman)
+ Diglossia
+ Individual
Bilingualism
- Individual
Bilingualism

- Diglossia

The Deaf-ASL community: Bilingualism without

diglossia?
or transglossia?

Switzerland
For language map click here:

German
(63.7%),
French
(19.2%),
Italian
(7.6%),
Romansh
(0.6%)

Why use Swiss German?

Language and Nationalism
Trade-offs:
Communication vs. identity
functions
Solidarity vs. status

Are diglossic situations

more stable?
Additive vs. subtractive contexts
Why does diglossia tend to be
stable in German-speaking
Switzerland?
And less so in Haiti or in
medieval England?

Case Study 2: Qubec

DictionaryofCanadianFrench,Robinson&Smith,1990

Case Study 2: Qubec

DictionaryofCanadianFrench,Robinson&Smith,1990

Diglossia & Bilingualism in

Qubec
+ Diglossia
+ Individual
Bilingualism
(Trilingualism,
etc.)
- Individual
Bilingualism

- Diglossia

Diglossia & Bilingualism in Canada

less QC
+ Diglossia
+ Individual
Bilingualism
(Trilingualism,
etc.)
- Individual
Bilingualism

- Diglossia

Activities
Suggest one! (related to this or any other
chapters)
Discuss the extent to which bilingualism and
diglossia exist in the National Capital Region (or
in some other geographical area). Are the
current language arrangements stable or not?
Does the concept of diglossia help explain such
relative stability (or lack thereof)? If not, what
other factors should be taken into account to
help explain and predict how the language
situation has evolved and will evolve in the
NCR?