Variety of Languages

An Introductory Glossary
Language: language is a human and non instinctive method of communicating ideas,
feelings and desires by means of a svstem of sound symbols.
Base language: The language on to which the elements of another language are mixed.
Supra language: The language from which the elements are mixed onto the based
lanquage.
Lanquage repertoire : The set of languages which a speaker has uses.
Diglossic language
: A language that has two standard varieties.
Bilingual: A person who knows and uses more than one language.
Standardization: The linguistic process of the formation of a language by reducing
the variations in it for use in public domain.
Public domain: When language is institutionalized in an area of its use, is called
public domain, it is not controlled by common people.
Linguistic community: A group of people who share a language and the norms of its
use.
Multilingual: A person who uses more than one language.
Multilingual community: A linguistic community sharing more than one language and
their functional allocation is called multilingual com-munity.

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Variety: A term which is used in Sociolingustics and Stylistics to refer t any
system of Lingustic expression whose use is governed by situational variables.
Lingustic conventions, traditions and customs devlop in different social groups,
and these serve to separate one language from another.
But as time passes and social groups migrate and change their cultural
characteristics, the language spoken submits to change and variation. This
variation can be Synchronic and Diachronic.
Diachronic. Variation due to time factor For exampl: The English used by Chaucer
differs from Milton and both these are different from that of T S Eliot.
Synchronic : Variation within one time period in terms of region, class or caste.
It deals with theoretical point in time relation. Synchronic variation has three
kinds Dialect, Style, and Register.
Dialect: "Dialect is a specific form of a language, spoken in a certain locality or
geographical area, showing sufficient differences from the standard of literary
form of that language.
Idiolect : An individual person also has language variation. It may be called
Idiolect.Here we consider, how any two speakers will differ in their use of
English. This differences of use of English or speech habits of an individual
person is term as idiolect. In other words, each individual in the community
speeches in a characteristically different way and manner. He uses words of his
choice. Idiolect focuses on personal peculiarities of a dialect.
Isogloss: An imaginary line which divides two areas which differ in the use of a
lingustic item.
Sociolect: A variety of language (a dialect) used by people belonging to a
particular social class.
Style: Lingustic varietion of speech context or social situation. It includes
manner and tenor. The same individual has the ability to use different stylistic
vertieties of the language depending on his purpose or the situation in which it is
to be used. There are frozen formal, consultative (informal) casual and intimate
styles.
Register: A term refers to a veriety of language defined according to its use in
social situation. In other words "variation determined by subject matter." In the
words of G L Brooks "An important aspect of the register is the modification of
speech to indicate our attitude towards the subject under discussion or towards the
person we are talking to. This can be done by modifying the pitch, the loudness and
the tempo of voice."
Diglossia: Existence of two or more languages in a speech community is known as
diglossia. The spekers may use each one for different purposes.
There are two varities of diglossia.
1. High variety is used for formal occasions for example official communication,
education, law, literature etc.
2.Low varity is used at home, with friends etc.
Jargon : Words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group of
people, and are difficult for others to understand.
Pidgin: A contact language. It is used to communicate between two divergent spéech
communities.
Creoles: Whe pidgin becomes lingua franca, it is called creole.
Code: A verbal component that can be
as small as a morpheme or as comprehensive and camplets as the entire system of
language.
Code mixing : To convey sottal meanings, speakers uses words and grammatical
structures of another language alternatively thus, code mixing is alternating use
of another language, in other words mixing of two or more languages or language
varieties.
Code switching: Code switching is the alternative use of another language for the
length of a discourse unit when there is a change in speech participants or a
speech content or both. It is the mixing of the word phrases, and clauses from two
distint grammatical systems.
Pidgin
A pidgin is a communication system that develops among people who do not share a
common language. It has no mother tongue speaker. It is a restricted language which
arises for the purposes of communication between two social groups of which one is
in a more dominant position than the other. The less dominant group is the one
which develops the pidgin. Historically, pidgins arose in colonial situations where
the representatives of the particular colonial power, officials, tradesmen,
sailors, etc., came in contact with natives. The latter developed a jargon when
communicating with the former. This resulted in a language on the basis of the
colonial language in question and the language or languages of the natives. Such a
language was restricted in its range as it served a definite purpose, namely basic
communication with the colonists. In the course of several generations such a
reduced form of language can become more complex, especially if it develops into
the mother tongue of a group of speakers. This latter stage is that of
creolisation. Creoles are much expanded versions of pidgins and have arisen in
situations in Which there was a break in the natura linguistic continuity of a
community, for instance on slave planatations in their carly years.
Pidgin languages are also referred to as trade language. Some people believe that
the term "pidgin" can be traced to the English wörd business, as pronounced in the
Pidgin English which developed in China. In fact, some of the English-based pidgins
began as trade language, but were later used for administration and other purpose.
An example of a pidgin developed under these conditions is the pidgin of Neo-
Melanesia, namely, Tok Pisin. It has now developed very efficiently and become
accepted as the medium of communication and has now been adopted as a national
language in New Guinea.
The interest of linguists in these languages has increased greatly in the last few
decades. The main reason for this is that pidgins and creoles are young languages.
In retracing their development it may be possible to see how new languages can
arise. Furthermore, the large number of shared features among widely dispersed
pidgins and creoles leads to the conclusion that creoles at least show
characteristics which are typical of language in the most general sense, the
features of older languages, such as complex morphology or intricate phonology,
arising due to the action of various forces over a long period of time after the
birth of these languages. In type, creoles are all analytic and generally lack
complexity in their sound systems.
Theories of Pidgin origin:
There are various theories about the origin of pidgins which have been proposed in
the last hundred years or so. These can be presented as a basic group of five
theories which show a degree of overlap; note that a mixture of origins is also a
possibility which should also be considered.
1. The Baby-Talk Theory:At the end of the last century Charles Leland, when
discussing China coast pidgin English, noted that there were many similarities with
the speech of children such as the following features:
a- High percentage of content words with a correspondingly low number of function
words
b- Little morphological marking
c- Word classes more flexible than in adult language (free conversion)
d- Contrasts in area of pronouns greatly reduced
e- Number of inflections minimised
Later linguists, notably Jespersen and Bloomfield, maintained that the
characteristics of pidgins result from 'imperfect mastery of a language which in
its initial stage, in the child with its first language and in the grown-up with a
second language learnt by imperfect methods, leads to a superficial knowledge of
the most indispensable word, with total disregard of grammar'.
2. Independent Parallel Development Theory:
This view maintains that the obvious similarities between the world's pidgins and
creoles arose on independent but parallel lines due to the fact that they all are
derived from languages of Indo European stock and, in the case of the Atlantic
varieties, due to their sharing a common West African substratum
3. Nautical Jargon Theory:
• As early as 1938 the American linguist John Reinecke noted the possible
influence of nautical jargon on pidgins. It is obvious that on many of the original
voyages of discovery to the developing world many nationalities were represented
among the crews of the ships. This fact led to the development of a core vocabulary
of nautical items and a simplified grammar.
4. Monogenetic/Relexification Theory
According to this view all pidgins can be traced back to a single proto-pidgin, a
15th century Portuguese pidgin which was itself probably a relic of the medieval
lingua franca (also known as sabir from the Portuguese word for
'know') which was the common means of communication among the Crusaders and traders
in the Mediterranean area. Lingua franca
survived longest on the North African coast and is attested from Algeria and
Tunesia as late as the 19tincentury
5. Universalist theory:
This is the most recent view on the origin of pidgins and has elements in common
with the other theories. However, the distinguishing mark of this theory is that it
sees the similarities as due to universal tendencies among humans to create
languages of a Similar type, i.e. an analytic language with a simple phonology, an
SVO syntax with little or no subordination or other sentence complexities, and with
a lexicon which makes maximum use of polysemy (and devices such as reduplication)
operating from a limited core vocabulary. To put it in technical terms, a creole
will be expected to have unmarked values for linguistic parameters, e.g. with the
parameter pro-drop, whereby the personal pronoun is not obligatory with verb forms
(cf. Italian capisco 'I understand'), the unmarked setting is for no pro-drop to be
allowed and indeed this is the situation in all pidgins and creoles, a positive
value being something which may appear later with the rise of a rich morphology.
CREOLES
The term 'creole' There is less controversy on this issue than on the previous one.
The term would seem to derive from French. 'creole', it in its turn coming from
Portuguese 'crioulo' which goes back to an Iberian stem meaning
'to nurse, breed, bring up' The term today refers to customs and language of those
in the colonies and later to any language derived from a pidgin based on a European
language, typically English, French, Portuguese, Spanish or Dutch. Now the term
refers to any language of this type, irrespective if what the input language has
been.
When a pidgin becames Lingua franca, it is called a creole. It may acquire a
standardized grammar vocabulary and sound system and it may then be spoken by an
increasing number of people as their first language. A creole or à creolized
language is a mixed natural languge composed of elements of different languages
area of intensive contact. Some well
known example of ceroles are: Carribean, haiti, mauritius, Papua- New Guinea, St.
Halena,
The Soloman Islands and the New Hebrides.
Black Vernacular
English of America is also a cerolized language with its varieties in Liberia and
Dominican Republic

Developmental stages of pidgins/ creoles

Social situation Linguistic correlate
(i) Marginal contact Restricted pidgin;
(ii) Nativisation Extended pidgin;
(iii) Mother tongue development Creole;
(iv) Movement towards standard language (not necessarily input language)
Decreolisation
Pidgins are generally characterised as restricted and extended. In the life-cycle
of pidgins one can note that they start off as restricted language varieties used
in marginal contade situations for minimal tra ing purposes. From this original
modest outset a pidgin may assuming that there are social reasons for ivate do so,
develop into an extended type.
The latter is characterised by the extension of the social functions of a pidgin.
One very frequent scenario in the later development of a pidgin is where it is used
as a means of communication not just among black and white speakers but among
native speakers themselves who however have very different native languages. This
is the major reason for the survival of pidgin English in West Africa.
The function of pidgin English is thus as a lingua franca, i.e. a common means of
communication between speakers who do not understand their respective native
languages.
The process of pidginisation is very common in any situation in which a lingua
franca is called for. Normaily any such variety dies out very quickly once the
situation which gave rise to it no longer obtains. If the situation does continue
to exist then the pidgin is likely to survive, The steps from restricted to
extended pidgin and further to creole are only taken by very few languages,
particularly the major restructuring typical of pidgins is not normally carried out
by any but a very small number of input varieties.
Reasons for creole development
Creoles may arise in one of two basic situations. One is where speakers of pidgins
are put in a situation in which they cannot use their respective mother tongues.
This has arisen in the course of the slave trade (in the Caribbean and the southern
United States) where speakers were deliberately kept in separate groups to avoid
their plotting rebellion. They were then forced to maintain the pidgin which they
had developed up to then and pass it on to future generations as their mother
tongue thus forming the transition from a pidgin to a creole. A second situation is
where a pidgin is regarded by a social group as a higherlan guage variety and
deliberately cultivated; this is the kind of situation which obtained in Cameroon
and which does still to some extent on Pápua New Guinea. The outcome of this kind
of situation is that the children of such speakers which use pidgin for prestige
read sons may end up using the pidgin as a first language, thus rendering it a
creole with the attendant relinquishing of the native language of their parents and
the expansion of all linguistic levels for the new creole to act as a fully-fledged
language,
Code
The word code is simply used in palce of dialect or speech variety.
Code is considered as a verbal component that may be as small as a morpheme or as
comprehenssive and complex as the entire system of language. The term "code" is
neutral in connotation. Sometimes we use "code" when we want to stress on our
statement. For example : " A South Indian who is a bilingual Tamil - English
speaker, may use English in class and Tamil at home and recess. This kind of use of
different languages or dialects is known as code - selection also.

Code-Switching
Code-Switching refers to the use of two languages within a sentence or in a single
situation. This is a natural process that often
occurs between multilingual speakers that share two or more languages in common.
Code-Switching involves the substitution of a word (or phrase) from one language
within a sentence in another language. The ability to produce and comprehend
sentences with code-switching is seamless and its use in multilingual communities
is widely accepted and often goes unnoticed. According to Bokamba
"Code switching is the mixing of words, phrases and sentences from two distinct
grammatical ( sub) system across sentence boundaries within the same speech event."
Hymes defines code switching as "a common term for alternative use of two or more
languages, verities of a language or even speech style."
Code-Switching occurs far more often in conversation than in writing.
Code-Switching and code-mixing in the life of a child can be seen right from his
early age when the children of various regions meet in the class. The children have
their standard language on formal occasions but they also use the words of their
own family on informal occasions. Code-Switching and code-mixing are well-known
traits in the speech pattern of the average bilingual in any human society all over
the world.
The use of code and its switching often depends on the fünction, situation and
participants. Code switching indicates attitude or manner of the speakers, in other
words it points out the manner of formality or informality. Code-Switching performs
several functions.
First, people may use code-switching to hide fluency or memory problems in the
second language.
Second, code-switching is used to mark switching from informal situations using
native languages to formal situations and using second language.
Third, code-switchingais used to exert control especially between parents and
children.
Fourth, code-switching is used to align speakers with others in specific situations
Code-Switching also "functions to announce specific identities, create certain
meaning, and facilitate particular interpersonal relationships"
The use of Code Switching influences one's identity. There are competing
motivations to use the vocabulary of one language for a word that cannot easily be
translated into the other language. By Code-Switching, one may feel that
Sociolinguists, psycholinguists and general linguists are conveying the massage
that one language cannot express an idea that can easily be expressed in the second
language.
Switching between languages is different from mixing languages or languages
verieties. Switching is motivated by a change in the speech event. It may be
related to participants or topic or situations. The code which is switched in the
speech, is considered more appropiate than the former to interact the participants
and this is the main purpose of code switching.
There may many reasons that people code-switch. Code-switching relates to, and
sometimes indexes social-group membership in bilingual and multilingual
communities. Some sociolinguists describe the relationships between code-switching
behaviours and class, ethnicity, and other social positions. In addition, scholars
in interactional linguistics and conversation analysis have studied code-switching
as a means of structuring talk in interaction.
Some discourse analysts, includIng conversation analyst Peter Auer, suggest that
code-switching does not simply reflect social situ-ations, but that it is a means
to create social situations.
Methods of Code-Switching
Code switching is not a borrowing of words. It mostly takes place where syntaxes of
the languages align in a sentence. It happens at either the syntax or the utterance
construction level. Some constraints of code switching as follows:
1. The free morpheme constraint
Code switching can not take place between bound morphemes.
2. The equivalence constraint :
Code switching can occur only in positions where the order or any two sentence
elements, one before and one after the switch is not excluded in either language.
3. The close class constraint : Closed class items viz; pronouns, prepositions,
conjunctions etc can not be switched.
4.The matrix language frame: In this frame the role of the participants languages
considered indiviually.
5. The functional head constraint :
Code switching can not place between a functional head ( a determiner, a
complementizer and an inflection etc. ) and its complement ( sentence, noun phrase,
verb phrase )
Code-Mixing
Code-mixing refers to the mixing of two or more languages or language varieties in
speech.
The term code-mixing refers. "to all cases where lexical items and grammatical
features from two languages appear in one sentence" and the focus of interest will
be on intra-sentential mixing" or mixing where elements from both languages appear
in the same, sentence. Many authors use the term code-switching to refer to the
same phenomenon. Hymes defines code-switching as common term for alternative use of
two or more languages, varieties of a language or even speech styles"
According to Bokamba "Code-Switching is the mixing of words, phrases and sentences
from two distinct grammatical systems across sentence boundaries within the same
speech event...... code-mixing is the embedding of various linguistic units such as
affixes (bound morphemes), words (unbound morphemes), phrases and clauses from a
co-operátive activity where the participants, in order to infer what is intended,
must reconcile what they hear with what they
understand".
Code mixing is a thematically related term, but the usage of the terms code-
switching and code-mixing varies. Some scholars use either term to denote the same
practice, while others apply code-mixing to denote the formal linguistic:
properties of said language-contact phenomena, and code switching to denote
the actual spoken usages by multilingual persons.
Some scholars use the term "code-
mixing" and code-switching" interchangeably, especially in studies of syntax,
morphology, and other formal aspects of language. Others assume more specific
definitions of code-mixing, but these specific definitions may be different in
different subfields of linguistics, education theory, ) communications etc. Code-
mixing is similar to the use or creation of pidgins; but while a pidgin is created
across groups that do not share a common language, code-mixing may occur within a
multilingual setting where speakers share more than one language.

Types of Code- Mixing

There are four major types of code- mixing as the scholars use different names for
various types of code-switching.
1. Intersentential switching: It occurs outside the sentence or the clause level
(i.e. at sentence or clause boundaries). It is sometimes called
“extrasentential”• switching.
2. Intra-sentential switching:
It occurs within a sentence or a clause.
3. Tag-switching: This is the switching of either a tag phrase or a word,
or both, from language-B to language-A, (common intrasentential switches).
 4. Intra-word switching: It occurs within a word, itself, such as at a
morpheme boundary.
Code-mixing as code-switching:
Some linguists use the terms code-mixing and code-switching more or less
interchangeably.
Especially in formal studies of syntax, morphology etc., both terms are used to
refer to utterances that draw from elements of two or more grammatical systems.
These studies are often interested in the alignment of elements from listinct
systems, on constraints that limit switching. While many linquists have worked to
destribe the difference between code-switching and borrowing of words or phrases,
the term code-mixing may be used to encompass both types of lanquage behavior.
While the term code switching emphasizes a multilingual speaker's movement from one
grammatical system to another, the term code-mixing suggests a hybrid from, drawing
from distinct grammars. In other words, code-mixing emphasizes the formal aspects
of language structures or linguistic competence, while code-switching emphasizes
linguistic performance.

Code-mixing in sociolinguistics:
• While linguists who are primarily interested in the structure or form of code-
mixing may have relatively little interest to separate code-:.mixing from code-
switching, some sociolinquists have gone to great lengths to differentiate the two
phenomena. For these scholars, code swithing is associated with particular
pragmatic effects, discourse and functions, or associations with group identity.
For them code mixing or language alternation is used to describe more stable
situations in which multiple languages are used without such pragmatic effects.

Code mixing in language acquisition;

In studies of bilingual language acquisition, code-mixing refers to a development
stage during which children mix element more than one language. Nearly all
bilingual children go through a period in which they move from one language to
another without apparent discrimination. This differs from code-switching, which is
understood as the socially and grammatically appropriate use of multiple varieties.
Beginning at the babbling stage, young children in bilingual or multilingual
environment produce utterance that combine element of both (or all) of their
developing languages.
Some linguists suggest that this code-mixing reflects a lack of control or ability
to differentiate the languages, Others argue that it is a product of limited
vocabulary; very young children may know a word in one language but not in another.
More recent studies argue that this early code-mixing is a demonstration of a
developing ability to code-switch in socially appropriate ways.

Code-mixing in psychology and psycholinguistics:

In psychology and in psycholinguistics the label code-mixing. is used in theories
that draw on studies of language alternation or code-switching to describe the
cognitive structures underlying bilingualism. During the 1950s and 1960s,
psychologists and linguists treated bilingual speakers as, in Grosjean's term,
"two monolinguals in one person". This
"fractional view" supposed that a bilingual speaker carried two separate mental
grammars that were more or less identical to the mental grammars of monolinguals
and that were ideally kept separate and used separately. Studies since the 1970s,
however, have shown that bilinguals regularly combine elements from "separate
languages. These findings have led to studies of code-mixing in psychology and
psycholinguistics.
Sridhar and Sridhar define code-mixing as "the transition from using linguistic
units (words, phrases, clauses, etc.) of one language to using those of another
within a single sentence". They note that this is distinct from code-switching in
that it oceurs in a single sentence(sometimes known as intrasentential switching)
and in that it does not fulfill the pragmatic or discourse-oriented functions
described by sociolinguists.
The practice of code-mixing, which draws from competence in two languages at the
same time
suggests that these competences are not stored or processed separately. Code-mixing
among bilinguals is therefore studied in order to explore the mental structures
underlying language abilities.
Code-mixing as fused lect:
A mixed language or a fused lect is a relatively stable mixture of two or more
languages. A fused lect is similer to a mixed language.
in terms of semantics and pragmatics but fuse lets allow less veriation since they
are fully
grammaticalized. Thus code mixing has no specific meaning in the local context
English is
examle of fused lect

Indianization of English:
process of Indianization of English works on following levels:
1.In Lexical level of code mixing : When an Indian speaks English he or she uses
items of local dialect or Vernacular, because there is lack of exact English
equivalent.
The longest body of vernacular items imported into English are singal lexical
items.
2.Hybrid level of code mixing : An Indian uses not only pure lexical vernacular
items nut hybrid items also whileone speaks English.
3. Morphemes level of code mixing: At the level of morphemes we can notice
code mixing.
4. Collection of words (indirect code- mixing): Collection means coming together
when two words are put together and are used to create a special effect in speech
or writing often these are used to give Indian socio- cultural touch in expression.
5. Syntax level of code mixing :
When non English- noun qualifiers, tag questions, etc. are used to express the
Indian culture and Indian peoples. Code mixing is done at syntax level.
6. Phnological level of code mix-ing: English is learnt in India as a
second language, in this learning process the sound and sound pattern of our mother
tongue ( first language ) affect English sound system
7. Prosodic level of code mixing :
The proper stress and rhythm patterns of English are not followed in India. We use
English in our speech as we use Hindi.
8. Bilingual or multilingual setting of code switching : In India English is
switched with several languages.