All languages change if there is any doubt just pick up a book that is over 100 years old and regardless of the language it will at a minimum sound slightly different from current language use or radically different.

In this post, we will look at three common ways in which language change is spread. These three ways are from…

• From one group to another
• From one style to another
• Lexical diffusion

Changes from Group to Group

This view of language change is that changes in a language move from one group. A group can be any sort of social or work circle. Examples can include family, colleagues, church affiliation, etc.

The change of language in a group is often facilitated by “gatekeepers.” Gatekeepers are people who are members of different groups. Most people are members of many different groups at the same time.

What happens is that a person picks up language in one group and shares this style of communication in another.  An example would be a child learning slang at school and using it at home. Naturally, language change moves at different speeds in different groups depending on the acceptability of the change.

Changes from Style to Style

A style is a way of communicating. It simple terms a person’s style can be formal and informal with varying shades of grey in-between. These two extremes can also be viewed as prestigious vs not prestigious.

Normally, formal/prestigious styles of language move down into informal styles of language. For example, a movie star or some other celebrity speaks a certain way and thus style is transferred downward among those who are not so famous.

There are times where informal and un-prestigious language change spreads upward. Normally, this is much slower than change moving downward. In addition, it also involves words and styles that are so old that what really happened was the young people who used these words become part of the “establishment” in their middle age and continued to use the style. For example, the word “cool” used to be slang but is commonly used among some of the most elite leaders of the world now. Therefore, it wasn’t the language that changed as much as the people who used it with the passing of one generation to another.

Lexical Diffusion

Lexical diffusion is the change of how a word is pronounced. This is often an exceedingly slow process and can take centuries. The English language is full of words that have strange pronunciations when considering the spelling. This is due to English being thoroughly influenced by other languages such as French and Latin.

Conclusion

These three theories are just some of the ways langauge change can spread. In addition, it may not be practical to thinnk of them each happening independently from the others. Rather, these three theories can often be seen as working at the same time to slowly change a language over time.

There are many different ways that languages or a language can interact with each other. One way is how different dialects of a language interact. A koine is a dialect that is a blend of other dialects that have had direct contact with each other.

In this post, we will discuss the follow

• Koine vs pidgins and creoles
• Development of koines

Koine vs Pidgins and Creoles

Koine is a lesser known term to the general public in comparison to pidgin and creole. The word “koine” comes from the same Greek word that means “common.” In other words, koine is what two or more dialects have in common. For those familiar with biblical languages you would n=know that the term “Koine” Greek is the language of the New Testament, which means the New Testament was written in common Greek.

As mentioned in the introduction a koine is the interaction of two or more dialects to create new common dialect. In contrast, a pidgin is the interaction of two languages to make a new third language. A pidgin can eventually mature into a Creole which is a pidgin that is spoken as the native language of people. There seems to be no term for a koine that is spoken natively.

Developing a Koine

The process of developing a Koine is known as koineization. There are both linguistic and social factors that contribute to the development of a koine. For linguistic factors, they include leveling and simplification and for the social factor, it involves accommodation, prestige.

Levelling is the elimination from the koine distinct sounds from the colliding dialects. An example of this is the loss of the post-vocalic [r] in parts of England.

Simplification is the process of the simplest characteristics of the dialects being included in the new koine. The dialect with the fewer rules and exceptions almost always emerges as having more influence on the koine.

The social factor of accommodations means that people will copy something they believe is prestigious or “cool.” If a certain dialect is considered unacceptable it will not lead to a koine because of people’s dislike of it. As such accommodation and prestige are interrelated concepts.

Conclusion

Koine and koineization are two words that help to explain where dialects come from. As such, for those who have an interest in linguistics, these are terms to be familiar with

Within conversational analysis (CA) it is common to analysis peoples request as well as people’s response to a request in the context of a conversation. In this post, we will look at the categories that these requests and responses commonly fall into.

Request

Requests are a specific type of question in conversational analysis. Request almost always involve some sort of action. Either the person asking the request wants to do something or the speaker wants the listener to do something. As such there are only two categories in which request can be classified and they are…

• Action request
• Permission request

Action Request

An action request is made when the speaker wants the listener to do something.

A: Can you turn off the light?

Permission Request

A permission request is made when the speaker wants to perform an action and is seeking approval from the listener.

A: You mind if I turn off the light?

Response to Request

The response to a request can be positive or negative. However, when a response is negative it is often indirect.  As such, there are three categories in which a response to a request can be placed.

• Accept
• Reject
• Evade

Accept

Accepting is to grant permission either for the speaker to do something or that the listener will perform the request.

A: Could you turn the light off?
B: No problem

Reject

Rejecting means that a person states directly that they cannot do something

A: Can you turn the light off?
B: No, I can’t

Evading

Evading is the art of saying “no” indirectly to a request. This is done through giving a reason why something cannot be done rather than directly responding

A: Can you turn the light off?
B: I’m busy with the baby

In the example above, person B never says no. Rather, they provide an excuse for not completing the task.

Conclusion

We all have used these various ways of requesting and responding to request. The benefit of CA is being able to breakdown these conversational pairs and understand what is happening beyond the surface level.

Conversational analysis is a tool used by sociolinguist to examine dialog between two or more people. The analysis can include such aspects as social factors, social dimensions, and other characteristics.

One unique tool in conversational analysis identifying adjacency pairs. Adjacency pairs are two-part utterances in which the second speaker is replying to something the first speaker said. In this post, we will look at the following examples of adjacency pairs.

• Request-agreement
• Question-Answer
• Assessment-Agreement
• Greeting-Greeting
• Compliment-Acceptance
• Conversational Concluder
• Complaint-Apology
• Blame-Denial
• Threat-Counterthreat
• Warning-Acknowledgement
• Offer-Acceptance

Request-Agreement

Request involves asking someone to do something and agreement indicates that the person will do it. Below is an example

A: Could you open the window?
B: No problem

Question-Answer

One person request information from another. THis is different from request agreement because there is no need to agree. Below is an example

A: Where are you from?
B: I am from Laos

Assessment-Agreement

Assessment seeks an opinion from someone and agreement is a positive position on the subject. The example is below

A: Do you like the food?
B: Yeah, it taste great!

Greeting-Greeting

Two people say hello to one another.

A: Hello
B: Hello

Compliment-Acceptance

One person commends something about the other who shows appreciation for the comment.

A: I really like your shoes
B: Thank you

Conversational Concluder

This is a comment that singles the end of a conversation.

A: Goodbye
B: See you later

Complaint-Apology

One person indicates they are not happy with something and the other person express regret over this.

A: The food is too spicy
B: We’re so sorry

Blame-Denial

One person accuses another who tries to defend himself.

A: You lost the phone?
B: No I didn’t!

Threat-Counterthreat

Two people mutually resist each other.

A: Sit down or I will call your parents!
B: Make me

Warning-Acknowledgement

One person issues a threat or danger and the other indicates they understand

A: Look both ways before crossing the street
B: No problem

Offer-Acceptance

One person gives something and the other person shows appreciation

A: Here’s the money
B: Thank you so much

Conclusion

These kinds of conversational pairs appear whenever people talk. For the average person, this is not important. However, when trying to look at the context of a conversation tot understanding what is affecting the way people are speaking understanding and identifying adjacency pairs can be useful.

In general, women tend to prefer to use the most standard or prestige form of a language regardless of cultural background or geography. Linguists have proposed several potential reasons for this. This post will share some of the most common ideas on why women often used the standard form of their language.

Social Status

There is a belief among many linguists that women use the most prestigious forms of their language because they are more status-conscious than men. By using the standard version of their language a woman is able to claim a higher status.

The implication of this is that women have a lower status in society and try to elevate themselves through their use of language. However, this conclusion has been refuted as women who work outside the home use more of the standard form of their language than women who work in their home.

If the social status hypothesis was correct women who work at home, and thus have the lowest status, should use more of the standard form then women who work. Currently, this is not the case.

Women as Protector of Society’s Values

The women as protector of values view see social pressure as a constraint on how women communicate. Simply, women use more standard forms of their language than men because women are expected to behave better. It is thrust upon women to serve as an example for their community and especially for their children.

This answer is considered correct but depends highly on context. For example, this idea falls a part most frequently when women communicate with their children. The informal and intimate setting often leads to most women using the vernacular aspects of their language.

Women as Subordinate Group

A third suggestion is that women, who are often a subordinate group, use the more standard version of their language to show deference to those over them. In other words, women use the most polite forms of their language to avoid offending men.

However, this suggestion also fails because it equates politeness with the standard form of a language. People can be polite using vernacular and they can be rude using the most prestigious form of their language possible.

Vernacular as Masculine

A final common hypothesis on women’s use of standard forms is the perception that the use of the vernacular is masculine and tough. Women choose the standard form as a way of demonstrating behaviors traditionally associated with gender in their culture. Men, on the other hand, use vernacular forms to show traits that are traditionally associated with male behaviors.

The problem with this belief is the informal settings. As mentioned previously, women and men use more vernacular forms of their language in informal settings. As such, it seems that context is one of the strongest factors in how language is used and not necessarily gender.

Many countries in the world have a national and an official language. The origins of these two distinctions are wrap in politics, history, and culture.

A national language is a language with a political, cultural, and social unit connected with it. An official language is a language used by the government of a country. However, both of these terms are used for politic means in many countries.

A national language is often used to unite the people. Examples of this include Japanese in Japan, French in France, and even English in Great Britain. Each country has a complex history behind its selection of a national language.

The process of developing a national language involves four steps which are…

• Selection
• Codification
• Elaboration
• Acceptance

Selection

Selecting a language to serve as the national language is a political process. Picking the wrong language could rip a nation a part. Different countries have approached this in different ways. Indonesia selected a Malay pidgin as its national language to unite its country. The Philippines choose Tagalog or Filipino as their national language, which was met with great resistance.

Codification

Codification involves standardizing the language. This involves the development of grammar rules and dictionaries. American English was heavily influenced by Noah Webster and his work in developing dictionaries. Webster specifically wanted to develop an American dialect of English in order to unify the new country.

Elaboration 

Elaboration is the process of extending the language into new domains such as academics,  medicine, or some other field. Many languages, pidgins, and or creoles, do not have ways of communicating highly abstract terms. In order to serve as an official language, terms need to be developed to handle any form of communication.

Acceptance

After developing a language in order for it to become the national language, steps must be taken to convince the people to use it. This is often done through a combination of propaganda and follows the leader. When government officials use the language locals often begin to follow.

Conclusion

The use of a language by a nation has a complex process that involves several steps. Every country has some story behind the development of its language. This rarely does not happen by chance.

Pidgin and Creole are two common terms used in linguistics to describe a language. This post will define and explain some of the characteristics of these two linguistic terms

Pidgin

A pidgin is a language that does not have any native speakers. In other words, it is a younger language that is developed as a means of communicating between two groups who do not speak the same language.

Pidgins are frequently developed for business and trading. Buying and selling and other transactions are reasons for the development of a pidgin. Pidgins are not used as a form of group identification but rather for practical communication.

A pidgin is also the combination of two different languages. The language that provides the majority of the vocabulary is called the superstrate and the minority language is called the substrate.

Pidgins are highly simplified in their grammar and syntax. For example, pidgins are often missing affixes, inflections, and a smaller vocabulary compared to other languages.

A pidgin usually sounds ridiculous to a speaker of either of the two languages it is derived from. As such, they are often difficult to learn for a speaker of either the superstrate or substrate language to learn as they do not follow the normal rules of grammar as found in the superstrate or substrate language.

There are many pidgins in the world today. Many came as a result of slavery in the western hemisphere. Slaves came from different parts of Africa and often could not communicate without developing a pidgin.

In Asia, most countries have or had some form of pidgin English such as Thailand “Tinglish”, Japan has “Japanese Bamboo English.” Over time, many pidgins mature into what we call creoles.

Creole 

A creole is a pidgin that now has native speakers. Children grow speaking a creole as their first language. There are also other differences between a pidgin and creole.

Since it is the first language of a group, creoles are used in many more areas of life and have a much richer structure. Furthermore, a creole has a much more standardized grammar rules.

People’s attitudes towards a creole are often different as well. Since it is the first language of many people, there is a sense of pride over using the language. A creole can also be used to identify members of a group. This was not possible with a pidgin as pidgins serve as a way of communicating between two groups while creoles are for communicating both between groups and within a group.

Examples of creoles include “Manglish” (Malaysian English), “Singlish” (Singaporean English) and “Taglish” (Tagalog English).

Conclusion

Pidgins and creoles serve the purpose of communicating among people groups who have different languages. With time a pidgin may become a creole if native speakers of a pidgin develop.