Pluricentric language

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A pluricentric language or a polycentric language is a language with several standard varieties in synchronous linguistics . The linguistic area of ​​a pluricentric language mostly, but not always, extends beyond national borders.

In diachronic linguistics, a pluricentric language is a language that has been influenced in its development by several linguistic centers to a comparable extent.

Examples from a synchronous perspective

In Pluricentric Languages , Arabic , Armenian , Standard Chinese , German , English , French , Hindi - Urdu ( Hindustani ), Italian , Korean , Malay , Dutch , Portuguese , Swedish , Serbo-Croatian , Spanish , Tamil and Pacific Pidgin English ( Tok Pisin , Bislama , Pijin and Torres Creole ). This suggests that pluricentrism is more the norm than the exception for speaker-rich languages . But even a language as small as Carpathian Russian has four clearly different standard varieties in Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary and Poland . Other examples are Inuktitut , Kurdish , Punjabi , Persian , Romanian , Sesotho and Swahili . Even "dead" languages can be pluricentric, e.g. B. The Latin of the Middle Ages and the early modern period , which was differentiated under the influence of the individual vernacular languages , the Church Slavonic with its "editors" or Sanskrit , which is written in different regions of India with different scripts.

The Hebrew is in some ways also a pluricentric language, not in terms of vocabulary and grammar, but in terms of the debate in the synagogue worship. Israelis from different cultures ( Ashkenazim , Sfaradim , Temanim , etc.) use different ways of pronouncing Hebrew in the synagogue liturgy. The modern Hebrew pronunciation , however, is based on the traditional Sephardic pronunciation, with certain Ashkenazi elements.

English

The English language is a pluricentric language with clear differences in phonology and orthography between the varieties of Great Britain , the USA , Australia and numerous other countries that were under British or American rule or under the rule of Anglophone states and English as the official or lingua franca took over.

English is commonly viewed as a symmetrical case of a pluricentric language because none of these varieties have clear cultural dominance.

German

Varieties of standard German

In contrast to English, German is often viewed as an asymmetrical case of a pluricentric language, as standard German from Germany is often perceived as dominant. This is due on the one hand to the large number of speakers, but also to the fact that the varieties are often not perceived as such in the German-speaking area. In addition, the various standard varieties, including those of the full centers in Austria and Switzerland, are incorrectly interpreted as regional deviations.

Although there is a uniform stage language , this does not apply to the language used in public spaces: Standard German, referred to as High German, which is used in the mass media , schools and politics , is sometimes very different in the German-speaking world.

The various varieties of standard German differ in the German dialect areas in terms of phonology , vocabulary and, in a few cases, in grammar and orthography .

The different varieties of standard German are influenced to a certain extent by the respective regional base dialects (see also the German dialect continuum ), by different cultural traditions (for example the terms for many foods ) and by different terms in legislation and administration , the so-called staticisms .

A list of German words that are primarily used in Austria (and occasionally in Bavaria ) for certain foods has been incorporated into European law at the request of the Republic of Austria . But there are also other words that are only used regionally in German-speaking countries.

See also:

History of the national varieties of German

The first approaches to an overarching representation of the national varieties of German can be seen in the work Word Geography of the German Colloquial Language by the Viennese Paul Kretschmer from 1918. With the work of Hugo Moser (especially in 1959) the linguistic history study of the peculiarities of the standard German language outside Germany began. He also replaced the obsolete term Reichsdeutsch with the even more monocentric term Binnendeutsch , which was also adopted by Austrian and Swiss linguists. Moser also used the terms "outer areas of the high German language" (Austria, Switzerland and German minorities in other countries) and "main variant Federal Republic". From this perspective, all non-German national varieties appear to be of secondary importance and are placed on the same level as regionalisms or minority German in other countries. Moser also described GDR German as “deviating”, “improper” and FRG German as the unchanged “real” German.

Various authors were encouraged by Hugo Moser to publish lexicographical compilations of "special features" of the German standard language in Germany's neighboring countries. Like the Duden editorial team, they still use Germany-centered or high-level language-centered markings. The linguistically committed and sociolinguistically oriented research into the other national varieties dominated by "Inland German" also began after the Second World War and intensified in both Austria and Switzerland since the 1970s. From the end of the 1970s, an overarching discussion of the problem began on a par with all major national varieties. With criticism of the “internal German” and “special features” perspective, the term “national variant of German” was also discussed for Austrian German, alongside “West German / East German variety” as “state varieties”. Von Polenz describes the monocentric view as having been overcome in 1987. But it still has an effect, for example in the Duden, which only identifies Austriaticisms, Helveticisms and in Germany only very regional variants. Teutonisms are therefore often viewed as universally valid.

From the 1950s onwards, the problem area of ​​national varieties was dealt with independently of one another, particularly in the Soviet Union, the USA and Australia, starting with English, French and Spanish. The Germanist Elise Riesel , who emigrated from Vienna in 1934, began to apply the term “national variant” to Austria, Germany and Switzerland in 1953. For this reason, the term "national variant" has been postulated in the GDR since 1974 for GDR German and FRG German, which has not remained unchallenged. In the West, Heinz Kloss suggested the “pluricentrist language” approach from 1952, which in turn took over the term from the US sociolinguist William A. Stewart. This term was introduced into German linguistics in 1984 in a still very open connection with the Eastern term national variety by the Australian Germanist Michael Clyne and discussed non-polemically at a German teachers' conference in Bern in 1986 and communicated to a broad public. In connection with the planned growth of the EU, Clyne further developed the term NV-emancipatory with regard to the new role of German, especially Austrian, as the international lingua franca in the new Europe that is expanding south-east.

The first comprehensive monograph on national varieties of German was published by Ulrich Ammon in 1995, where he used the term “pluricentric” in the sense of “plurinational”.

Standard Chinese

Standard Chinese is another asymmetrical case of a pluricentric language. There are, when speaking as plurizentrischer language in the Western Linguistics of Chinese, not the various Chinese "dialects" ( Chinese  方言 , Pinyin Fangyan ) meant that actually different individual languages are. Rather, it is about different varieties of Mandarin . Their standard definitions are very similar or almost identical, but there are considerable differences, especially in vocabulary, to a lesser extent in pronunciation and grammar, and sometimes in writing.

On the Chinese mainland, standard Chinese is called Pǔtōnghuà - 普通话 ("general slang") and, according to the official definition, is based on the dialect of Beijing in pronunciation and on the 'excellent literary works in colloquial northern Chinese' in grammar.

However, detailed, prescriptive descriptions of this standard (dictionaries) also stipulate certain deviations from the Peking dialect in pronunciation, especially with unstressed syllables; the “r-suffix” (“ Érhuà phenomenon”), which is very well represented in the vocabulary of the Peking dialect , is used much less in the standard language. The grammatical norm is national and North Chinese.

The authorities in Taiwan refer to standard Chinese as Guóyǔ - 國語 (“national language”). The standard is defined in the same way as on the mainland, but differences have developed due to the political separation in the second half of the 20th century. The local population mainly speaks a southern Chinese dialect and does not use the standard pronunciation correctly in everyday life. Compared to the standard on the mainland, there are also significantly fewer unstressed syllables in the standardized pronunciation in radio etc.

In Singapore and Malaysia , standard Chinese is called Huáyǔ - 华语 ("Chinese language"). The main differences to language usage in China are in the vocabulary. Standard Chinese is the mother tongue of a very small fraction of the population of Singapore and Malaysia. Chinese-born residents of Singapore and Malaysia primarily speak Cantonese , Hakka and Minnanhua as their mother tongues.

In Hong Kong and Macau , Cantonese, Yuèyǔ - 粵語 (“ Yue language”), dominates orally, also in official use. The written language is essentially standard Chinese, even if the vocabulary is partly clearly influenced by Cantonese.

The Chinese script was officially reformed and simplified in the People's Republic of China in the 1960s . The second stage of the reform at the end of 1977 did not officially go beyond the draft stage. After discussions and clear criticism from the population, the second stage was stopped and shelved by the authorities in the summer of 1986. In Hong Kong and Macau as well as in Taiwan the traditional, non-simplified characters continue to be used. Singapore has adopted the simplified characters from mainland China.

Examples from a diachronic point of view

The German language is an example of a pluricentric language. In the Middle High German period under the Hohenstaufen emperors, the Alemannic southwest of the language area had a dominant linguistic influence, this influence then passed to the Bavarian southeast under the Habsburgs . In the early New High German period, the East Central German language of the Wettins was authoritative; and Martin Luther , who himself came from ostmitteldeutschem area, was based on this language. Due to the political rise of Prussia, the north around the center of Berlin and Prussian Silesia later played a major role - especially in the area of pronunciation regulation .

Overall, this created a language that is not essentially identical to any of the German dialects; And even today, a trained ear can assign practically any speaker to one of the German language landscapes .

Languages ​​like French , on the other hand, are not considered to be pluricentric, seen diachronically, because a constant center (more or less) constantly exerted a strong influence in their development.

literature

  • Ulrich Ammon , Hans Bickel, Alexandra N. Lenz u. a .: German variant dictionary. The standard language in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, East Belgium and South Tyrol as well as Romania, Namibia and Mennonite settlements . 2nd, completely revised and expanded edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-024543-1 .
  • Michael Clyne: Pluricentric languages. Differing norms in different nations . Berlin / New York 1992.
  • Snježana Kordić : National varieties of the Serbo-Croatian language . In: Biljana Golubović, Jochen Raecke (eds.): Bosnian - Croatian - Serbian as foreign languages ​​at the universities of the world (=  The world of the Slavs, anthologies - Sborniki ). tape 31 . Sagner, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-86688-032-0 , pp. 93-102 ( PDF file; 1.3 MB [accessed June 7, 2010]).
  • Snježana Kordić: Pluricentric languages, extension languages, distance languages ​​and Serbo-Croatian . In: Journal of Balkanology . tape 45 , no. 2 , 2009, ISSN  0044-2356 , p. 210–215 ( online [accessed April 2, 2013]).
  • Rudolf Muhr (Ed.): Standard variations and language perceptions in different language cultures. In: Trans, Internet magazine for cultural studies, No. 15, 2004.

Web links

Wiktionary: Pluricentric language  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

swell

  1. ^ William A. Stewart: A Sociolinguistic Typology for Describing National Multilingualism . In: Joshua Fishman (Ed.): Readings in the Sociology of Language . Mouton, The Hague, Paris 1968, OCLC 306499 , pp. 534 .
  2. Heinz Kloss : Distance languages ​​and extension languages . In: Joachim Göschel, Norbert Nail, Gaston van der Elst (eds.): On the theory of dialect . Articles from 100 years of research (=  Journal for Dialectology and Linguistics, supplements ). nF, issue 16. F. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1976, OCLC 2598722 , p. 310-312 .
  3. Michael Clyne: Pluricentric languages. Differing norms in different nations . Berlin / New York 1992.
  4. Anna-Julia Lingg: Criteria for differentiating between Austrianzisms, Helvetisms and Teutonisms. In: Christa Dürscheid , Martin Businger (Hrsg.): Swiss Standard German: Contributions to variety linguistics. Gunter Narr Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-8233-6225-9 , p. 23 ff.
  5. ^ Ulrich Ammon : The German language in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: the problem of the national variety. Berlin / New York 1995, p. 35 ff.
  6. a b c Peter von Polenz : German language history from the late Middle Ages to the present. Walter de Gruyter, 2000, ISBN 3-11-014344-5 , p. 419 ff.
  7. Polenz 1987, p. 101.