Language change (linguistics)

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When changing languages (English. Language shift ) an individual or a linguistic community changes from one language A to another language B. The term is common in language acquisition research , sociolinguistics and linguistics in general . A complete language change, often just the dominance of one language in the case of multilingualism, can extend over 2–3 generations.

Language change during migration

The language change usually results from previous language contacts and the language changers are characterized by multilingualism ( bilingualism ). The phenomenon often shows up in migrants or emigrants after they have permanently moved the center of their lives. Living in a new environment regularly requires the acquisition of a second language (S2) in addition to the mother tongue (S1). In the long term, staying in a foreign country leads to a migration-related change of language. The S2 becomes the S1. If S1 is completely lost, one speaks of a loss of language .

However, if the S1 remains in the foreign country, this is called (in the result and in the course) language preservation . Language preservation is associated with multilingualism. The sociology of language sees it as a language loyalty. Examples are groups of Romanian Germans , occasionally also Russian Germans and South Asian immigrants in Great Britain. Language preservation can, in turn, lead to language conflict.

The process of language retention spans an average of two to three generations. Characteristic of this transition phase is the multilingualism and the efforts of the parents to bind the daughter generation to the original native language, which is weakened. The efforts to preserve the language often lead to the folklore of the S1, which has since been discarded, and the culture associated with it. In many German-American centers there is a form of being German that is reduced to the flag, Oktoberfest, lederhosen and Christmas tree.

Change of language after occupation

Historically speaking, the language often changed from the language of the conquerors, often a small ruling class, or upper class dominated by economic or cultural attractiveness, to the language of the indigenous population. Examples are Romanization - the spread of Vulgar Latin in the Roman Empire - or Germanization - the adoption of the German language by the Slavic population in the German East settlement in the Middle Ages. The process sometimes extended into the early modern period over several generations without the original population being significantly displaced. The suspected change of language between the Old British Celtic language of Great Britain and the Anglo-Saxon or Old English of the Migration Period is also very likely . The change presumably takes place initially through a change in dominance within the multilingualism and later through the complete loss of the original language. Another example would be the relatively recent transition from Celtic Irish to today's Irish English in the 19th century due to the political, intellectual and social dominance of the English in this part of the United Kingdom . Centuries in which the English dominated Ireland, bilingualism prevailed, which was only abandoned in a relatively short time in the 19th century.

An extensive language change has taken place from the Conquista to the present in the form of Hispanization (adoption of Spanish) and Lusitanization (adoption of Portuguese) of the indigenous population of America. While numerous small languages ​​or even formerly important lingua franca such as Muchik and Pukina in Peru or Tupi in Brazil disappeared over a hundred years ago, such a language change continues to this day with speakers of major indigenous languages ​​such as Nahuatl , Mayathan , Quechua or Aymara .

Language change due to social stigma

A language change can also occur if the use of the language previously spoken by the population is associated with social disadvantage. An example of this is the change in parts of the population of Brussels since the beginning of the 19th century. See Frenchization of Brussels .

Change of language due to economic and administrative factors

In the south of the former Danish Duchy of Schleswig in the dissolved modern times the low- and high German regional Danish and Frisian dialects as the Viöler and the Angel Danish and the Eiderstedter and Strand Frisian from. This language change is justified primarily with the predominant position of German, which was still widespread under Danish rule as an administrative , church and school language in southern Schleswig. The current state border runs roughly on the former borderline between German and Danish church language. This change of language to German was reinforced by the influence of the Holstein nobility and trade relations with the south. So economic as well as administrative and ecclesiastical factors played a role.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernard Comrie: Languages, Genes and Prehistory with a special focus on Europe. In: Günter Hauska (Ed.): Genes, languages ​​and their evolution. Universitätsverlag, Regensburg 2005. ISBN 3-930480-46-8 .
  2. ↑ Markku Flippula: style The grammar of Irish English, Language in Hibernian. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-14524-4 .
  3. ↑ Juan Carlos Godenzzi: Language Policy and Education in the Andes. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. 2008, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 315-329.
  4. ↑ Klaus Zimmermann: Periodización de la historia de las lenguas en México. In: Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana. 10: 2 (Issue 20) 2012 [Special Issue: Micaela Carrera de la Red, Claudia Parodi (Ed.): Historia del español en América. ], Pp. 193-209.
  5. ^ Nancy H. Hornberger, Serafin Coronel-Molina: Quechua language shift, maintenance, and revitalization in the Andes: The case for language planning. In: International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 167, 2004, pp. 9-67. Chapter: 2.1. Linguistic ideologies and language attitudes. Pp. 14-16.
  6. ^ Karl N. Bock: Middle Low German and today's Low German in the former Danish Duchy of Schleswig. Studies on the lighting of language change in fishing and Mittelschleswig . In: Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab (ed.): Historisk-Filologiske Meddelelser . Copenhagen 1948.
  7. ^ Manfred Hinrichsen: The development of language conditions in the Schleswig region . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1984, ISBN 3-529-04356-7 .

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