30Sociolinguistics. Language contact. Convergence of dialects. Convergence of languages (via proximity and via assimilation).

Language contact is a situation of geographical contiguity or close social proximity between languages or dialects, so that a degree of bilingualism comes to exist within a community. The languages (also called contact vernaculars) then begin to influence each other, such as by introducing loan words or making changes in pronunciation and even grammar. Language contact may cause convergence of dialects and convergence of individual languages. Convergence of individual languages may result in the appearance of a new language. The most dramatic examples of such languages are pidgins and creols. Not infrequently, convergence results in the form of a language that becomes standardized and acquires the status of a national language.

Convergence of dialects takes place when one of the dialects spoken in a particular region integrates the features of the neighboring dialects, and thus becomes more elaborated. E.g. the Russian language, traced back to the 11^th century, is based on the central (Moscow) dialect, which in the 16^th – 17^th centuries became standardized, having integrated the features of the northern and southern dialects. Same holds for the Ukrainian language, traced back to the 14^th century. Among the three groups of its dialects – south-eastern, south-western, and northern – the basic dialects are south-eastern, which developed into a standard language in the 17^th -18^th centuries, having acquired some features of the other dialects.

Convergence of languages has two major cases: convergence via proximity and convergence via assimilation.

Convergence via proximity is found within adjacent speech communities (mostly living on the frontier of two countries), which tend to borrow words and sounds from each other. The grammatical systems of such languages remain intact. The set of phonetic and lexical forms borrowed into the target language from the source language or languages is called the adstratum. E.g. the Polish words and prosody borrowed into Ukrainian used in the West of Ukraine; the words from the languages of American Indians borrowed into American English and Canadian English. In some cases, the proximity of several speech communities and their intensive contacts may affect not only the sound system and the vocabulary of languages, but their grammatical systems as well. Dew to the borrowings from morphology and syntax, even genetically dissimilar languages may become alike. Such languages form a linguistic area. E.g. the Balkan linguistic area that includes Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Albanian, and New Greek. (See Aitchison, p. 155 –156).

Convergence via assimilation is found within mixed speech

communities living on one and the same territory. Typically, one of such communities is socially dominant. It may be assimilated with the dominated community, which results in the appearance of a new

\ethnos. One of the two languages may substantially influence the grammatical system of another language. Such an influence may happen in two directions: a dominated language, which was previously spoken in this region, may influence the dominant language, and vive versa. A set of forms inherent in the previous (dominated) language, which influenced the structure of the later (dominant) language, is called the substratum. E.g. the set of Celtic forms that caused modification of the Latin language in ancient Gaul. A set of forms inherent in the later (dominant) language, which influenced the structure of the previous (dominated) language, is called the superstratum. E.g. the set of Norman French forms that caused modification of Old English. The substratum and superstratum cause substantial changes in the language which remains native for some speech community.

Pidgin is a native language of no one. It emerges when members of two mutually unintelligible speech communities attempt to communicate. A pidgin is used at first in a limited set of circumstances. It typically develops on trade routes and in costal areas, so it is often called a trade language. The phonology, syntax and lexicon in a pidgin are simpler than in an ordinary language. A pidgin is usually based on one language, though it soon acquires an admixture of other languages, as well as an independent construction of its own. Many pidgins are based on European languages, reflecting the history of colonialism, e.g. Tok Pisin spoken in Papua New Guinea is based on English, but it also has plenty of non-English syntactic constructions. Some pidgins are based on the native tongues of a region, e.g. African pidgins based on Bantu. The number of pidgins in the world amounts to 50; they are mostly used in South-East Asia, Oceania, and Africa. Sometimes pidgins are given an official status by the community, e.g. Tok Pisin. (See Aitchison, p. 118 –119).

Pidgins contrast with creoles, which evolve when pidgins acquire native speakers. The process of expanding the structural and stylistic range of the pidgin is called creolization. Once the pidgin becomes a creole, ist system rapidly develops: the syntax becomes more complex, and extra vocabulary items are created. Fairly soon, if it continues to develop, a creole is very likely to be indistinguishable from a ‘full’ language. In some circumstances, a creole can be devoured by its parent, if the latter has more prestige in the society. The words and constructions from the base language gradually replace the creole ones. This process is known as decreolozaion. (See Aitchison, p. 119 – 120).

Auxiliary language is a language which has been adopted by a speech community for such purposes as international communication, trade, or education, though only a minority of the community may use it as a mother tongue. The function of an auxiliary language can be performed by a natural language, which is termed in this case ‘lingua franca’, and artificial languages.

Lingua franca originally meant ‘Frankish tongue’, which was used as a common language in the Mediterranean area in the Middle Ages. This language, which integrated French, Provencal, and Italian words, was mostly restricted to trade. Arab and Turkish merchants called Europeans ‘Franks’. In contemporary sociololinguistics, lingua franca is any natural auxiliary language used to permit routine communication between ethnic groups of people who speak different native languages. Lingua franca can be one of the languages or dialects of a particular region, or a ‘neutral’ language which is not native for the peoples in this region, or a pidgin grounded on some native or European language. Lingua francas are very common in heavily multilingual regions, e.g. Russian in the former republics of the USSR, Hindi in India, Swahili in East Africa.

When a lingua franca starts to be used in different communicative spheres,

it becomes a koine. The term ‘koine’ initially referred to the Greek language, which was a common spoken and written language for Eastern Mediterranean countries in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. In contemporary sociolinguistics, koine is understood as any (mostly spoken) language that provides a social integration of some region. Koine occupies an intermediate position between a lingua franca and a standard language. E.g. the central (Moscow) dialect in the 16^th – 17^th centuries.

International languages are lingua francas that have a widespread use as a medium of communication among different countries. At present, international communication is provided by the group of most spread languages known as ‘the Club of World Tongues’. These languages – English, Arab, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, and French – have a legal status as the ‘official’ or ‘working’ languages of the United Nations Organization and UNESCO. English is the most used language in the fields of science and technology. Another group of international languages is applied by world religions. These languages are: Latin used by the Catholic Church, Old Church Slavonic used by the Orthodox Church, Arab used by Islam, Sanskrit used by Hinduism and Buddhism.

Artificial languages have been invented to serve some practical purposes. Several have been devised in an attempt to solve ‘the problem of Babel’. These languages are the focal concern of interlinguistics. In the 17^th – 20^th centuries, more than 1,000 artificial languages were devised. Among the most notable are Volapuk, Esperanto, Ido, Novial, and Interlingua.

Volapuk /voul `pyk/, the first large-scale proposal of its kind, was invented by Martin Schlyer in 1879. The word means ‘world speak’. In Volapuk, the words of natural languages (English, German, French, Latin, etc.) are modified and become

non-recognizable, e.g. Engl. world > vol, speak > puk.

The grammar has a synthetic type: it includes a considerable number of morphological categories (2 numbers and 4 cases for nouns; 3 persons, 6 tenses, 4 moods, 2 voices, and 2 aspects for verbs). This principle of construing a language was ineffective, and the further projects involved mostly international words and the analytical type of grammar where morphological categories were minimized.